III-2 OCI    Third Year English  for English minors (surnames A-Z, curriculum OCI)
Terza annualità per gli studenti di inglese seconda lingua, cognomi A-Z, curriculum OCI

  Module  “English for intercultural communication”

Regulations, credits – Regolamenti, CFU> 
Assessment – Esame: contenuti e date> 
Your data – Iscrizioni, presenze, voti> 
Office hours – Ore di ricevimento> 

 <Programma e testi – Syllabus, set texts
 <Sunto delle lezioni – Recap of lessons
 <Attività di ricerca – Research tasks
 <Notizie, avvisi – News, Messages

Monday, Tuesday & Friday,  3-5 pm.  Room A
 Lunedì,  MARTedì,  Venerdì,  ore  15-17,  Aula A 

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

Students'  Message Board
To communicate with the other students (or with the teacher),
click on one of the orange dots:
 
 New user  ("Show me how!")   click    Old user  ("I already know how!") 
 

Welcome to the Web Site of this course. 

During the course information of general interest will be posted here.  If YOU want to communicate with the other students or with the teacher, use the BULLETIN BOARD above: just click on  New user  (for your first visit) and  Old user (for the following visits).
 
NOTICES:

The injustice of the final exam: read the email of a student who contests the final exam held on June 14^th – the discussion interests everyone.

Click here

Le “ingiustizie” dell'esame finale: leggi la email di una studentessa che contesta la prova del 14-6-07. La discussione interessa tutti.

Cliccare qui.

I contenuti dell'esame finale: leggi la email di Rachel writes
The contents of the final exam – read Rachel's email:

17 May 2007 17:29
_________________________________________________

>ho fatto le task e

>l'esonero. volevo sapere in cosa consisterà l'esame, non ho trovato

>indicazioni nelle news del suo sito

Answer (which is also in the section ASSESSMENT (click on ASSESSMENT on the main menu):
Frequentanti   Final exam contents: Class discussions (if you don't remember the topics, they are listed here> )  plus P. Boylan. 2006. "How to interview using a questionnaire" (including videos) using your booklet (to be returned the day of the exam!) or, better yet, the internet site which is navigable>  .

Email del 21-12-06:

ho avuto la mail seguente da mariangela (group G):

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
non è che potrebbe rendere disponibile una lista delle persone che erano presenti a lezione venerdì scorso (il giorno dello sciopero revocato) ? Perché del mio gruppo pare non sia venuto nessuno e non so chi contattare.
 
 
a cui ho risposto con quanto segue:

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh....

Vedo che non mi conosci ancora.

Non c'era nessuno alla lezione. Tutti in vacanza. Io l'unico scemo che si è presentato.

Quindi ho messo quell'avviso come "La Vendetta"....

Così ti punge la coscienza a te e, speriamo bene, a qualcun altro.

;-)

Ora veniamo al sodo.

Per fare il compito puoi seguire le istruzioni sotto la voce TASK 4

(Cliccare su TASK nel menu).

Se ci fosse stata gente, avrei spiegato le tecniche per creare il rapporto empatico così da situare meglio le risposte alle domande sociometriche. Ma non c'era nessuno e sarebbe troppo lungo per email. Quindi fai solo quello che c'è scritto sotto "Task 4", OK?

Ma fallo bene. E capi gruppo, ragionate sui voti, perché darò o togliero punti dal vostro punteggio per valutazioni, diciamo, generose o vendicative o quello che è.

Visto che la scadenza è dopodomani e nessuno ha dato segno di vita, spostiamo la scadenza al giorno 12 gennaio per inviare i lavori ai capi gruppo, e il 15 gennaio per avere i lavori con il foglio di valutazione dal capo gruppo.

Ora potete godere delle vacanze in santa pace.

Contenti?

-)

Ciao

P

Your photo page is ready! Go to YOUR DATA (in the main menu) and click on PHOTOS:

A few shots of the encounter with Trinity College students on November 20^th...

