507SP - LINGUA INGLESE I 2018
Schema della sezione
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Collective essay writing phase 2: editing for errors.
In this file you will find the various language issues with the sequence of paragraphs 1-8 highlighted and coded (but mostly uncorrected) for you to edit accordingly. (Please refer to the separate 'corrections code' file on this moodle page if the meaning of any of the codes is not clear.)
Please study this text, individually or with other students, to work out how to improve the grammar, vocabulary, punctuation and spelling where I have signalled that improvements are required. This activity is meant to help you reflect on language choices whilst essay writing in English; learn from common mistakes, so that you will avoid making them in future, and think creatively about alternative and more natural ways to express ideas in English. Please bring your proposed corrections and adjustments to class.
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Here are six student texts A-F, in two versions: the original, and the reviewed version. The two versions are placed side by side in a table - the original on the left, and the reviewed version on the right - for ease of comparison, and to facilitate your understanding of the corrections and adjustments that have been made.
Please take time to study these revised texts and to learn from the mistakes (which may be a focus of the mid term test).
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Used today in class 29/10/2018
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Hero or villain? Two views from members of the general public on Soros. Supplementary to the BBC video which addresses the same question.
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This is a very useful resource for listening practice and for learning new or consolidating already known vocabulary. You can download the episodes as podcasts. Each one lasts only 8 minutes. It's time well spent, especially if you have difficulty with listening to authentic texts.
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We used this OUP Youtube presentation as listening practice and as a springboard for writing a paragraph developing one of Goldin's 10 recommendations or theses concerning development.
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We used this clip from the comedy quiz show (a play on 'QI') hosted by Stephen Fry as a springboard for writing a paragraph problematizing the topic of the discovery of Australia. The question asked and answered (by Fry) in this clip is "Who discovered Australia"?
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The questions on the worksheet refer to the first 4 minutes of the programme only.
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We used this short video (1'23") about Adam Smith as practice at listening for gist (anticipating content) and to focus on some authentic use of the language of causality (e.g. to popularize, to minimize, to make money by selling products people want, Smith's book The Wealth of Nations helped drive the move from land-based wealth to wealth created by assembly line methods, his work led to other revelations ..)
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We used this short (3'22"), more argumentative video assessing the value of Marx's work as further practice at listening for gist (anticipating content and viewpoint) and to identify further authentic examples of the language of causality which it uses, e.g. his writings have generated fierce debate; the realisation of a stateless society; the utopian ideal of a fair and equal society failed to materialise; communism tyrannised its subjects; Marx predicted that capitalism would lead to globalisation, however, he underestimated the capacity of capitalism to make everybody richer by making products much cheaper; welfare states that redistributed wealth through taxation
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We used this sixty second talk on 23.10.2018 as a listening comprehension activity (listening for an argument); as a springboard for a writing activity (a sequence of 3 paragraphs) and as listening and writing practice of vocabulary (the language of causality).
Questions whilst listening:
What is the proposal, and what problem is it supposed to address?
Why is this problem highly significant, and worth tackling?
Why is the proposal a good one?
Writing after listening: develop a sequence of 3 paragraphs around these 3 ideas:
1) The proposal and the main (macro) problem
2) Why this problem is significant and worth tackling
3) Why the proposal is a good one.
Use examples of the language of causality presented in class last week.
Some sample paragraphs written by participants in the class will be posted on moodle, with corrections and revisions.
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This programme documents the life of George Soros, interviewing friends and critics of the billionaire philanthropist. The worksheet for this listening activity will be attached below after class on 13th November. It has15 questions with two options a) and b) as answers.
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This file contains the worksheet with 15 a) or b) questions to answer whilst listening to the audio text; a short response by George Soros in July 2018 in the Guardian newspaper to a long, critical article in the same newspaper by Daniel Bessner, and some observations about the use of compound words and the language of attribution in that short response of Soros. These language observations are taken up again in the class presentations of compounds and the language of attribution (see the language section), which you will need whenever you wish to bring other points of view into your essay writing.
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We used this short video profile on 13/11/2018 as input - particularly for the many students who were not present for the longer listening activity on Soros on Monday 12/11/2018 - for the writing of two paragraphs describing attitudes towards the billionaire philanthropist: one dedicated to the (broadly) 'pro' camp and one dedicated to the (broadly) 'against' camp. You will note that most of the comments in response to this video are negative about Soros, and about the BBC for creating this account of him (the BBC is said to be biased and that Soros must have paid the BBC to produce it). Students took notes whilst listening on the different positions presented, to be used for their two paragraphs. See the 'language' section for the language of attributing points of view. The paragraphs collected from class on Thursday 15th will be posted (anonymously) on moodle in the writing section for everybody to see, with corrections and comments.
