University
of Rome III _ School of Humanities _
Degree in Languages and International Communication |
Academic Year: 2005-06 _ Course convener: Patrick Boylan _ Email: patrick @ boylan.it _ Folder: 5_I-2 |
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First
Year English for
English minors (A-Z) |
Modules:
I. “Seeing
and saying things in English” tural
encounters” |
click
on the orangedots
cliccare
sui puntini
rossi
N.B.
I programmi dei moduli
offerti nel 2005-06 non sono più materia d'esame dopo febbraio
2009;
non verranno più conservati dopo tale data i compiti
svolti dagli studenti né i relativi voti assegnati.
Mondays
3 – 4:30pm and Fridays 3 – 5 pm, Room
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Rachele
scrive: OK, June 7th. P
10.6.06 -- Info on the exam: click on NEW USER or OLD USER on the red bulletin board above)
Yesterday (Friday) I spoke about working as Intercultural Trainers: teaching managers how to adapt their comunication styles according to the culture of their interlocutors, using Hofstede's "Cultural Dimensions".
I forgot to tell you that there is a second part.
On Monday -- our last lesson -- I have invited Sandra Gianesini -- who recently graduated from Roma Tre (OCI curriculum) -- to give the presentation she gave for her "seduta di laurea". Specifically it concerns cultural adaptation of Western advertising to China, but the general theme is "using language as culture" in the workplace (as a future job).
Please come on time to Monday's lesson, since Sandra will give her presentation at the beginning. (Then she has to return home because she has just had a baby!)
Have a nice weekend. -- P
dal Notiziario Roma Tre: CICLO DI INCONTRI ‘FILOSOFANDO AL LUNEDÌ’ Lunedì 8 maggio, ore 19 Cafè Bistrot ‘Casina dei Pini’ – viale di Villa Massimo 8/A Nell’ambito del ciclo di incontri "Filosofando al lunedì…" la Prof.ssa Francesca Brezzi docente di Filosofia Teoretica presso la Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia di Roma Tre, terrà un incontro dal titolo: "Identità e differenza: interculturalità e riflessione filosofica".
You are invited to an evening with a new contingent of Trinity College students on Wednesday, June 7th (that's the day after the Lettori exams and the week before the moduli exams begin). If you are interested let me know and I'll put your name on the list (this time only 25 students can come): patrick @ boylan.it.
Transportation
Strike on Friday, April 28th:
no lesson.
From
Televideo: You
don't receive the e-mails I send to the class? ”These messages have NOT been delivered by LIBERO.IT:
Students'
IDENTI.KITS on line>
Would
you like to spend an evening at the theater (in Italian) with 10
Trinity college students? In
the same vein... This message from a student plus my answer, in Italian, appear below so that everyone is sure to read them STUDENT:
>Volevo
farLe una domanda.
MY ANSWER: Sì.
Ma non vorrei che tutti facessero l'esame domani e poi tutti di nuovo a giugno. Mica voglio dovere correggere 120 compiti due volte!
Quindi aggiungo come regola che se fai la prova a giungo, devi tenere il voto a giungo, anche qualora fosse più basso del voto che prendi alla prova domani. Questo per scoraggiare la gente dal dire "Faccio anche la prova a giugno, intanto non ho niente da perdere."
Quindi fa pure la prova domani, ma pensaci due volte prima di farla a giugno!
p
Causa superamento del numero di assenze consentite (3) per il Modulo, i seguenti nominativi: LL Laura Travisani, OI Chiara Cartia, OI Mirena D'Aula, OI Noemi Gettini, OI Erika Ferraioli, OI Luca Venanzi, OI Giulia Bacchetti, LET Tiziana Plateroti, LET Federica Orlando, OI Marco Cianci, OI Martina Sardella, OI Elena Porcu sono stati rimossi dalla database degli studenti frequentanti e acquisiscono dunque lo status di studenti non-frequentanti. Non sarà possibile per questi studenti dare l'esonero il 21/24 aprile (l'eventuale voto non potrebbe essere registrato) ma possono invece dare l'esame officiale sul programma previsto nell'Ordine degli Studi il 20.6.06 (previo superamento della prova Lettori che inizia il 6.6.06). Qualora ci fosse stato un errore nel conteggio delle assenze, sono a disposizione per riguardare i fogli delle presenze. Per gli orari di ricevimento consultare www.boylan.it (cliccare su UFFICIO). Per eventuali comunicazioni: patrick @ boylan.it.
