ANGLO-AMERICAN LANGUAGE 1

This module is co-taught with Professor Gregory Dowling. My part of the module is entitled “English for American Studies: The Delectable Speaker” and it is based on a textbook that I designed especially for Ca’ Foscari incoming students. The focus of this part of the module is on building your language skills, especially reading comprehension and oral and written skills while acquiring knowledge of the history and the structural features of English as it developed in the United States of America. Our classes are conceived to welcome first-year students. For this reason, their overall aim is to convey the role of awareness as a fundamental aid in the study of a language, as is championed by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). I will encourage you to activate the power of awareness, which involves the ability to assess your needs and your strengths as a language user.
Course requirements are: a Portfolio and a final oral exam for my part of the module; a final written exam for Prof. Dowling's part of the module.
Course requirements are: for my part of the module, the production of a portfolio and a final oral exam; for Prof. Dowling's part, a final written exam.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
Upon successful completion of the course students will be able to:


(knowledge and understanding)
• make strides in the path of awareness and intercultural awareness as language users, as outlined by The Common European Framework of Reference;
• Know about the empowering connection between reading, interpretation, and writing;
• improve their language competence and performance through the encounter with major texts in the modern and contemporary American cultural tradition;

(knowledge application and comprehension )
• summarize and comment on arguments from a variety of texts, while attempting to formulate their own arguments in response to them;
• identify an issue or a problem of interest
• produce a portfolio selecting one’s best work


(ability to gather and interpret relevant data)
• identify key ideas in the coursebook
• connect key ideas presented in the lectures to the coursebook materials
• draw connections between different ideas and/or authors


(communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions)
• 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)
• Listening skills
• Note taking
• Speaking skills
• writing skills

Level B2 of the CEFR and interest in the subject.

Module:

My part of the module is entitled “English for American Studies: The Delectable Speaker” and it is based on a textbook that I designed especially for Ca’ Foscari incoming students. The focus of this part of the module is on building your language skills, especially reading comprehension and oral and written skills while acquiring knowledge on the history and the structural features of English as it developed in the United States of America. Our classes are conceived to welcome first year students. For this reason, their overall aim is to convey the role of awareness as a fundamental aid in the study of a language, as it is championed by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). I will encourage you to activate the power of awareness, which involves the ability to assess your needs and your strengths as a language user.
The more specific objective, of course, is to facilitate a closer acquaintance with American English, the English used in the United States of America. We will overview the historical development of English in the United States and we will learn about its development through contact zones or areas in which different ethnic groups cohabited and co-existed. We will dewll on the representation of American speech in colonial and revolutionary times as well as on the reflection on language in the contemporary age by feminist movements.
My methodology banks on the potential of the language encounter to transform the undergraduate language classroom into a workshop of ideas. Approaching the language of the U.S. offers learners a double opportunity: it enables students to reflect on their own relation to language not only as a set of forms but also as an affective reality; it simultaneously offers students the tools to ask important questions for our time. For example: we will ask what makes the collective institution of language hospitable to individual users; or, how an individual beneficial attachment to a collective institution might be possible. We will do so with the help of short, manageable passages from great modern thinkers. Thus, this introduction to English for American Studies is designed to stimulate your imagination at the linguistic, historical, and cultural levels. Here are the class topics:

1. Introduction to the course
2. Awareness and Intercultural Awareness
3.Language: The Strange Relation
4.Imagining American English: A Historical Overview
5.Contact Zones
6. The Speaking Subject
7. Listening to the text activities
8. Listening to the text activities



Lettorato:

- developing comprehension skills for oral and written texts
- developing the principal skills for oral and written production
- consolidation of overall level of B2 on CEFR

Module:

Mena Mitrano, English for American Studies: The Delectable Speaker (Venice: Libreria Editrice
Cafoscarina, 2021). PRINT. Available at Libreria Cafoscarina.





Text that will be used during Esercitazioni Linguistiche with our CEL:
Lettorato:
Oxenden, Clive; Latham-Koening, Cristina. ENGLISH FILE DIGITAL GOLD Student’s Book and Workbook, C1. OUP, 2020. ISBN 9780194037891

Michael Swan, Catherine Walter. OXFORD ENGLISH GRAMMAR COURSE, Advanced, with complete interactive e-book, including pronunciation for grammar. OUP 978-0-19-441493-7

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND EVALUATION:
The course requirements constitute the elements of evaluation. The course requires: active participation, which includes the assigned weekly readings and participation in the in-class peer learning sessions; 2 in-class Tests aimed at assessing the knowledge of the materials presented in class and in the textbook; a final oral exam. The aim of the final oral exam is to gauge the degree of your familiarity with the materials and your willingness to weave productive connections. The final oral exam will last 30 minutes. Its aim is to gauge the degree of the student's familiarity with the materials and his/her willingness to weave productive connections. It will test the student's capacity to read, understand and comment texts as well as connect them. It will be articulated in three questions: a general question on the course contents; a question of the evolution of English in the US; a question on a specific passage among the ones included in the textbook and requiring reading comprehension and commentary.
Because the course is co-taught with Prof. Dowling, the course requires a final written exam with Prof. Dowling on the Verb System. Moreover, Esercitazioni Linguistiche are a fundamental course requirements.

In order to access the final exam with me and Prof. Dowling, you must earn at least a sufficient level in Esercitazioni Linguistiche. There are 3 levels in Esercitazioni Linguistiche: C (sufficient); B (average); A (good). Students who will have earned a C level or higher in Esercitazioni Linguistiche can take the final exam. Please note that your level is not, nor should it be, a grade, since in Lingua Anglo-Americana 1 students are evaluated by the Module professors. The letter you earn is simply an indication of the level of your linguistic skills. The Module Professors decide your final grade based on the different elements of evaluation listed above: active participation, portfolio, final oral exam, for my part of the Module, final written exam on the Verb System with Professor Dowling, and your level of language competence.
To recap, the elements of evaluation in Lingua Anglo-Americana 1 are:
• Active participation;
• 2 Tests;
• A final oral exam (Prof. Mitrano);
• A final written exam (Prof. Dowling).
+
• Passing (or higher) level in Esercitazioni Linguistiche (from C up)

Lecture
Discussion
Peer learning sessions

English

If you have any questions, you are welcome to reach out at:
filomena.mitrano@unive.it
Thank you.

written and oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development