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  YOUR DATA*
*ENROLLMENT,  ATTENDANCE,  MARKS

Enrollment form and instructions ( in Italian)>     (Informativa privacy> )
                     You must enroll to be a frequentante and take the esoneri.  Otherwise it is unnecessary.
 
  PC HELP*: Problems using your PC?   Phone a student for help>       

If you don't have a computer, how can you enroll and follow the course?
Here are various solutions>     (Per la versione italiana cliccare qui> )
 

 
   Students enrolled on   
                 

 
Attendance
         
 

 
Photos

 
   

Marks for
4 Research Tasks> 

Marks for
Partial exam*>   

*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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ASSESSMENT

Non frequentanti   Final exam contents: As a non-attender, you are responsible for all texts (book, articles) on the Reading List> 

    Criteria determining your mark >    (Studenti italiani: Leggete il testo in italiano)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Frequentanti   Final exam contents: Class discussions (if you don't remember the topics, they are listed here> )  plus P. Boylan. 2006. "How to interview using a questionnaire" (including videos)>  .

 Criteria determining your mark (out of a maximum of 30 points*):
   4 automatic points for attendance and completion of all assignments
+ total of marks received for the Research Tasks (out of 20)
+ average of marks received for the mid-term tests (out of 10)
+ mark (from -2 to +3) on the final exam (for an explanation, see here> ).
    *The sum of of all the points listed here is more than 30. This increase is meant to compensate for the fact that, in the Italian grading system, rarely do students get more than 8 out of 10 on partial tests and assignments.  Yet graduate schools and employers expect at least 25 out of 30 on undergraduate exams, and the university itself requires at least 28 out of 30 for an Honors Degree.
 
 

                                     YOUR MARKS   (I TUOI VOTI)
YOUR MARKS FOR THIS MODULE (tasks, partial exam) are in YOUR DATA : click here> 
YOUR MARKS FOR THE ESERCITAZIONI  (LETTORI EXAM, June, Sept., January) are here>  
 
 

                                                      EXAM DATES
     Calendar* for final exams (due appelli per ogni sessione di esame): click> 
     For last minute changes, go to the “Didattica / Notizie” page by clicking here> 

*NOTE: There are regulations governing when you can take the exam and in what order you must take each component of this course (the Module, the Exercises).  See the regulations under Regulations on the main menu or simply click here>   

 
 
   Computerized exam booking>   
No booking is required for the mid-term tests (esoneri) since they are not "real" exams (their purpose is to "exonerate" you from some of the material on the final exam) and the mark you get for them does not go on your libretto.

Booking is required, however, for the final exam -- and at least 8 days in advance.  Click on the orange button above to connect to the booking site, usually active 20 days before the exam period.  But before you click to book, see the “Calendar for final exams” in the paragraph above – it will help you determine for which exam to book.

 

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SYLLABUS,  SET TEXTS,  HANDOUTS 
 

Syllabus 

 
Module: “English for intercultural communication”  

     Interactants in L1/L2 and lingua franca encounters in English are often uncertain about the other party's linguistic-cultural matrix (felt values). This leads one or both of them to adopt a so-called "neutral stance" in framing utterances or in communicating behaviorally, in order to ensure minimal understanding and to avoid critical incidents.
 
     The present module will critique such behavior -- which, it should be noted, is one of the most frequent solutions to "cultural diversity in the workplace" practiced in international organizations. The module will then propose what it claims to be a more suitable ethnographic approach to creating genuine entente in native/non-native and non-native/non-native interaction in English.
 
     Students, divided into Research Groups, will experiment both solutions in real-life interaction and then write an essay critiquing them -- as well as the experimental task itself, as devised and conducted. Normally from the critiques the Research Groups should be able to hypothesize better interactional techniques and better research methods -- and then repeat the cycle to verify their hypotheses. Unfortunately this module is limited to 16 contact hours, not enough time for more than the initial cycle; so students must continue on their own.
 
     The present course defines "knowledge" as obtaining a more productive hold on reality by repositioning oneself with respect to reality. If this course does effectively "produce knowledge", this will mean that students will have "repositioned" themselves differently -- and more productively -- toward the phenomenon called "learning English" and will therefore most certainly continue their cycles of experimentation long after the course.