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We used this short audio text as listening practice in class 28th November 2018. Again, the presentation of a proposal followed by supporting arguments mirrors the rhetorical structure you will be using in your essay writing. The listening task was to identify the proposal and the supporting arguments. The speaker here defending his idea is probably a native speaker of French, judging by his accent.
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I previously posted an incomplete list of results. This is the complete list.
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The test modality is described in today's post (15th June) on the Moodle notice board.
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A selection of student paragraphs corrected. The assignments in question are two:
1) Develop a paragraph starting from a topic sentence about 'the discovery' of Australia, in a way that problematizes the issue.
2) Choose one of Ian Goldin's recommendations or theses on development as a topic sentence (e.g. 'Development is about us'), and develop a paragraph on this theme in a way that supports the opening statement or recommendation.
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Task:
Develop a simple paragraph from a topic sentence recommending that power supplies in developed countries be cut off once a week. Give reasons to support this idea.
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verb tense in the news; which vs what in questions; invece vs instead; acronyms and abbreviations in IR and how they behave in the grammar
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We can only speculate about the future, and English like other languages has developed many ways to express degrees of certainty when talking about it. A range of these expressions are presented here in isolation. This is followed by some reading practice of the language for talking about the future in the form of a news report on world predictions for 2030 made by a World Economic Forum panel of experts from different fields. The 'future in the past' - which is particularly problematic for native Italian speakers and the future perfect ('past in the future') are also presented and practised, and the future continuous is explained.
Some of this language may be useful for your first essay assignment.
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Experts discuss the impact of automation on the future of work. Useful practice of language for talking about the future.
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This presents the main forms of compounds and provides some activities for practice also. There is a note about the use of hyphens.
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This is a summary of the presentation of language for reporting speech and ideas, given in class on 13/11/2018. It is meant to give you an overview of the range of expressions and structures you can use to bring other points of view into your essay writing.
The paragraph-writing task set on 13/11/2018 was to describe the views of the 'for' and the 'against' camp towards the billionaire philanthropist George Soros, in two paragraphs, using the contents of the two in-class listenings about Soros - a 14' audio profile of his life and a 5' video profile of his standing in the global community - which I have posted in the 'listening' section here. (Of course, you can also find plenty of audio, video and verbal material about Soros online for your paragraphs.)
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Class presentation 19/11/2018. In preparation for the second essay assignment: comparison and contrast.
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Class presentations and practice 28th+29th November 2018
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A list of words commonly confused because of formal similarities between them in the two languages.
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Notes on some of the common pitfalls. Pdf of class presentation on 13th December with some extra slides added. This issue is best tackled through translation. We all use translation when we are speaking a language that is not our mother tongue, which has its pros and cons.
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Cohesion through lexis, referring expressions and connectors. Causality in language.
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Cohesion is the 'glue' that 'sticks' ideas together in units of text beyond the clause or sentence. In this text, choose the discourse markers and pronouns which perform this function. Instructions are in the file. The answers also are provided.
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The review is of structure, register and language issues. I've amplified the notes on the latter. These language points will also be the focus of the end of course reading and language test.
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•Practical information (email, rooms, Moodle, lettorato etc)•The two exam options for Lingua Inglese 1•How this course differs from language certifications•Course contents, activities and focus; skills and topics•Exam option 1: evaluation by continuous assessment•Exam option 2: evaluation by written and oral exam•Parameters for evaluation of language comprehension and production and of essay skills•REVIEW OF ERRORS ON THE WRITTEN PART OF THE PLACEMENT TEST•The correction code that will be used for correction of students’ written work
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Titles and instructions. Choose ONE of the titles proposed.
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The general consensus today seems to be that Malthus was wrong. Dichter concedes this position, but argues that in some respects Malthus was right.
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A set of proposals for actions to save the world (and implement the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals of 2015-30), divided into 4 levels: from the couch, in the home, outside the house, and at work.
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Listen to two sides to the debate, with 3 speakers for, and 3 against, the motion: "Karl Marx was right".
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Dyke describes 4 obstacles to success in feeding the world's population in future.
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These essays have good structure and read fluently. (NB: the English language errors have NOT been cleaned up.)