Many of you have asked me to
hold the esonero another day (not
on April 21st and 24th). I checked with the
presidenza: no other days are possible in the following
weeks because all the classrooms are filled, with the exception of
strange hours that many of you would not want to have (Saturday
morning) or during which I have other engagements. I
could, of course, eliminate two days from the schedule of the
course that follows ours, and use those days for our esonero:
but that course has already been reduced to only 8 lessons,
because of the room shortage. I don't want to reduce it to
only 6 lessons, which would not be enough time to build anything
didactically. The exam will count for 10
points out of 30. Your activities will count for 20 points out of
30. (You also get 4 automatic points for attending class and from
-2 to +3 points for a FINAL QUESTION REQUIRING
REFLECTION: click on ASSESSMENT in the
Main Menu for details.)
TO
SEE THE IDENTI.KITS ALREADY EVALUATED (VERBALLY) BY ME, CLICK HERE
>
GROUP
LEADERS: WHAT MARK DO YOU GIVE SOMEONE WHO WAS NOT ABLE TO DO AN
IDENTI-KIT FOR TASK 3. MY PERSON OPINION IS THAT YOU GIVE ZERO BUT
YOU MAY DECIDE ON OTHER CRITERIA. SOME STUDENTS WORK OR ARE
SICK OR HAVE A TERRIBLE TRAGEDY IN THEIR LIVES AND DO NOT HAVE THE
TIME TO PREPARE AND IDENTI-KIT. SO THEY USE THE ONE I MADE FOR
PEOPLE WHO HAVE NONE. BUT I OFFERED THAT GENERIC IDENTI-KIT WHEN
MAKING THE IDENTI-KIT WAS JUST A PREPARATORY ACTIVITY AND DID NOT
COUNT FOR POINTS. NOW IT HAS BECOME TASK 3 (SINCE WE DON'T
HAVE TIME TO DO THE REAL TASK 3), FOR ZERO TO FIVE POINTS. SO WHAT
TO DO? Choose a new group leader (L5). These
students have not enrolled yet. Please do so immediately: Lessons on Monday will go back to the regular time. Class ends at 5 (not 4:30) pm. I keep forgetting to
take pictures of each group, so I can learn the names of each
student. If we have time on Monday, I'll ask the secretaries to
take each group's picture. So wear your Sunday best!
Milena asks if she can choose the great Indian writer Mahasweta Devi. Yes, indeed. In fact Mahasweta Devi was a professor of English (in Calcutta, I believe). To find audio and video material about her OR ABOUT ANYONE YOU CHOOSE, enter in Google: "Mahasweta Devi" .mpg OR .wma OR .wmv OR .wav OR .mp3 OR .mov OR .asf "Mario Rossi ecc." .mpg OR .wma OR .wmv OR .wav OR .mp3 OR .mov OR .asf YOU MUST ENTER
THE QUOTATION MARKS ("") AND YOU MUST ENTER THE WORD
"OR" IN CAPITAL LETTERS, EXACTLY AS YOU SEE ABOVE. |
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*Partial exams: To take the “partial exams” (esoneri), you must enroll in this course (use the form above). But no booking is required since they are not "real"exams -- they simply reduce the study load for the final exam (for which you must book). Each partial exam you pass eliminates one of the texts from the final exam and counts for a part of your final mark. But only the final mark goes on your libretto. |
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Syllabus |
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In
these Modules we will examine what language is "beyond words
and syntax" -- a move toward a
linguistics of parole
alongside
the traditional Saussurian linguistics of langue.