The organizational aspects of the module -- requirements and credits, evaluation 
   criteria and so on – are indicated in the main menu.   The Reading List follows.   
 

 Set texts
("programma")

 
1. Book: P. Kistler and S. Konivuori,(eds.). 2003.  From International Exchanges to Intercultural Communication. Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä Press.  
Note: Attenders read three chapters: the ones by Marie-Thérèse Claes, by Bernd Müller-Jacquier), and by Liisa Salo-Lee.  Non attenders read the entire book (10 chapters).
Photocopies of the book (made with the publisher's consent) are available at Pronto Stampa, via Ostiense 461.  Ask for either the entire book or the three chapters for the reduced program.
 
2. Monograph: P. Boylan. 2006. "How to interview using a questionnaire". PICTURE Project for teaching intercultural awareness.  European Commission - Directorate General for Education and Culture, Brussels. 
Photocopies of the booklet are available at Pronto Stampa, via Ostienese 461.  You can view (or download) the videos mentioned in the text here>   To see the videos (necessary for full comprehension) you will need a USER NAME and a PASSWORD. To get one write to: Patrick Boylan at  , state your full name, “matricola” and this course name: also indicate the email address that the password should be sent to.

3. Monograph  P. Boylan “Il come e il perché degli esami”
Attention: The exam will contain questions on this text!
To view the text click here>    To download the text click here> . 
Note: Although aimed at non-attenders, the text constitutes exam material for all students since it analyzes what it means to "know" English in the context of the exams for this Course.  (International students: read the English version; Italian students: read the Italian version as it discusses your particular situation in more detail).
 

     
    NOTE for STUDENTS FROM LETTERE AND OTHER DEGREE COURSES    
Students from the corso di laurea in Lettere (and other degree courses) who need 2 credits are to study all three texts (1.,2., 3.) indicated above..

 

     Handouts 
 
("Dispense per i soli frequentanti -- i non frequentanti NON devono leggere questi testi.")

<cliccare                     "Learning language as culture" (in italiano)
 
Documento storico di 20 anni fa: è il Manifesto (la prima dichiarazione di principio scritto in lingua italiana) di una nuova concezione di apprendimento delle lingue vive, basata sull'introiezione culturale.
La pagina riprodotta è la Postfazione al volume Accenti sull'America di Patrick Boylan, Roma: Armando Curcio Editore, 1987, p. 387. In glottodidattica, "Learning language as culture" viene chiamato anche "l'approccio comunicativo-culturale".

 
Cultural Parameters Illustrated: How to predict communication friction.
Slides from a course by Linda Beamer, California State University, Los Angeles, 2001,
and modified by Patrick Boylan for University of Rome III students, 2002.
Warning: To see this text, your computer must have a PowerPoint Viewer (most do).  
You can get one free at www.microsoft.com  (enter “PowerPoint viewer”
in the search box or, for a direct link, click here).
 

 
Common European Framework of Reference (CEF)
You'll hear teachers at Roma Tre (and elsewhere) speak of the Common European Framework (CEF) 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).
 

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 what sites are most useful to you. This means asking yourself (1.) what learning English really means and thus (2.) what kinds of competence you need to acquire and only then (3.) what exercises are best for you.

 Where to meet native speakers of English?  Here are their “lairs*” in Rome! 
                                                                                                  *tana, tane.

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LESSONS  FIRST MODULE

Room A or B

Seating Arrangement of groups
 
Groups consist of 6 students, 3 in front and 3 behind, like this:

This arrangement allows everyone to participate in the group discussions.
  

     
AFTER EACH LESSON, SEE HERE FOR THE SLIDES/NOTES USED.
 

17.11.06

Review of key ideas behind course (including the presupposition – while we are speaking in English, we are acting coherently with some Anglo culture). The first linguistic/cultural model we will follow is that of R.P. speakers in England, whose sociolect is that of the (former) British empire.
Preparation for the evening with Trinity students on Monday, November 20^th, 8 pm:
“Official“ questions to ask your Trinity interviewee here.
Sheet to prepare for the interview (with ethnographic questions) here.  

