SWEDISH LANGUAGE 3

Locating the subject within the study plan of the BA-programme

Swedish Language 3 is offered at the third year of the BA-programme in Language, Civilisation and the Science of Language (Lingue, Civiltà e Scienze del Linguaggio) to students who have chosen Swedish as either their first or their second three-year language (in "characterizing" or “completing” subjects respectively). Swedish 3 is offered, with no differences, in each of the three curriculums offered in this BA-programme: the Literary-cultural, the Linguistic-philological as well as the Political-international programme.

Expected results

Swedish language teaching consists of a one-year practical language course (two semesters) kept by the mother-tongue lecturer, and of a module (one semester) kept by the professor. It aims to develop the students’ skills up to level B2 in the Common European Framework of Reference for Foreign Languages (CEFR).

Knowing and learning to understand: knowledge at an intermediate level of Swedish phonetics, grammar, vocabulary, of sociolinguistic and pragmatic use of language.

Applied knowledge and learning to understand: improving reading and listening comprehension with the help of authentic material (songs, radio, television, newspapers); increasing written production through summaries, letters, compositions and short essays; improve the use of dictionaries.


Independent assessment: learning to express an opinion and develop an oral or written argument in a clearly articulated and effective way; learning to interact using Swedish in the classroom.

Communicative skills: the aim is to reach level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Foreign Languages as for written comprehension and production, oral understanding, production and interaction. As well as this, the aim is to develop an independent use of language, in order to understand and produce complex texts.

Learning to learn: acquiring autonomy in the learning process through the materials proposed by the teachers as well as through one’s own sources; improving strategies for a correct use of dictionaries. Developing the attitude to self-assessment and reinforcing the acquired abilities in order to progress towards the next step (Swedish Language at MA-level).

Prerequisites

Level B1 of the ECFR, reached by passing the tests of Swedish Language 2.

Contents

Swedish Language 3, kept by the language mother-tongue lecturer ("CEL"), starts at the beginning of the academic year and lasts two semesters, whereas the module kept by professor Ciaravolo takes place in the second semester only.

Swedish language course:

Secondary and relative clauses; indirect speech; use of prepositions (II); phrasal verbs; irregular verbs; passive forms; compound past tenses with omission of the auxiliary har/hade; style and register (in formal written, formal oral, spoken Swedish); exeptions to BIFF-regeln (Språkriktighetsboken); verbs with or without the infinitive mark att (Språkriktighetsboken).

Module held by the professor:

History of the Swedish language: contact with older texts, from the early modern period to the nineteenth century. Interscandinavian comprehension: Introduction to the major differences between Swedish, Norwegian and Danish.

References

1) Swedish course

Main textbook:

Paula Levy Scherrer, Karl Lindemalm, Rivstart. B1 + B2 Textbok, Stockholm, Natur och Kultur, nuova edizione 2023

Paula Levy Scherrer, Karl Lindemalm, Rivstart. B1 + B2 Övningsbok, Stockholm, Natur och Kultur, 2015

Parts of other texts might be used:

Kerstin Ballardini, Åke Stjärnlöf, Åke Viberg (red.), Mål: Svensk grammatik på svenska, Stockholm, Natur och Kultur, 1999

Cecilia Fasth, Anita Kannermark, Form i fokus. Övningsbok i svensk grammatik, Del B, Stockholm, Folkuniversitetets förlag, 1997

Cecilia Fasth, Anita Kannermark, Form i fokus. Övningsbok i svensk grammatik, Del C, Stockholm, Folkuniversitetets förlag, 1997

Hans Holmgren Ording, Se upp! Svenska partikelverb Lärobok: Svenska partikelverb, Stockholm, Natur och Kultur, 1999

P. Montan, H. Rosenqvist, Prepositionsboken, Stockholm, Liber, 2013

Språkrådet, Ola Karlsson (red.), Svenska skrivregler, Stockholm, Liber, 2017

Norstedts svenska ordbok (monolingual Swedish dictionary)

Norstedts stora engelska ordbok oppure Norstedts engelska ordbok professionell (Swedish/English dictionary)

NE:s stora italienska ordbok (Swedish/Italian dictionary)

Online dictionaries at Svenska Akademiens Ordböcker https://svenska.se/

Uploaded materials on Moodle

2) module held by the professor

Gösta Bergman, Kortfattad svensk språkhistoria. Stockholm: Prisma 1984

Lars Vikør, The Nordic Languages. Their Status and Interrelations. Oslo: Novus 1993. In particolare pp. 9-64, 80-153, 184-201, 206-14, 224-36

Birgitta Lindgren, Anitha Havaas, Snacka skandinaviska. Stockholm: Prodicta 2012

Assessment

The exam of Swedish Language 3 consists of 2 written and 2 oral parts, with reference to the syllabus covered during the academic year: a written test on Swedish language 3 and a written test on the contents of the professor’s module. They take place in different moments but in the same session. To be admitted to the oral parts, students must have passed the written tests. The oral tests take place one or two days after the written test, generally closely following each other. Adjustments are possibile

Written test1 : grammar; free written production on a given topic (composition); listening comprehension with true/false-answers; reading comprehension with open answers. Students are allowed to use dictionaries during the composition.
Written test 2: transcription of older Swedish texts (from the 16th to the early 20th century) into contemporary Swedish + comments. Translation of and comments on texts in contemporary Norwegian and Danish (comparing them to Swedish).



Oral test (Swedish course): speaking about a chosen topic (a Swedish or Finland-Swedish person, town or region); conversation about cultural, social, historical, political subjects taken from authentic sources (articles, essays, literary works). Other topics can be proposed if agreed on in advance with the mother-tongue Swedish lecturer.
Oral test (module): conversation Swedish about topics that have been presented and discussed in the module.

The course lasts the whole academic year. All tests, both oral and written, will take place from June 2027.

written and oral

The lecturer has a duty to ensure that the rules regarding the authenticity and originality of exam tests and papers are respected. Therefore, if there is suspicion of irregular conduct, an additional assessment may be conducted, which could differ from the original exam description.

Grading scales

28-30 cum laude: the student masters the topics presented in the course and displays excellent linguistic skills, both written and oral;
26-27: the student has a good knowledge of the topics presented in the course and displays good linguistic skills, both written and oral;
24-25: the student does not fully master the topics presented in the course and displays fair linguistic skills, both written and oral;
22-23: the student has a rather superficial knowledge of the topics presented in the course and displays just satisfactory linguistic skills both written and oral;
18-21: the student has a superficial knowledge of the topics presented in the course and displays just satisfactory linguistic skills both written and oral.

The correspondence with the European grading scales (from A to F) is the following: less than 18 = F; 18-21 = E; 22-25 = D; 26-28 = C; 29-30 = B; 30 cum laude = A.

Didactic methods

Both Swedish language course and the module kept by the professor: frontal and interactive, participatory learning. The language course will use Swedish; the module will use Italian and Swedish.

More information

If you have questions or need further explanations, please write to massimo.ciaravolo@unive.it. Please book your time with an e-mail if you want to meet the professor. Those who study Swedish without attending the courses (both the Swedish language course with the mother-tongue lecturer and the professor’s module) must come and talk to us at office hours and agree upon a learning plan. Please write to annette.blomqvist@unive.it and to the professor’s address above.

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