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We only listened to the first couple of minutes of the programme, where the biologist Chris Ponting presents his proposal and reasons for it.
Student task is to listen for the reasons he gives for the proposal:
"The power supply to western households should be cut at random once a week".
Of course, if you wish you can listen to the rest of the programme on which other guests discuss the proposal.
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This article on a historical topic is a fine example of comparison and contrast in English which we used in class on 20th November. The activities were as follows. First, students had to interact in pairs to discover 11 missing elements from their particular version of the text, A or B. Second, they had to guess the meaning of a number of possibly unfamiliar expressions highlighted in bold in the text, using English synonyms or Italian translations.Thirdly, they highlighted in the text all the words or phrases expressing comparison and contrast. Lastly, they had to note whether the text was a 'block' comparison or a 'point by point' comparison (it is the latter). This text was also proposed as the basis for a summary writing exercise instructions for which I am providing HERE below.
Summarise the text in about 330 words. As far as possible, organise yourselves into groups of maximum 10 students and do this as a group writing exercise. (I can mark 12 summaries, but 120 is beyond my powers at the present). You may wish to change the order of the information appearing in the text. That is fine. Economy is the key, as always.
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The lecture provides an insight into how rolling news, the internet and social media have radically changed diplomacy in the last 25 years or so, empowering citizens and breaking down borders between nations. Useful material, perhaps, for the comparison and contrast essay on politics and diplomacy. We used the first 10 minutes of his lecture (up to the account of the 2009 killing in Iran of Neda Agha-Soltan) for a listening test in class on 12/12/2018.
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This video 'Populism is Re-Shaping our World' was posted in January 2017. It could be interesting for the comparison and contrast essay on populism vs fascism.
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In this short clip from his lecture, Tony Blair discusses the link between globalisation and populism. The full lecture (which lasts just over one hour) can be seen here: https://www.chathamhouse.org/event/defence-globalization
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•The meaning of «argument»•The Anglo Saxon essay writing tradition: directives in essay questions with examples from A level politics exam papers•The precise meaning of commonly used directives in essay titles•What an argument is, and what it is not, with examples.•Listening to an argument and noting down the supporting reasons.•Writing a paragraph based on the listening above.
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•Recap of commonly used verbs / expressions in English essay titles•Matching question words from A level politics exam papers with the topics to be discussed. Which combinations are the most likely ?•Interpreting what essay questions require•Converting expository questions into directives
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Title and first paragraph of the essay La France dans le Monde.
Comparative observations on genre (the French / English essay), grammar, vocabulary and punctuation.
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Continuation of English translation of Fench essay 'La France dans le monde' : one sentence only. Vocabulary + grammar and proposed translation.
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The text used is one of the dictées used by Prof Stabarin.
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Text used for a dictée by Prof Stabarin.
A sentence by sentence English translation of the French text, with some notes on English grammar and vocabulary at the end.
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Contents
- Verb tense and time reference: present tense to express the universal, general present, and the future; will to make confident predictions about the future
- Possibility (permission)
- Infinitive of purpose
- Obligation (necessity)
- Impersonal reference: ‘one’ and generic ‘you’
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Contents•The text type: information, opinion or argument?•Complex noun groups•Group nouns in English the rich / the poor•Adversative markers in spite of / despite / notwithstanding•to prove to beParallel texts: original vs translationComparison with online English translation(This file has the full translation)
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This text about the 'changement d'heure' (Daylight Saving Time (DST) or summer time in British English) was used as a reading comprehension activity in the French lettorato.
Please attempt a rough translation into English of the first paragraph (pasted below) for tomorrow afternoon's class (Thursday 21st November). Pay attention to the choice of verb tense and to the language of purpose (causality) in this excerpt.
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Le système de changement d’heure, un dispositif obsolète au XXIe siècle ?
Le changement d’heure a été instauré en France à la suite du choc pétrolier de 1973-1974. Depuis 1998, dans un effort d’harmonisation, tous les États membres de l’Union effectuent le passage à l’heure d’été le dernier dimanche de mars et le retour à l’heure d’hiver le dernier dimanche d’octobre. L’objectif était de faire correspondre au mieux les heures d’activités avec celles d’ensoleillement pour limiter l’utilisation de l’éclairage artificiel.
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Contents• Main language learning / teaching points in the text• Questions•Vocabulary of the Daylight Saving Time theme•Noun groups in English•Verb tense: past vs present perfect•Causality in English
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Have a go at translating this text before our class on Thursday 12th December.