 

Encounter with the students of Trinity College, Clivio dei Publicii 7 (colle Avventino)
Monday, November 20^th, 8 pm – 10 pm (probably)

Fabio Carello
Manuela Paoloni

20.11.06

Simulation of “dual level interview”: sociometric questioning and ethnolinguistic questioning.

SUPPOSEDLY “NEUTRAL” ENGLISHes:

Brumfit_“English As An International Language”,
Crystal: “World Standard Spoken English”.
McArthur “World English”
Ogden: “Basic English”
Quirk: “Nuclear English”
Trudgill: “International English”


CULTURALLY CONNOTED ENGLISH

FIRST MODEL to be practiced in class and with Trinity students:

R.P. with a posh inflection (“Queen's English”):

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill: "Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty... so bear ourselves... that if the British Empire and its commonwealths last for a thousand years... men will still say... this was their finest hour!" ( House of Commons, June 18^th, 1940.)
                                      Listen> 
 
 

Lady Diana Frances Spenser, Princess of Wales: Interview on the BBC program Panorama, November 1995:  “The most daunting aspect was the media attention...”
“I don't want to be seen to ... be indulging in self-pity. I'm not.   I understand they have a job to do.   But...” (“Sloane” R.P. Accent)
                 Listen>  I.  II:   Read the text>
 
 

J. R. R. Tolkien, Oxford professor of English, author of studies on Anglo-Saxon and of the fantasy novels The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring.  “There was one page of this particular [exam] paper that was left BLANK!   Glorious!  Nothing to read!  So I scribbled on it – I can't think why – 'In a hole in the ground lived a Hobbit...'”
Video>      Read the text>  
You may need Apple Quick Time software, downloadable free here.
 
 

21.11.06

Epistemological differences between sociometric findings and ethnographic findings.

Assignment of TASK 1 (see the RESEARCH TASKS section of this web page).

Since I am late posting the evaluation form for TASK 1, you have an extra day to do the assignment!

Send your report to your group leader by Saturday, 25 November. Your Group Leader should mark it and send it to me by noon on Monday, November 27^th . Sending it in earlier to your group leader, so that I can receive it earlier than Monday morning, would be appreciated.
 

27.11.06

 
More on sociometric/ethnographic research and the kind of linguistic and cultural “knowledge” each produces.

Discussion on evaluation sheet used for Task 1 (and which will be used for Task 4).
Epistemology: an epistemological evaluation of any linguistic investigation one conducts.
Episteme = Greek word for “demonstrable knowledge”.

See the epistemic differences (the differences regarding the “quality and value of the knowledge produced”) between “qualitative/quantitative” and “positivist/naturalistic” here.

Studying English as ethnographic research – for example, when to use “some/any” in an expression like “Would you like some/any coffee?” or the value of the word “nice” in the expression “Sara/Chiara is a nice girl” said with a given intonation. How can you discover what to say or what is meant?
 
Distribution of LOAN COPIES of P. Boylan. 2006. "How to interview using a questionnaire". PICTURE Project. To see the videos mentioned in the booklet you must have a fast Internet connection (otherwise downloading the videos will take a lot of time):http://www.worldenough.net/picture/sample1/How_to_Interview/How_to_Interview.htm

A window will appear asking you for

• a User Name: respond with name indicated in class (uppercase letters)

• and a password: respond with word indicated in class (lowercase letters)

From November 29^th to December 4^th you must complete all the work asked of you in the workbook "How to interview using a questionnaire", Sections 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 (but not 6). On December 5^th (a Friday) you will meet as a group in the classroom (Aula A), read the work produced by the other members and decide, together with your Group Leader, the mark for Task 2 (Sections 1, 2, 3 and 4, worth 5 points) and Task 3 (Section 5, worth points). Your group leader will fill out the respective evalu5ation sheets.
 
For a full explanation of the work to be done, see Tasks 2 and 3 under RESEARCH TASKS (in the main menu).

