ANGLO-AMERICAN LANGUAGE 2

General description
Anglo-American Language 2 is part of the core courses of the undergraduate degree in Languages, Civilizations and Language Sciences at Ca’ Foscari University and aims at developing our students’ capacity to reflect on language. Anglo-American Lanuguage 2, following up from the entry level, Anglo-American Language 1, continues furthers the knowledge of linguistic structures and of US English, implementing communicative skills and developing competences at the C1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. The course has a two-part structure, consisting in a module, taught by the Professor for a semester, and sessions of language practice taught by Language Teaching Assistants (CEL), and offers students the necessary metalinguistic competence and language proficiency to understand and use English in a variety of contexts, such as daily life, academic and specialist contexts (including complex literary texts and critical and theoretical essays). The module emphasizes competences that are part of the proficient language user profile at level C1, encouraging the use of English not only for social-communicative purposes but also for academic and professional purposes. Students work on reading, understanding, discussing, and thinking about meaningful and complex texts, finding their implicit meaning. They learn to produce well-structured, argumentative, and coherent essays that display the proper features of an academic paper. Learning outcomes (for all attending students) are evaluated on the basis of the following: active participation, a midterm, a critical essay (paper), and the final oral exam; for non-attending students: additional readings, a critical essay (paper), and the final oral exam.

To help you in the task, our “Course Reader” is supplemented by a handbook that I especially designed for Ca’ Foscari students, Words and Ideas (Writing the Academic Essay), in PDF format. The handbook has been inspired by the popular academic writing handbook They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing, by Gerald Graff and Kathy Birkenstein, which I have also uploaded on our Moodle page, under “Suggested Readings.”
My methodology in Lingua Anglo-Americana 2 is inspired by the work of David Bartholomae and his co-authors in Ways of Reading, a textbook that is widely used in the undergraduate American classroom. The method assumes an active learner ready for an exciting intellectual experience. Students are encouraged to become participants in the academic debate and to develop an awareness of reading and writing as powerful acts.

Please note that Lingua Anglo-Americana 2 is linked to Esercitazioni Linguistiche (Lettorato). They are a year-long course delivered by our language teachers (Lettrici), and in order to take the final exam of Lingua Anglo-American you must have the level of your language skills assessed by our Lettrici. There are three levels: C(sufficient); B (average); A (good). Esercitazioni Linguistiche are meant to support you in the acquisition of the required levels of language competences through a range of activities devoted to grammar, lexis, listening, oral production, and so on. Their aim is therefore to assist you in building the necessary confidence to work through our Module’s materials.

Learning outcomes:

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

(knowledge and understanding)
Master theoretical and applied knowledge and comprehension of the English language as it is produced and used in Anglophone countries, whether as first or second language (L1, L2) or as a global means of communication or lingua franca (LS), in a variety of situations such as daily life and academic and specialist contexts with particular attention to morphology, syntax and the structure of discourse both from a diachronic and synchronic perspective (knowledge and understanding); read, understand, and interpret major texts in the modern and contemporary American cultural tradition; comment on arguments from a variety of texts, while attempting to formulate their own arguments in response to them;


(knowledge application and comprehension )
Master comprehension, analysis and production of multimodal texts in English, within the appropriate context(s) and in the appropriate linguistic register (applying knowledge and understanding); master the essentials of the academic essay of an expository nature; recognize and reproduce the structure and aims of academic writing in a short critical essay that applies the art of summarizing, the art of quoting, paragraphing.

(ability to gather and interpret relevant data and ability of judgment)
Know how to interpret and analyze complex texts in English (applying knowledge and understanding); identify key ideas and controversial issues; draw connections between different ideas and/or authors

(communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions)
Give reasons and explanations for opinions and judgments (making judgments); participate in a debate, take turn with peers, collaborate with peers in exploring an idea or solving a problem in response to a text or a question generated by the assigned readings.

(learning skills)
Develop communicative skills, especially with regard to appropriate interaction in English when discussing those extra-linguistic historical-political, social and cultural factors that might be responsible for linguistic variation in texts, and demonstrate the ability to use communicative strategies equivalent to Level C1 of the CEFR (communication skills); acquire the learning ability necessary to identify critical sources and digital resources to help expand on the ideas presented by the instructor’s module, as well as improve their language competence (learning skills); learning skills) build on the knowledge acquired in Anglo-American Language 2 to access profitably the next level course (Anglo-American Language 3), capitalizing on increased learner awareness and independent monitoring of learning success, with regard to both metalinguistic content mastery and individual language competence (learning skills).

Students must have passed Anglo-American Language 1. Level B2+ of the CEFR is required.

Module title: Anglo-American Language 2: Ways of Reading
Subtitle: In the Folds of Language: American Encounters

For this year’s “Lingua Anglo-Americana 2” I have put together a roster of exceptional authors who, even at their most courageous and combative, share a certain graceful quality. They all wish to feel more, see more, empathize more, and invite us to wish the same. They all believe in the potential of language not only to communicate but also to say the unsayable; for all of them, language is not something abstract but a concrete opportunity to transform their reality. For some, language has meant survival, for others emancipation and liberation, for others still it is the only home they have. I wanted to convey this shared trait in the course subtitle, with the phrase “in the folds of language.” “In the folds of” is synonymous with “within,” and suggests something lodged or nestled in language; it evokes something that dwells without unnecessary show or forcefulness, and for that reason commands a sort of quiet, committed attention. For all our authors that language is English, the English rooted in the culture of the US. The word “fold” is a noun but also a verb; when the verb “fold” is joined to the prefix “en-“ it means to envelop and suggests shelter and protection; it means to shroud but in a gentle way, evocative of the capacity of words to cocoon something, pointing to a fundamental hospitality that is ultimately up to the language user to be attuned to. We will read the work of Adrienne Rich, Gloria Anzaldúa, bell hooks, Edward Said, Elaine Scarry, Anne Anlin Cheng, and we will look at the extraordinary images of Laura Aguilar. Our authors are seekers and innovators; they follow up from (and extend) the model of the “delectable speaker” that we introduced last year (in Lingua Anglo-Americana 1), accomplishing for us a triple feat: they will teach us new words, they will provide a privileged full immersion in modern American culture, and they will give us resources to brave our own time, offering tools to look at it from a different angle and seeing what is not being seen. The representative texts they give us, comprised between 1971 and 2019, testify to the power of US English to circulate impactful ideas, ultimately demonstrating its global influence and attractiveness.

