Ateneo - UPO

Main topics:
Meaning and meaning relations; phrases, clauses, sentences.
Mainly lexicological and textual approach.
Text cohesion and coherence: text analysis from a variety of sources (popularizing texts and strategies, scientific writing, lexis in context, etc.), with the aim to highlight the construction of complex meaning/s in context, from text to discourse.

Compulsory handbooks and reading (all the students)

BALLARD, Kim, 2013 (3rd.), The Frameworks of English, Palsgrave-MacMillan (chapters 5, 6, 7, 8)

Jackson, Howard and Etienne Zé Amvela, 2007 (2nd), Words, Meaning, and Vocabulary, Bloomsbury.

Reading list (compulsory), choose one out of two:

- Crystal, David, 2011 [2010], A Little Book of Language, Yale.
- Crystal, David, 2017, Making Sense. The Glamorous Story of English Grammar, Profile Books.
- Okrent, Arika, 2021, Highly Irregular. Why Tough, Through, and Dough don't rhyme, and other oddities of the English Language, OUP.

Further Reading (optional for self study)

- Berry, Roger, 2018 (2nd), English Grammar. A Resource Book for Students, Routledge.
- Jonz, Jon, 2014, An Introduction to English Sentence Structure. Clauses, Markers, Missing Elements, Equinox.
- Kreidler, Charles W., 2014 (2nd), Introducing English Semantics, Routledge.
- Plag, Ingo, Maria Braun, Sabine Lappe, Mareile Schramm, 2009 (2nd), Introduction to English Linguistics. Second revised edition, Mouton de Gruyter.
- Tallerman, Maggie, 2015 (4th), Understanding Syntax, Routledge.

The second year English Linguistics A aims at examining and consolidating the main morpho-syntactic structures and their semantic/pragmatic functions, both at a theoretical level (main principles), and at a practical level (encoding/decoding).
The aim is the acquisition of 'linguistic awareness': that is, the conceptualisation of language as a complex and dynamic system which provides many possibilities of use, in relation to different needs and contexts. Lexis (building blocks of language), its sense relations (hyponymy, synonymy, meronimy, etc.), pragmatic issues, and textuality are at the core of English Linguistics A.

Lexis in context and text analysis. The function of lexical units in the construction of discourse.

The approach is metalinguistic.

The course general contents and specific topics, language skills and activities, the end-of-course examination, as well as the assessment criteria applied, refer to B2-B2+ level of the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference).

English Language I (practical classes)

Lectures

The use of handbooks for the theoretical approach will be supported by authentic materials for the analysis. Authentic materials will be drawn from magazines, newspapers, websites, etc.

Students with physical disabilities, Learning Disabilities or Special Education Needs can request specific services and tools via the Staff Sviluppo e Coordinamento Carriere e Servizi alle Studentesse e agli Studenti, consulting the University webpage: https://www.uniupo.it/en/services/servicesstudents-physical-or-learning-disabilities Students with disabilities, learning disabilities or special education needs, once they have contacted the University Staff, can refer to the tutor in charge of the course to define the examination
modalities, concerning academic aspects.

ASSIGNMENT:
writing (book review) on the selected book (see Testi di Riferimento, Reading List). The writing will count about 500 words, and highlight (explaining, exemplifying, and discussing in detail) the selected book key points and contents. After a general introduction on the book as a whole, the writing will focus on a particular chapter, and explain its main issues in detail.
Concepts and notions treated in the book will be the starting point for further in-depth discussion at the oral exam: these concepts/notions have to be related to the course contents/topics (handbook resources, academic articles, slides). The book review general features will be discussed and exemplified during the course.

The written assignment (book review) will be uploaded to D.I.R. webpage for preliminary assessment in due time, that is no later than one week before the selected date to sit the oral exam (data dell’appello).

The book review is worth 30% of the assessment process, course contents are worth 70%. Students will pass their exam if they get 18/30 in both their book review and the oral discussion of course contents. The final grade is calculated on a weighted assessment basis.
With reference to the 'Intended learning objectives' (see below), the following grades correspond to different skills: 18-22/30-sufficient, 23-25/30-satisfying, 26-28/30 good, 29-30 lode-very good.

ORAL EXAM:
oral interaction and discussion on the course contents, concepts, notions, texts, starting from the individual written task previously uploaded to D.I.R.

On the occasion of the English Linguistics A exam, professor Laura Tommaso will also assess oral interaction skills, language competence, and fluency (discourse structure, pronunciation, lexis, morphosyntax, and linguistic appropriateness).

The discussion on the complex sequences/expressions, both at the lexical and morpho-syntactic level, will foster linguistic awareness, and refine decoding/encoding strategies.

Semantic and pragmatic approaches, as well as textuality will help students to deal with complex communicative strategies.

Clear-cut boundaries cannot be established between different linguistic levels, though we usually analyse and discuss them as such, one at a time. They co-occur in encoding and decoding spoken/written communication.

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING.
Students will be able to recognise, understand, and discuss the main functions of the linguistic levels analysed, as well as their interaction in the construction of meaning, meaning relations, and pragmatic issues.
They will also recognise the methods used in structuring text and discourse, as well as their respective encoding/decoding strategies.

APPLIED KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS.
Students will be able to analyse and encode simple and complex morpho-syntactic units.
They will also be able to select and apply the most relevant communicative strategies to text/discourse, and identify their semantic/pragmatic relevance.

Linguistic knowledge and language understanding will be used at a practical level, and applied to the many disciplinary research and professional contexts.