Note. To do Task 3 (based on Section 5 of your workbook), you must invent ethnographic questions that you ask, apparently spontaneously, while you conduct your Sociometric Interview. These ethnographic questions should be of three kinds, as described below
(adapted from James Spradley, The Ethnographic Interview, New York: Holt Rinehart & Wnston, 1979):

1. DESCRIPTIVE QUESTIONS
   
   Grand Tour questions: Let your informant talk freely about a subject that is NOT the Dimension you are interested in, but leads to it. Example: If you are interested in the Meritocratic-Cooptation dimension, talk about getting a job in Italy: what you must do, etc. and only then by what criteria it is decided. In other words, take a Grand Tour before arriving at the specific question that interests you.
   
   Language questions, Example/Anecdote questions: If your informant says a word that is not clear to you, get her/him to explain it. IF s/he says something general, ask for an example. For instance, if s/he says: "Yeah, I applied to a lot of computer companies for a summer job, but the usual people got in", ask her/him what s/he means by "usual people" and then ask her/him to give an example, so you can check your understanding. Or tell an anecdote and see the reaction: "I saw a story on TV (in reality, you've invented it): Jeb Bush in Florida gives out summer jobs to students who campaign for him!"

2. STRUCTURAL QUESTIONS
   
   Cover term and Included term questions: If you want your informant to express a position, ask a naive question about the general ("cover") meaning of a term or about whether the term belongs in a certain category. Example: If you want to see if you and your informant both mean the same thing by "letter of recommendation", you can ask: "So in the general category of 'acceptable ways to get a job', you would include letters of recommendation, right?" ("Yes!") "But I'm not sure what you call a 'letter of recommendation'. For example, in Italy a Prelate or a politician can write a letter asking a state agency to hire you. And it often works, because the agency wants to keep good relations with the Vatican and with Parliament. Is this what you mean by a 'letter of recommendation?'" If your American informant says "No, in America that's a crime!", you can then go back to (1.) and ask an example question: "Well, what would be an example of an acceptable letter recommending you?" Your informant will probably say: "It will just say I've worked for X and that X is satisfied with my work."

3. CONTRAST QUESTIONS

Contrast verification questions: When you think you have understood your informant, make a summary of what you think s/he has said and ask her/him if you have understood correctly. But alter 20% of the questions to test if s/he is really verifying what you are saying. For example, you could say: "So, in conclusion, you are in favor of 'letters of recommendation' to help people get a job, but only certain kinds, right?" ("Yeah, that's right!") "So let me recap... Tell me if you are in favor of: letters attesting work done, letters certifying studies, letters of character reference, letters putting political pressure on the employer, letters invoking mutual friendship between sender and employer." Your informant will probably answer: "Yes - yes - yes - no – perhaps."
 
In your final report, you must give examples of each kind of question that you used while attempting to determine your interviewees' cultural matrix.
 

28.11.07

Review the notion of the 3 kinds of ethnographic questions (it was not discussed during the last lesson because the Consiglio di Facoltà, which occupied our classroom, lasted until 3:45.

Assignment: Task 2 and Task 3 by December 5^th.

11.12.06

1. The PICTURE interview of the Englishman in downtown Amsterdam.  
Note his intonation and behavioral communication when asked if he is proud to be British:
1. How proud are you to be a British citizen?
On a scale of:  very proud ------------------------------------- not proud
Why? Any comment? ________________________________________

2. Implicit model in any sociometric survey – here the model is “What are the characteristics defining what it means to be British.”
(See notebook for the 10 characteristics)
 
3. Ethnographic questions are the search for a model. The use of empathy to probe for like affects.

Warning: Many of the ethnographic questions invented for Task 2 were almost sociometric in nature. You must distinguish between sociometic questioning and:
     -- structured ethnographic questioning (descriptive/structural/contrast questions)
     ---free-flowing ethnographic questioning (following the trail of aroused affects).

4. Example: Using structured ethnographic questions to see if you have understood your Anglo interlocutor who speaks of “letters of recommendation”.
 

