English 2

The course is aimed at second-year BA students. It consists of lectures (Corso Monografico) and practical language classes (Esercitazioni). Corso Monografico aims to provide students with advanced-level theoretical tools to consolidate their implicit and explicit knowledge of English phonetics/phonology and English lexicogrammar and to carry out English/Italian comparative/contrastive analyses. Aspects of syntactic change and phonological variation in 21st century English are also addressed. Esercitazioni aim to develop students' receptive and productive skills in English at an advanced level.

Knowledge and understanding: the notion of lexicogrammatical 'construction' and the syntactic and semantic features of the main English lexicogrammatical constructions; the main syntactic changes taking place in 21st century English; phonological variation: main accents of 21st century English.
Applying knowledge and understanding: Corso monografico: students need to be able to a. identify in texts of different types and analyse metalinguistically the main English lexicogrammatical constructions; b. carry out English/Italian comparative/contrastive analyses of the syntactic and semantic features of constructions; c. identify/reproduce the main phonological features of a sample English regional accents; d. consult online corpora and concordancers. Esercitazioni. Students need to be able to a. listen to academic talks and take notes; b. engage in monologues (presentations) and dialogues on current affairs issues, presenting their points of view and arguing their opinions; c. write short academic essays on a wide range of topics, arguing against or in favour a claim/position."