Then, on the basis of our wider definition of language, we will
attempt a cultural description of "English" -- or
rather, Englishes, as they exist in today's globalized yet
fragmented world. The
organizational aspects of the module -- requirements and credits,
evaluation |
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Handouts |
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<cliccare "Learning
language as culture" (in italiano) |
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Room A
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Overall purpose of course: see handout Learning language as culture |
27.2 |
Pre-Lesson. Course
regulations, didactic proposal. What learning English
means. How this influences behavior in class and the focus
of study (intentionality more than words). Difference
between “language” and “words” is like
the difference between “music” and “notes”,
or “culture” and traditions-expressions-artistic
heritage (the second elements are only a repertory of
realizations). |
3.3. |
Language = a “will to mean” (un voler dire) in a communicative situation, that is an emanation of one's “will to be”. It includes all behavior: speech which is verbal behavior, gestures, facial and bodily expression, management of space and time.... The sedimentation (in the mind) of multiple communicative acts produces a disposition to communicate in the future in a similar way. We call the verbal part of that overall behavior this or that “language” (using the term “language” restrictively). In other words, the sedimentation of speech acts over time produces a specific historical “language” -- Italian, English, Chinese, Hindi (again, we are using the term “language” very restrictively here). In other words, we develop a verbal language and expressive habits that qualify us (to our interlocutors) as, for example, a Romano de Roma speaking a typical variety of Italian and using typical expressive habits sedimented over the centuries but that many Italians still consider as disreputable, or as a Black speaking a characteristic vernacular that is an integral part of the family of Englishes but that many white Americans consider disreputable, or as an Eastender speaking another historically-marked variety of English that has spread from London to Australia and elsewhere but that many Brits consider disreputable, or as a cultivated New Zealander (as in the case of the professor in the film clip we saw...) attempting to be an R.P. speaker of English and thus a proper English gentleman, not entirely successfully. In philosophical (Aristotelean) terms, we can therefore speak of language as the essence of a communicative act. That essence becomes being through the actualization of the various behavioral repertories at our disposition (facial language, gestural language, verbal language, etc.). In other words, we use these repertories to give form to some kind of material (sound waves, body positions...) and thus to create the substance we call “utterance” (enunciato) which makes our communicative intent perceptible. But, properly speaking, language is not that substance (neither the material sound waves nor the lexicosyntactic forms, which grammarians love to study): it is the underlying essence. That essence is the particular communicative intent erupting in a particular communicative event (Saussurian parole, although Saussure was speaking only of the verbal repertory used) as well as the sedimentation over time of the characteristic features of those modulations of intent producing a disposition to express oneself in a consistent way – this is what Saussure calls langue (although he was speaking only of the verbal repertory used, which is the “outside”, not of what makes the verbal material take the particular form it takes, which is the essence of language). Learning English therefore
means more than learning words (or even words and “gestures”).
It also means learning the “will to be” that produces
the characteristic “will to mean” that native
speakers of English manifest (with with idiosyncratic and
cultural attributes that mark them as African Americans,
Eastenders, Kiwis...). Practical issues |
6-3 |
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10-3 |
communication
= establishing a relationship language = one's will to mean
(<one's will to be)
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13-3 |
Test on notions
covered last time. Result: almost everyone defines things as I
do. |
17-3 |
Take
responsibility for your own learning. |
20-3 |
The
4-step Repair Routine (How to ask for a clarification):>
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24.3 |
Thanks, Roberta and Claudio
Question: Did Claudia get her Double to
define her cultural values? In my opinion, not much. Because a
traditional Italian, American or Danish speaker would say that
“the family is the most important thing in life”.
But what does it mean for a Filipino, for an Italian, for an
American, for a Dane... to make the family the most important
thing in life? In practice it means very different things.
Claudia did not get her Double to specify what her words mean.
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27-3 |
How to use Wikipedia to document your double's
Engish
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31-3 |
Why a language needs to be learned as a will to mean expressing a will to be 3
functions of language (Karl Bühler,
Sprachtheorie.
Jena: Verlag von Gustav Fischer, 1934):
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03-4 |
Task
2 for Friday, April 7th -- Write a report on your
interview, transcribing (IF YOU HAVE RECORDED YOUR VOICE AND YOUR
INTERLOCUTOR'S VOICE);
IF YOU
DON'T HAVE A RECORDING OF BOTH “WAYS OF SEEING AND SAYING
THINGS”, you must do the task in a different way. See “Task
3” under RESEARCH TASKS in the main menu. |
10-4 |
Coming late to lessons Chatting during lessons Cheating on exams Copying homework |
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5-5 |
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8-5 |
Preparation for the final exam: practice writing quick answers to the following 3 questions:
1.QUESTION ON THE PEDAGOGICAL PREMISES
BECAUSE THE PROFESSOR IS A BRICOLEUR, TOO. (All knowledge is a social construction.)
YOUR OTHER ANSWERS ARE ALSO GOOD. FOR EXAMPLE: "Like a professor or researcher, the student must freely construct his knowledge. If the student is not free, he will not acquire knowledge, but only memorized notions."
2.QUESTION ON THE Philosophical PREMISES
What must I do to be able to say: "I know what I am, really." "I know what the person I love is, really." "I know what the English word pub really means." "I know what my English interlocutor means when she or he says 'I like a good pub!'"
Your answer? (Discussion)
My answer: We must grasp the (conceptual) essence behind the (empirical) appearances, and then the (volitional) being behind that essence.
Empirical
- verb forms, speech acts in “practical” language
lessons.
Given the scarce utility of lessons based on “clearly explaining” the text. Let's learn to read the next section (“Linguistic premises”) using various study strategies.