12.12.06

 
1. Review of the thread linking the class discussions on the various subjects (choosing a variety of English, probing for meaning in a conversation in English, etc.): Is a so-called “neutral stance” best?
     My final answer: The term “neutral” is infelicitous: no variety of English and no way of probing is in fact “neutral” (just as so-called “unmarked” grammatical forms are in reality marked as such).
     When investigating an Anglo culture you can use “Atlantic English” and ask standard sociometric questions and some people might call this “being neutral”; in reality, you are presenting yourself as a clinician, which is not a neutral stance any more than a clinician's white coat is neutral (the whiteness marks the clinician as “professing cleanliness”). The answers you receive will therefore be in function of this stance and not necessarily any more genuine than if you took another stance.
     Other possible stances: (a.) “just be yourself”, (b.) “try to be like your interlocutor”.
      (a.) begs the question of what exactly IS your “self”? You have multiple selves in your L1 and continually foreground them according to your interlocutor. Since everyone has the “ingredients” (affects, volitional stances) of any culture in the world, you can quite plausibly try to be like your interlocutor while still being (a part of) yourself, a part that you have never foregrounded before, perhaps, but a part nonetheless. This is very likely the best stance to obtain genuine answers (and to understand them as such!!).
      (b.) does not mean imitating your interlocutor slavishly (formal accommodation), which can sound false, but rather practicing substantial accommodation (as defined in our first-year course). In this course we have gone further and added the notion of achieving substantial accommodation by dynamizing the appropriate afffects and volitonal stances through empathetic probing.

2. An exceptional document: a filmed spontaneous conversation with the Englishman interviewed. This permits us to compare the answers that the Englishman gave earlier in the day to the Dutch students (who were speaking Atlantic English and using a sociometric questionnaire) with the genuine ethnographic probing of the Englishman's friend together in a fairly genuine “English pub” in Amsterdam (the friend, being British as well, was in fact “like” the Englishman as to common affects and volitional stances -- and, of course, language).

3. Discussion on Kistler & Konivuori, From International Exchanges to Intercultural Communication.

4. Partial Exam (Esonero) on Kistler & Konivuori.
 

15.12.06

 
Instructions on how to do Task 4 given to the class.
If you were not present, you must get the instructions from someone who was present.

 
“Using English empathetically” to probe for an Anglo interlocutor's cultural values.

English word empathy invented by Titchener (1909, 1924) as a “translation” - of Lipps’ Einfühlung (“process of ...reading or feeling ourselves into objects”).
Stein (1917), a student of Husserl: “Empathy... is the experience of the consciousness* of the Other" (*as Otherness).
Mead (1934): a child’s ability to role play (key to social and ethical development) is a form of empathy.
Piaget (1932, 1967): emphasis on child's empathy as a cognitive function (in decentering and imagining the role of another).
Rogers (1975: 4): a “process”, not a state...in which you enter "the private perceptual world of the other, becoming thoroughly at home in it. ... It means temporarily living in his/her life [... while] frequently checking with him/her as to the accuracy of your sensings, and being guided by the responses you receive."
Süskind (Das Profum) describes a protagonist, Grenouille, who has no odor and no empathy, instead an incredible ability to recognize and make his  other people's odors – leaving them lifeless. (This vampire-like metaphor illustrates how those incapable of empathy may see it as the consumption of the Other.  Cf. Infants' fantasies of devouring their mothers which, if not assuaged, can lead to the impossibility of loving them in real life, for fear of destroying them... or reciprocally being devoured by them.)
 
How to develop a relationship, in which YOU (the ethnographer) manage to enter into the "the private perceptual world” shared by THEM (your subjects)?
 
