| Unit name | Italian Language: Dossier Italia |
|---|---|
| Unit code | ITAL30019 |
| Credit points | 10 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Miss. Celant |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites | |
| School/department | Department of Italian |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
The unit aims to enhance the students' linguistic skills in Italian, both receptive and productive, and to foster skills relating to the collection, manipulation and presentation of a range of information through different sources and media. With the tutor's support, individual students will take the initiative in exploring Italian current affairs through a variety of media including the press, television, the internet, and interviews and questionnaires with native Italian speakers, with a view to selecting an area of interest upon which to base an assessed presentation and a formal examination. Topics covered might include party politics, foreign affairs, current legislation, media, culture, fashion, education, environment, employment, religion, immigration, family, sport. Students are additionally given tuition in writing for different audiences, and will be expected to be able to reproduce current affairs material in a wide range of different formats, including an interview or a report targeted for a particular audience.
Aims:
The unit aims to expand students knowledge of Italian current affairs, to develop their research and analysis of current affairs issues, and to improve their spoken and written Italian, giving due respect to different language contexts and audiences. It aims to develop students understanding of the levels on which language operates contextually and to improve their skills in both spoken and written communications. It further seeks to enable students to explore alternative but complementary research methods, topics and analysis to those more traditionally employed in an academic setting.
On completion of the course, students will have become familiar with a wide range of current affairs issues. They will have developed their understanding of the relationship between language and current affairs contexts, and developed their knowledge of a large selection of registers used in contemporary Italian. Students will have enhanced their ability to present their findings orally through class presentations, and they will have learned how to present current affairs material in a wide range of formats, with due care to issues of register and form appropriate to a wide range of contexts and audiences.
Teaching will be by through weekly seminars in a combination of tutor- and student-led presentations.
One formative 15-minute oral presentation; one summative 15-minute oral presentation on the topic researched for the unit (25% of the final mark); a two hour exam (75% of the final mark, c. 1000 word essay/report) based on the topic researched.
Given the topical nature of the course, the key sources of information are of an online basis, and include a wide range of websites pertaining to state institutions and media outlets in Italy, including:
www.quirinale.it
www.governo.it
www.parlamento.it/senato.htm
www.rai.it/portale
www.repubblica.it
www.espressonline.it