Esercitazioni Linguisticeh (language practice):
Further development of comprehension skills for oral and written texts
Development of speaking skills
- exercises leading to C1 level on CEFR

REQUIRED TEXTS:
Course Reader containing:
Adrienne Rich, “When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision” (1972), pp. 18-top of 19; top of 19-top of 24
Gloria Anzaldúa, “Speaking in Tongues: A Letter to 3rd World Women Writers” (1983), pp. 165-167; 171; 173.
Edward Said, “States” (1998), pp. 523-527; 552-557.
Elaine Scarry, from On Beauty and Being Just (2001), pp. 33-48.
bell hooks “Intellectual Life” (2009), pp. 135-9.
Laura Aguilar, “Human Nature,” Boom: A Journal of California, 5. 2 (Summer 2015): 22-27. Photographs.
Anne Anlin Cheng, from “Ornamentalism: A Feminist Theory of the Yellow Woman” (2018), pp. 416-425; 428-9; 431-2; 433-435.
Roberto Esposito, from Communitas (2009), brief excerpts from the introduction.

• Writing Handbook:
Mena Mitrano, Words and Ideas: Writing the Academic Essay (2020), PDF.

Please note that all the required texts are made available to you on Moodle in the folder named “Required Texts.”

SUGGESTED TEXT:
Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing (Norton, 2006), Selected chapters available in PDF on Moodle.
NB: This text is mandatory for non-attending students only.


Esercitazioni Linguistiche/Language practice with Language Teaching Assistants (CEL):
• Day, Skerritt. O Language Hub Advanced COURSEBOOK C1, MacMillan Education, 2020.
• Vince, Michael. LANGUAGE PRACTICE FOR ADVANCED. STUDENTS' BOOK. 4th edition. Macmillan.

Suggested dictionaries:
MERRIAM-WEBSTER'S COLLEGIATE DICTIONARY. Springfield: Merriam-Webster.

Picchi, Fernando. GRANDE DIZIONARIO INGLESE-ITALIANO E ITALIANO-INGLESE.
Oxford: OUP.

OXFORD ADVANCED LEARNER'S DICTIONARY. Oxford: OUP, with iWriter CD Rom

MACMILLAN ENGLISH DICTIONARY FOR ADVANCED LEARNERS WITH
CD-ROM: Oxford: Macmillan Education.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND EVALUATION: ATTENDING STUDENTS
The course requirements are the elements of evaluation. They are the instruments I will use to evaluate your achievement of the goals set in this course. There are 4 major instruments of evaluation for attending students:
• Active class participation 20%
• Mid-term 20%
• Final paper 30%
• Final oral exam 30%
Active class participation means doing the weekly readings and the assigned tasks in the syllabus as well as participating in peer learning session. Active participation, the mid-term, the final paper, the final oral exam all combined will result in your final grade for the course. The percentages are my way of showing you the kind of weight that these factors have; your final grade will will result from their combination.
The aim of the final exam is to ascertain your engagement of the course readings, your capacity to read, understand and illuminate the meaning of a particular text, your capacity to propose connections with other texts in the syllabus on the basis of a given issue/question. It will last about 30 minutes. I expect you to show up with the print copy of the required texts.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND EVALUATION: NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS
For non-attending students/student-workers, the final paper, the final exam, and additional reading will be the main elements of evaluation. In addition to the course readings, non-attending students must demonstrate knowledge of Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing (Norton, 2006),available in PDF on Moodle, and they will be questioned on it. The final exam will test the level of mastery of the course reading, the capacity to read, understand and illuminate the meaning of a particular text, the capacity to weave connections with other texts in the syllabus on the basis of a given issue/question

Please note that Lingua Anglo-Americana 2 is linked to Esercitazioni Linguistiche or Lettorato. Esercitazioni Linguistiche consist in a year-long course delivered by our Lettrici or language teachers. They are mandatory. Only students who earn an assessment of their language skills can take the final exam of Lingua Anglo-Americana 2.
The aim it to offer support to students in the acquisition of linguistic competence; to assist you in building confidence as you work with the Module materials; and to do all this through a range of activities devoted to grammar, lexis, listening, oral production, and so on. Esercitazioni Linguistiche are mandatory but you are not evaluated in Esercitazioni Linguistiche; rather, your language skills are assessed according to varying levels: C (sufficient), B (avarage), A (good). There will be an End-of-year assessment. You must take the assessment in order to access the final exam of Lingua Anglo-Americana 2. Please note that their assessment is based solely on levels (A; B; C) and is not, nor should it be, a grade. Students who will have earned a C level or higher in Esercitazioni Linguistiche can take the final exam. Students who earn a B level in Esercitazioni Linguistiche can have a bonus of up to two grades in the final evaluation while students who earn an A level in Esercitazioni Linguistiche can have a bonus of up to 3 grades in the final evaluation (or, in exceptional cases, up to 4 grades).

Lecture
Discussion
Peer-to-peer learning sessions

English

The course materials and debates will help students gain greater awareness of social inequality.

oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development