The psychologists, philosophers, authors listed above (I am using plurals because Piaget was all three* and so there are at least two of each kind) try to grasp the Otherness of the Other through words. I am proposing a different method:  grasping the Otherness of the Other through an “invisible theatrical action” in which you participate and which prompts your interlocutors to manifest their existential stances in words, behavior, whatever. This is an optional solution; those interested should read:
Castañeda, Quetzil E. The Invisible Theatre of Ethnography: Performative Principles of Fieldwork. 
 Anthropological Quarterly - Volume 79, Number 1, Winter 2006, pp. 75-104. 
To download article click here>  or enter: http://tinyurl.com/y44dge  
 
*At the age of 22, Piaget wrote a “philosophical novel,” Recherche (Editions La Concorde, Lausanne,1918) about the experiences of a 20-year-old (himself) in psychoanalysis.
 
 
The lecture was interrupted by the arrival of the Rector of RomaTre who congratulated the students for coming to the lesson when most classes were empty (strike threat, holiday break); to show his esteem, the Rector gave each student present a diploma di laurea (with an automatic 110 e lode) and a job offer at the United Nations office, either here in Rome or in New York (or both), at each student's choice.

When the Rector asked the students if he could do anything else for them, the students replied: “Yes; could you please be quiet, so that we can continue with our lesson?”
 
Unfortunately the clock struck five and lesson time was over.
 

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Task 0:
Due date:

TASK 1
Due date: Saturday, 25 November, 2006

ETHNOGRAPHIC REPORT

Write your report using British academic English.

• For the lexico-syntax, the norms followed should be those of SBE (South-east British English or Standard British English) as described in, for example, Huddleston & Pullum, The Cambridge grammar of the English language. Cambridge University Press, 2002, or an equivalent.

• For the discourse characteristics of British academic English, see here. (Note: The text speaks of spoken Academic English but the six general characteristics are the same in writing as well.)

• In particular, use abundantly the explicit connectives described here.

The report should discuss:

1. the findings of your questionnaire, i.e. what you learned about the way Trinity students interact when dating;

2. what this kind of knowledge is worth (does it really help you understand Trinity mentality? How? Why?);

3. the findings of your ethnographic questions, in terms of your initial hypotheses regarding the position of Trinity students on Hofstede's cultural dimensions chart: AND, most of all, in terms of “empathetic intuitions” that you had listening to your interviewees' narrations (if you were able to provoke any such narrations).

4. what this kind of knowledge is worth (does it really help you understand Trinity mentality? How? Why?);

See the Evaluation Form here for the criteria in judging a good report.

Send your report to your group leader by Saturday, 25 November. Your Group Leader should mark it and send it to me by noon on Monday, November 27^th . Sending it in earlier to your group leader, so that I can receive it earlier than Monday morning, would be appreciated.

Your Group Leader will judge your reports using the Evaluation Form available here. (The Leader will judge her/his own report, as well, but AFTER having read all of your reports.)

Finally, the Group Leader will send me the reports in electronic form, together with the evaluation sheet – to be published on the class web site – by Monday the 27^th at noon.

Task 2
Due date: Tuesday, December 5^th, 2006*
*This date is MANDATORY, your work MUST be completed because it will be evaluated
by the entire group which meets in Aula A during normal class time on December 5^th.

Do Sections 1, 2, 3 and 4 of your workbook. These Sections, together with their Appendices, will guide you in preparing your own Sociometric Questionnaire. This is the Questionnaire that you will use for Task 3 and Task 4. (For Task 3 you will use a translated version, since your interviewees will be Italians.)

To do Task 2, simply follow the workbook.

• When you are asked to write something, write it on a piece of paper. When you finish Sections 1-4, attach together all the pieces of paper with a stapler (spillatrice).

• When the workbook asks you to view a video, go to the PICTURE Project website here, give the user name and the password indicated in class, paying attention to upper and lower clase.

Your workbook will help you create a Sociometric Questionnaire. It can be on ANY subject you want that, in your opinion, helps you understand the culture of your Anglo interviewees. You will find suggestions about topics in Section 1 of your workbook. But before you write your questionnaire, read Section 2.

In Section 2, you will find ideas on how to make your interview experience more “profound” (certainly more profound than the sociometric questioning you did for Task 1), if you want. This is an optional part of the task so if you don't have time you can skip it; but it is also a great opportunity to learn to set goals for perfecting your hold on English for Intercultural Communication. So read Section 2 and, if you feel inspired, invent subgoals to deepen your interview experience.

