2017/2018

2017/2018

DM270

L-LIN/12 (ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND TRANSLATION)

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION AND MULTIMEDIA

PERCORSO COMUNE

1°

2nd semester (26/02/2018 - 30/05/2018)

6

36 lesson hours

Italian

ORAL TEST

ZAGO RAFFAELE (titolare) - 6 ECTS

Level of competence in English: C1 according to the "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages" (CEFR).

The course aims to give students a thorough understanding of the different ways in which English is used in a variety of media contexts.

The course focuses on the use and variation of English through different media. The first necessary step will be to introduce the fundamental concept of “register variation” / “situational variation”, that is, the way language varies depending on the context of use. The course will then examine how English is used in diverse media, looking at domains such as TV talk, radio talk and computer-mediated communication (CMC). Special attention will be devoted to films and TV series, whose dialogues are interesting from a linguistic point of view because they originate in writing but are designed and performed as speech.

The contents of each lesson will be provided through PowerPoint presentations. Concrete examples (e.g. taken from films, TV series, radio programmes, Web pages, etc.) will be used to illustrate the various topics of the course.

1. THE LANGUAGE OF FILMS AND TV SERIES:

- Kozloff, Sarah. 2000. Overhearing Film Dialogue. Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press --> Chapter 1 (The Functions of Dialogue in Narrative Film, pp. 33-63).

- Quaglio, Paulo. 2009. Television Dialogue: The Sitcom Friends vs. Natural Conversation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins --> Chapter 6 (Emotional Language, pp. 87-105) OR Chapter 7 (Informal Language, pp. 107-121).

- Zago, Raffaele. 2016. From Originals to Remakes. Colloquiality in English Film Dialogue over Time. Acireale/Roma: Bonanno Editore --> Chapter 2 (Features of Film Dialogue, pp. 55-66).


2. THE LANGUAGE OF TV AND RADIO PROGRAMMES:

- O’Keeffe, Anne. 2006. Investigating Media Discourse. London/New York: Routledge --> Chapter 1 (Introduction, pp. 1-10).

- Tolson, Andrew. 2006. Media Talk. Spoken Discourse on TV and Radio. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press --> Chapter 3 (News Talk, pp. 57-73) OR Chapter 4 (Political Talk, pp. 74-93) OR Chapter 5 (Sports Talk, pp. 94-112) OR Chapter 6 (Youth Talk, pp. 113-129) OR Chapter 7 (Ordinary Talk, pp. 130-148) OR Chapter 8 (Celebrity Talk, 149-166) OR Chapter 9 (Talking to Big Brother, pp. 167-183).


3. THE LANGUAGE OF THE INTERNET:

- Crystal, David. 2006. Language and the Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press --> Chapter 2 (The Medium of Netspeak, pp. 26-52) AND Chapter 3 (Finding an Identity, pp. 86-98).


In addition to the above chapters, students are required to study the PowerPoint presentations which will be used throughout the course.

All the materials to be studied for the oral exam are available at the Section of Linguistics.

Students will be assessed through an oral exam on the course contents. In addition, students will be required to write a short paper (3-6 pages) based on one of the topics dealt with by Dr. Michael Elphinstone (C.E.L.) in his classes. The paper should be sent to Dr. Elphinstone at least two weeks before the date of the oral exam. The final mark will be the average of the mark received in the oral exam and the mark received for the paper.

Email addresses:

- Raffaele Zago (Lecturer): raffaele.zago@unipv.it
- Michael Elphinstone (C.E.L.): melphin@unipv.it