Students wishing to take this exam must have passed the English language entry test.
The aim is to provide students with knowledge of English for Academic Purposes, especially as far as lexis and pragmatics are concerned, and to make students aware of what methodological tools present-day corpora can offer.
After a general overview of semantic and pragmatic issues in contemporary English, the course aims to illustrate the main strategies employed in English for academic purposes, taking into consideration specific aspects of evaluation and politeness. In addition, the course will present general notions pertaining to English corpus linguistics.
Contents will also be discussed in a teaching perspective, so as to provide opportunities for further analyses.
The course will be based on lectures, but special attention will be given to debate and students will be encouraged to suggest topics for further analysis.
Students who are unable to attend regularly are expected to study the contents of the reference book(s) with great accuracy.
The 54-hour module does not comprise practice sessions, but students may wish to attend the activities planned by the CCL for their level of competence and any tutoring activities on offer throughout the year; more details are available at https://www.unibg.it/studia-noi/ti-aiutiamo/apprendimento-linguistico/in....
The exam will be a discussion (in English) of the course topics: at least three questions will be asked. Assessment will be based both on linguistic competence and on knowledge of course contents. Prior to the oral exam students will have to pass a computerized test in which listening, reading and translation skills, together with lexical and morpho-syntactic competence, are assessed; an example is available in the e-learning pages; the pass mark is set at 60/100. Students who have already acquired relevant EFL certificates do not have to take the computerized test, but will have to show the document issued by the Student office in which the certificate is recognized - see https://dllcs.unibg.it/it/studiare/corsi-studio/certificazioni-linguistiche.
In addition to contents, the evaluation of the oral exam will also take into account the candidate’s linguistic competence as far as lexis, grammar, phonology and pragmatics are concerned. More specifically, evaluations will fall into 5 bands:
A: Excellent (30 e lode): excellent knowledge of course contents. Presentation is accurate, correct, and appropriate.
B: Very good (30-27): very good knowledge of course contents. Presentation is correct.
C: Good (26-24): good knowledge of course contents. Presentation is mostly correct.
D: Sufficient (23-18): acceptable knowledge of course contents. Occasional mistakes are made.
E: Insufficient (less than 18): knowledge of course contents is partial and superficial; presentation is hampered by numerous mistakes.
If the course is (totally or partly) online, the syllabus may be adjusted accordingly.