HOW
TO STUDY THE SECTION:
Ask two fundamental questions: (a.) What does the author want me to believe? This is NOT the same as asking “What do the words mean?”. Instead of looking for meaning, we look for INTENT and the, within the framework of hypothesised intent, look for meaning in the words. (b.) How does he make this believable?
AFFIRMATION 1. "The linguistic justification of the activities described in this paper requires another recasting -- that of the term 'language'." (a.)
What does the author want me to believe?
AFFIRMATION 3. “Similarly, it may be claimed (Boylan 2002, building on Saussure, 1969 [1916], Vygotsky, 1962 [1956]; Gadamer, 1975 [1960]: Piaget, 1968; Halliday 1975 and 1978) that the concept of 'language'-- and thus the concept of 'English' or 'Arabic' as 'languages' -- ought not to apply to verbal artefacts (e.g., phonemic realisations, [associated] semantic fields and grammatico-pragmatic constraints, texts, metatexts...), but rather to the 'will to mean' that produced these phenomena in particular speech communities.”
(a.)
What does the author want me to believe?
AFFIRMATION 4. “This 'will to mean' is more than the 'essence' of language; it is its very being.”
AFFIRMATION
5.
“It is the culturally-connoted
expressive intent
that, irrupting in a communicative event, proclaims
a historically constituted 'will to be' (culture).
Prepare
for a simulated exam on the pedagogical and philosophical
premises. |
12-5 |
ANOTHER QUIZ
1.
What authorizes me to make the affirmations below? "I know what the person I love is, really." "I know what the English word pub really means." "I
know what my English
interlocutor means
Your
answer?
2.
What does the schema below tell us about
(a.) Empirical and conceptual understanding must be founded on volition (you have to “feel” a word to understand a word); (b.) Language learning should start from doing and feeling things, then analyze this, and finally formulate rules.
3. Listen to the conversation between Martina and her mother and note down the epistemological explanations that Martina tries to give her mother in “ordinary language.”
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15.5 |
(The
video is part of the work-in-progress materials for the E.U.
PICTURE
project.) |
22.5 |
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26.5 |
Difference between the
Interview Project (in the previous lesson's video) and the 10
activities listed in “Seeing and saying
things.” Discussion of projects to
present. |
29.5 |
Losing
my mother tongue | Cecilia
Costantini
Guest presentation: Sandra
Gianesini – intercultural adaptation of European
advertising to the Chinese media. FOR YOUR MODULE TWO ACTIVITY, SEE “Module II, Task 1” BELOW IN THE TASK SECTION.
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Marking Scheme |
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Italian school marking system: 0 |
1 - 3 |
4, 5 |
6 |
7, 8 |
(9, 10) |
Points for each Task completed: 0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
(5) |
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Information you should have
in order to make the Identi-kit >
Those who were not able to
make an Identi-kit will use this one in the future>
TASK
1 The first task becomes
“official”on Monday, March 20th.
Here it is. |
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Students'
IDENTI-KITS on line> On
March 30th
(at Trinity College in Rome) or on March 31st
(at Roma Tre) many of you had the opportunity to record a brief
conversation with an American student. You were supposed to ENTER
INTO THE MENTALITY AND SPEECH PATTERNS OF YOUR DOUBLE,
then interview an American student about Honesty
in the U.S. and Italy
while you verify if YOU
FEEL DIFFERENTLY
and if your INTERLOCUTOR
REACTS DIFFERENTLY
when you switch between scholastic English and your double's
English. Now, for Task 2, write a report about this
experience. TASK
2, Interview Report. evaluation sheet >
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Task 4 Repeat the experiment
you did for Task 2. This time you must find a native speaker of
English in Rome. If you want, you can use this list of “lairs”>
Example: If you have
chosen Bob Marley, try to find someone from Jamaica; if not,
someone from the Caribbean; if not, a Porto Rican from New York
or someone from the West Indies community in London. This
will be very difficult. If it is not possible, then talk
with any Brit, best if from London where they are familiar with
West Indies speakers of English.. Do you see what I mean?
Given the difficulties and the time at your disposition, find the
best person possible -- someone who will relate to your way of
speaking, when you start speaking like your double. When you finish your report,
give it, together with your recording, to your group leader L5.
It is not necessary to give a copy of your Identi-kit because I
will keep the kits I receive with Task 2.
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Students'
IDENTI.KITS on line > |
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MODULE II |
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Task 1 Read the 10 activities
described in the monograph “Seeing and saying things in
English”.
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