Università Roma Tre - Corso di Studio in Lingue e Comunicazione Internazionale - a.a.2003-2004 - docente: Patrick Boylan

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The Future of English
Il futuro dell'inglese
(modulo di base per gli studenti del TERZO ANNO del curriculum Lingua e Linguistica, inglese seconda lingua)

Enrollment - Iscrizione>  
Office hours - Ricevimento>  
Aims, credits - Traguardi, crediti>  
Syllabus - Programma (v. anche 'Dispense')>  

  <News - Notizie
  <Handouts - Dispense
  <Activities - Attività di ricerca
  <Assessment - Esoneri e esami

Per domande inerenti a questo modulo, usare unicamente il seguente indirizzo e-mail:  LL @ boylan.it

Fridays, 4 to 6 p.m., Room 17, from 17 October 2003 to 30 January 2004

*  NEWS
* Click on the newspaper to see archived (old) news items

Do you feel frustrated at not having been able to speak during the class discussions? Send me your views in an e-mail (use the address: LL @ boylan.it) and I'll post it here:

To read a message, click on the icon before the date.

(No messages yet)

Notice for non-attendees / Avviso per i non frequentanti>

..

For attendees (Programma di esame per i frequentanti):

Per chi abbia fatto tutte e due i progetti e l'80% delle presenze:

Graddol, pp 1-14 (cioè, l'introduzione, capitolo 1).

Precisazione: Avevo detto in classe Capitolo 1 ma ho messo erroneamente sul sito capitoli 1 e 2. Chi ha preparato anche il secondo capitolo non perde niente: valuterò le sue risposte (sui capitoli 1 e 2) su una scala di 1 a 15 (9 = sufficiente) mentre, come conventuto, valuterò chi risponde soltanto alle domande su capitolo 1 su una scala di 1 a 10 (6 = sufficiente).

Chi abbia un progetto in meno rispoderà alle domande su,

Graddol, pp 1-14 (cioè, l'introduzione, capitolo 1)

più capitolo 2, 3

Per due progetti in meno,

Graddol, pp 1-14 (cioè, l'introduzione, capitolo 1).

più capitolo 2, 3, 4, 5

Chi non abbia fatto l'esonero deve portare anche:

ARTICLE: P. Boylan, 'To be or not to be: success or failure in intercultural communication', in D. Lynch and A. Pilbeam (eds.), Heritage and progress in intercultural understanding, LTS/SIETAR, Bath, 2000, pp. 106-116.

sul quale ci saranno le domande DI FONDO (fatte per i non frequentanti, a cui viene chiesto di saper almeno leggere a fondo un testo).

For everyone: Please fill out the class ENROLLMENT form. (Click above.)

You don't have a PC at home? Use the PCs in the computer lab (across from the language lab) on the ground floor. See the hours for Language Students here> .

Or use the Pcs in an Inexpensive Internet Point... Or buy an Inexpensive PC with help from RomaTre.
Information here > .. . (In Italian> . )

Message for the group Reps

When class begins, please ask the members of your group to sit four by four.*

This module will meet 12 times:

October_ 17___24*___31
November_ 7__ 14*___21___28**
December_ 5___12____19
January _ 9___16____23*__30
June_____**

Notes:

* Oct.24: National strike; *Nov.14: Teacher away (conference); *January 23: Teacher away (conference)
**28 November = partial exam; **June 2003 = final exam
__The final will be on the book by Graddol.
__The partial will be on classwork & the article by Boylan.
? January 9 and 30: make up lessons if possible

Students who attend regularly and do all assignments will be exonerated from a certain number of chapters of Graddol. Regular attendance means present 9 times (the exam on either the 28^th of November counts as a lesson). Thus, 3 absences are the maximum.

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* ENROLLMENT
* "John Doe" (and "John Smith") are the U.S. English equivalents of "Mario Rossi"

Enrollment form and instructions (in Italian)>    
              (Informativa sulla privacy> )

  Problems with your PC?* Ask a fellow student for help!>    

*A common question: "I don't have a PC or money to buy one. But you use the Internet in your teaching. And I will need a PC to write up my research findings for the esoneri and my tesi. What can I do?"
For some answers in English, click here>.. . . (In Italian> . )

  List of students enrolled -- last update: >    

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ASSESSMENT

   Exam contents>          <Avviso per i non frequentanti (e frequentanti!)

      Exam calendar for September/October 2004> 

   Exam booking>          Avviso su come prenotare > 
              You must sign up for L-Lin/12 oral exams at least 10 days in advance.
              For the written (Lettori) exams, use the registers outside the Lettori Room.

   Marks: - assignments>  Have a little more patience, please!
                  -esonero>   Idem!

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Handouts:

1.





2.htm

2.rtf

Downloadable copies of texts appearing on the Reading List
.

1. David Graddol, The Future of English. This is a .pdf file. To read it your PC must have a PDF Reader. If your computer doesn't already have one, you can download a Reader, free of charge, by clicking here> . N.B. FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE DIFFICULTY DOWNLOADING OR PRINTING THIS BOOK: the photocopy store Pronto stampa, across the street from our Faculty Building, has photocopies of this text.

2. Patrick Boylan, 'To be or not to be: success or failure in intercultural communication' You can choose from two versions: 'htm' (a version you can read on your computer) and 'rtf' (a version you can download and print)..

Notice for non-attendees / Avviso per i non frequentanti>

.htm

.rtf

For students attending class (in substitution for part of the above texts):
C. Roberts et al., Language learners as ethnographers, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 2001, pp. 142-150). ONLY THE .HTM VERSION HAS THE MARKED PARAGRAPHS.
Click ".htm" to read; click ".rtf" to download.