Then write down on a piece of paper your Sociometric Questionnaire in English. At the end of your Questionnaire, if you included any subgoals, explain what they are and how you expect to reach them.

Also make predictions about how your interviewees will answer, as explained in Section 3 of your workbook, and put them at the bottom of your questionnaire, too.

Finally, decide where you intend to look for Anglo interviewees, using the suggestions given in Section 4 of your workbook.

If you notice anything good or anything bad about the PICTURE Project workbook while using it, write your observations down on a piece of paper entitled COMMENTS ON THE PICTURE PROJECT WORKBOOK and add it to your dossier.

Staple (spillare) all these sheets of paper together. They form the first part of the dossier that you will present to your Group on December 5^th for evaluation.

Your Group Leader will evaluate it using the Evaluation Form here.

 

Task 3
Due date: Tuesday, December 5^th, 2006*
*This date is MANDATORY, your work MUST be completed because it will be evaluated
by the entire group which meets in Aula A during normal class time on December 5^th.

Make ethnographic questions to accompany your Sociometric Questions. Your ethnographic questions should help you understand the culture of your interviewees:

• using Hofstede's cultural dimensions,

• going beyond Hofstede's cultural dimensions, in order to expand on the information given by your sociometric questions by indirect interrogation.

As for the form your indirect interrogation, read the indications given for the lesson on Nov. 27^th (see Recap of Lessons in the main menu): your questions MUST be of three different kinds: Descriptive/Structural/Contrast.

When you have finished writing your questions in English, translate them into Italian, using the suggestions in Section 5 of your workbook on “translation as cultural adaptation”. .

Also translate the Sociometric Questionnaire that you made for Task 2 into Italian, using the suggestions in Section 5 of your workbook on “translation as cultural adaptation”.

As you translate your ethnographic questions, make predictions about how you think your family and friends will answer your questions.

YOUR QUESTIONNAIRE IN ITALIAN

Then interview at least 3 people (family, friends, neighbors) to see how they respond:

• to your sociometric Questionnaire,

• to your ethnographic questions.

Finally, write a BRIEF summary of the results of your questioning. In particular, make it clear if you learned something new about your own culture or if people answered as you had predicted.
 
NOTE: The workbook says to “Write a REPORT of your interviews following the indications in Appendix F (which is not included in your copy). Instead, you will use the indications in the evaluation form.

Your Group Leader will evaluate your REPORT using the Evaluation Form here.
 

Task 4
Due date: Friday, December 15^th, 2006*
*This date is flexible. If you haven't finished by the 15^th, send Task 4 to your Group Leader
for correction at least a few days before Christmas vacation (December 23^rd),
so that s/he has time to evaluate it and send it to me..

For Task 4, you will repeat Task 1. This time the Sociometric Questionnaire will be the one you invented for Task 2 and that you practiced using (in its translated from) with family and neighbors for Task 3. It will be the “cover” for your ethnographic questions

In order to do Task 4 correctly, follow the instructions given in Section 6 of your booklet: “Second outing: Interviewing Native Speakers”. At the same time, you must prepare and conduct a parallel ethnographic interrogation: you can use the same Descriptive-Structural-Contrast questions that you invented for Task 3.

DOING TASK 4 – YOUR QUESTIONNAIRE IN ENGLISH

Just as you did for Task 1, first try to place your interviewees along Hofstede's five cultural dimension clines, then decide which of your sociometric questions can illuminate whether your hypotheses are correct. To be able to make a statistic, interview at least 3 Anglo native speakers, preferably from the same geographical region and social class. After asking each Sociometric Question, ask your Descriptive/Structural/Contrast questions to give context to the answer and also situate the values that lie behind your Sociometric Question.

Write a report as you did for Task 1 but taking better into consideration the criteria that your group leader will use to evaluate you on the Evaluation Form available here. (The Leader will judge her/his own report, as well, but AFTER having read all of your reports.)

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