The programme, which examines the concept of linguistic variety, includes a) Prof Brownlees’s lessons b) the 'lettorato'.Prof. Brownlees’s 60 hours of lessons will focus on how news and advertising texts have evolved since the 16th century up to the present day. Prof. Brownlees has 30 hours with all the students and a further 30 hours with students divided into small groups.The ‘lettorato’ includes language analysis and exercises regarding further texts types and linguistic varieties.
For Prof. Brownlees’s lessons, students refer mainly to lecture notes and the book:
N. Brownlees, 2011, The Language of Periodical News in Seventeenth-Century England. Newcastle: CSP. The lecture notes are online at the beginning of the first semester when the course takes place. Students who do not purchase the book can consult it at the university library of Piazza Brunelleschi, where two copies of the volume are left ‘in deposito’. For the lessons of the ‘lettorati’, students refer to lecture notes available on the elearning platform moodle or at the photocopy shop.
Learning Objectives
Prof. Brownlees’s lessons aim to a) bring to the students’s attention the importance of the socio-historical and professional context in the evolution of written communication with specific reference to news and advertising texts; b) guide students towards understanding and analysing news and advertising texts; c) stimulate and encourage students to work together in small groups for the purpose of discussing broad issues relating to knowledge dissemination.
The lessons of the ‘lettorati’ are designed to expose students to a wide range of geographic, linguistic and cultural varieties of English; refine their analytical, critical and expressive abilities; stimulate them to study autonomously through the controlled use of resources and work cooperatively through group work.
In the ‘lettorato’ all modules consolidate and extend academically oriented language skills at the B2+/C1 level of the CEFR.
Prerequisites
To attend the course, students must have passed and recorded the mark for ‘Laboratorio di Lingua Inglese’ by the end of September 2018. The level of the course of Lingua Inglese 2 is B2+/C1.
Teaching Methods
The teaching methods vary according to the module and include lectures, group work and seminar discussions.
Further information
Attendance is obligatory for 2/3 of the lessons. Attendance for officially classified ‘part-time’ students is not obligatory. An alternative programme is agreed upon. Prof. Brownlees’s lessons take place in the first semester while the lettorato takes place in both semesters (4 hours a week for 9 weeks in each semester). For the ‘lettorato’, students are divided into groups and sign-ups take place on the Moodle page.
Erasmus students should contact Prof. Brownlees for the programme.
Type of Assessment
For Prof. Brownlees's lessons there is a written and spoken exam based on the lecture notes, the volume “The language of periodical news in seventeenth-century England”, and other possible materials that may be distributed during the course. For the ‘lettorato’ there is predominantly continuous assessment, oral and written, research papers, written and oral examinations, with variations according to module.
To pass Lingua Inglese 2, and get the 12 credits, students must pass both Prof Brownlees’s exam and the 4 lettorati.
Course program
Prof. Brownlees’s programme together with the lettorato will be put on the Moodle platform at the beginning of the first semester.