RP
 
GA

Comparison of two of the “inner circle” standards:

UK -- Standard "RP"* English . . *RP = Received Pronunciation, i.e. the aristocratic (and now upper class bourgeois) accent received from tradition.

USA -- General American or "GA"

Note that the differences are not simply phonological and lexical, but also syntactic, pragmatic, textual, stylistic.

Audio
 
Text

Imitation of the U.S. (Texan) southern drawl: audio clip of Jim Sherman's parody of George W. Bush and Condolesa Rice. (Rice tries to tell Bush the name of the new leader of China, Hu.)
Audio = Radio improvisation (with additons to Sherman's text)
Text = Original text written by Sherman to be read. 

Common European Framework of Reference
You'll hear teachers at Roma Tre (and elsewhere) speak of 'European Levels' of competence in a second language. For example, our university entry test is targeted for Level B1 in reading ability and A2 in speaking ability. What does this mean? Click the orange dot if you want to know more about the system (which many people criticize as simplistic, so it will probably undergo change in the near future).

_ESL portal page_

Learn English on the Internet... FREE (no fees to teachers or schools!)
Clicking on the orange dot will open a page full of Internet sites where you can practice and extend your English. But you have to know how to distinguish the most useful sites for you. This means asking yourself what learning English really means.

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Activities:

Message Board______

First:
Read how to interact on the internet.
(Click on the Notepad here to the left).

Then:
1. Click on the icon of the girl and boy talking.
___(It's the one here to the left, under the notepad.)

2. You will see a red rectangle: click on it.
___(But first, read the instructions!)
___
3. Write your message as your English-speaking double.
___(If you want to be yourself, write in Italian.)

17.10.03

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT 1
Due date: 31.10.03

To carry out the project you must be part of a group of 8 students maximum (minimum 6).  Once you have a group, elect a group leader and ask her/him to email the names of the members of the group to ll @ boylan.it. Then, as a group:

1. Interview a native speaker of English who speaks some variety that is not "the Queen's English" (you can interview a typical tourist at the train station or in an Irish pub, for example).

2. Transcribe the most interesting segment of the recording (one minute of speech is the minimum): use CA* conventions and, when the subject's pronunciation conveys meaning, use phonetic symbols between slashes, like the word "Italian" below:

  Student: ↑Sîr (2.0) sîr (1.0) ↑ excuse me
                        (5.0) May we ìnterview you  (.)  [for a] cláss project
  Tourist:                                                            [Wha-]                    (2.0) a whát

  Student:      A clàss project  h  for our [ènglish] class=
  Tourist:                                                     [âh       ]        =At an /aitæ:lj∂n/ schòol

3. Identify the subject's cultural group membership: where s/he was born, raised, educated; where s/he now lives and works; what social class s/he belongs to; what kind of people and places s/he frequents; what beliefs and values s/he professes (this last question can be dangerous so use prudence!).

4. Write a report in which you give the CA (and phonetic) transcription, the subject's cultural group membership, and your comments.  Use a word processor to write the report.  Most versions of Word permit you to choose IPA symbols for your character set when doing a phonetic transcription.  If your word processor does not have IPA** characters, you can write the phonetic transcriptions by hand.  The paper should be the length of the model papers in the booklet Documentation, available at the photocopy shop Pronto Stampa (v.Ostiense 461). Or you can read it, download it and print it by clicking here (WARNING: it is a BIG file, 4 MB, and will take a long time to download) >

For a (short) background text explaining
the problems of ethnographic interviews
(C. Roberts et al., Language learners as ethnographers,
Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 2001, pp. 142-150),
click here to read >
or here to download > .

Where can you find, in Rome,
native speakers of marginal varieties of English?
Consult this list! >

  *CA=conversation analysis **IPA=International Phonetic Association

07.11.03

In view of the Mid-term Partial Exam (“esonero”),
study this extract from the article
“To be or not to be: success or failure in intercultural communication”:
click to download >

Be prepared to discuss the extract in class next time (17.10.03)!

21.11.03

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT 2
Due date: 5.12.03

For the next time, prepare a group discussion of parts 3, 4, 5 of the article:
To be or not to be: success or failure in intercultural communication

• Abstract

• Thesis

• Counterviews

• Taking the existential plunge

• Conclusions

1. Meet with your group and divide the pages to read among you. Each person is responsible for a certain number of paragraphs.

2. At home, take notes on the paragraphs assigned to you. Practice commenting the paragraphs using just your notes. Speak out loud (in front of a mirror, if possible). If you want, you can record your voice to see if your intonation is natural: fairly uniform intonation before and after tonic syllable, usually falling afterwards; characteristic intonation contour on the tonic syllable and thereafter, to indicate intent; rhythmic groups based on pattern:

   ACCENTUATED SYLLABLE + others | ACCENTUATED SYLLABLE + others | ACCENTUATED SYLLABLE + others | ACCENTUATED .... etc.

   NOWisthe | TIMEfor | ALL | GOOD | MENto | COMEto the | AIDofthe | PARty.

3. Meet with your group again and record a group discussion on the assigned text. Your group leader will lead the discussion and, at the end, assign a mark for your performance and effort using the form you can download here > I will give a mark to the Group Leader on the basis of how reasonable he assigned marks to group members:

   +2 = great job, +1 = good, +0 = fair; -1 or -2 (playing Santa Claus)

4. Consign the cassette on Dec. 5th.

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