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Contents:
•Reading for gist•Reading for rhetorical structure•Translating key vocabulary•Language and discourse points for the English translation- verbless question in French to English
- additive marker ‘ainsi que’ in English
- causality of ‘permettre de ..’ and ‘déboucher sur’ in English
- tense issues
- impersonal attribution in English
• Parallel texts• Recap of English collocations and synonyms
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Newspaper article about depleted uranium without punctuation, for practice.
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Presented in class. The 'depleted uranium' Q&A article from the Guardian newspaper, to be punctuated for practice, appears in a separate word file. I've added some further notes about the use of hyphens.
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1.The names of punctuation marks2.The various uses of hyphens (this is rather detailed)3.Example texts illustrating the meaningful use of punctuation marks4.When to use (initial) capitals and when NOT to use them*5.The limited use of scare quotes in English6.Practice in using punctuation: putting the punctuation back into an unpunctuated newspaper article about depleted uranium.
* There is more on the use of initial capitals in the homework review 1 above (see the description - west or West?)
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A simplified version of the declaration of human rights is compared with the original, to point out features of informal and formal registers. This could be a useful comparison particularly for any writer who had trouble with gauging the right register to use in their essay.
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•Examples of common misunderstandings about paragraphing in the essay genre.•Distinguishing ‘reader-friendly’ from ‘reader UNfriendly’ textual organisation in prose writing•What a paragraph is•How a paragraph is typographically distinguished on the page•The topic sentence•Examples of paragraphs by experienced prose essay writers•Examples in other text types – news reports, propaganda - which may use much shorter paragraphs
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These slides on motivation letter / statement writing have been adapted slightly to fit the Erasmus application context (which is rather different from the job or university degree context). I've also added the two motivation letters I presented at the International Day last month in Trieste, one good (reasonable paragraphing, gives reasons not emotions, sounds as if the student has given the matter some serious thought) and one less good (poor organisation etc).
The Erasmus motivation statement can be written in English, Italian, French or German (but not extra points are awarded for languages other than Italian). It should be addressed to the commission and signed. It should be sent to mobilita@dispes.units.it with the candidate's surname and 'motivation letter Erasmus' in the subject line.
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•Evaluation criteria for written work•Analysis of text A
- rhetorical structure
- language issues
- punctuation: west, western or West, Western?
- word pair: waste or wastage?
•Analysis of text B-Language•Register: informal vs formal English -
Contents:
TEXT A:
•Read to spot the anticipated language issues (mostly, WW)•Say what the highlighted language issues are in the text•Language issues corrected•Further revision for naturalness of expression (re-writing the topic sentence; collocation; breaking up an overly long sentence)TEXTS B:
•3 topic sentences from other paragraphs are evaluated for their effectiveness. -
HW Review 3 File PDF
Contents
Text A
Minor problems with language (WW)
Problems with structure
‘In fact’ and ‘infatti’
Emotivity in academic prose
Text B
Language issues: WW, VB, Gr, Art, Ref, Register, T
Evaluation of structure (a non-paragraph, lacks unity of topic)
A well-formed paragraph discussing meanings of development - as an example.
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Paragraph writing task to be submitted on Monday 18th November.
There was some misunderstanding about this paragraph writing exercise. I announced in class last week that I would be posting on Moodle a paragraph writing task based on the UNSG listening activity, and that I would indicate then who should be doing this task. However, although I had not yet posted this information, some students nonetheless presented me with a paragraph. The details for this assignment - expanded to include also the topic of Karl Marx used yesterday Mon 11/11 - are in the attached file.
Pease remember if you have not yet done so to sign up for the Sketch Engine service (see details in the lettorato), and do the search I proposed yesterday Mon 11/11 for uses of 'between' and 'among' using the concordance tool. What do you find?
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Review of paragraph writing on the following topic sentences:
•The general public tends to have unrealistic expectations of what the United Nations Secretary General can achieve.•The title of ‘Chief Administrative Officer’ used to refer to the UNSG in the UN Charter, reflects only part of what the UNSG actually does in the role.•Karl Marx was mistaken about some aspects of the future of capitalism, but some of his predictions actually came to pass.•Karl Marx was right in some of his predictions, but he also failed to foresee some future developments of capitalism.The review considers content, structure and comprehensive language issues. Please take time to read the review and learn from the mistakes.
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