International cooperation and development

The aim of the course is to introduce students to the main features of contemporary English, and to revise grammar, syntactic, lexical and phonetic aspects at the intermediate level (B1/B2). Important English varieties aimed at international communications and cooperation will be presented, along with an overview of the main world English varieties. In addition to improving the skills of using English, this course aims to raise students’ awareness to different varieties of English and different communication styles and situations. The hours making up the course are based on practical exercises carried out by an English mother-tongue ‘lettore’. The main course objective is to consolidate and extend students’ abilities in all four language skills in English (Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing), to enable them to cope more effectively with, not only specialized genres pertinent to the three year degree course - journalism, social and communication sciences, business and economics -, but also those texts and contexts students are likely to meet in their future professions. 1. Knowledge and Learning: Presuming students will start at a general English B1 level (according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, or CEFR), the primary objective of the course is to bring students up to a B2 level (according to CEFR) in some of the skills and in specialized areas relevant to the degree course and beyond by adopting an applied linguist approach to learning, that is, meaning is activated by context, with linguistic elements being presented in a variety of texts and contexts. 2. Ability to apply knowledge acquired: the second objective is of the course is to provide students with adequate theoretical principles of English, accompanied with ample opportunity to apply theory to practice through a variety of means. 3. Student autonomy: another objective is to foster student autonomy in their learning, where students are encouraged, not only to develop specific study skills, but also to assess their own performance through comparison of their own work and model answers. 4. Communicative ability: to foster students’ communicative ability in English, student participation during the course is actively encouraged, through discussion and assessment of genres, and debates, as is a sense of critical analysis of their own performance and output, and those of their peers. 2. Ability to apply knowledge acquired: the second objective is of the course is to provide students with adequate theoretical principles of English, accompanied with ample opportunity to apply theory to practice through a variety of means. 3. Student autonomy: another objective is to foster student autonomy in their learning, where students are encouraged, not only to develop specific study skills, but also to assess their own performance through comparison of their own work and model answers. 4. Communicative ability: to foster students’ communicative ability in English, student participation during the course is actively encouraged, through discussion and assessment of genres, and debates, as is a sense of critical analysis of their own performance and output, and those of their peers. 5. Learning strategies: overall, the lessons and practical exercises aim to provide the students with both the means to continue to independently progress in their knowledge and application of English, and a flexibility of approach to adapt their language knowledge and learning to the different contexts they will meet in their future professions. Expected results: at the end of the course, students are expected to have extended their knowledge and application of specialized genres in English, more fully understanding intended messages, and also being able to use appropriate forms to communicate in a clear and more efficient manner.