AMERICAN STUDIES AND LANGUAGES

According to the Dublin descriptors, students, at the end of the course, will demonstrate:

1) Knowledge and understanding

 Development of linguistic and communicative skills at the C2 level of CEFRL.

In the multi-ethnic and multilingual context of the United States, students must be able to recognize the ideology of Standard American English and detect the non-standard cultural and linguistic phenomena of African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans (Module 1). In the field of professional communication, they must be able to identify the semiotic resources and the discursive modes employed by professionals with particular reference to the reporting practices of business corporations and non-governmental organizations (Module 2).

 2) Applying knowledge and understanding

Students must be able to illustrate the linguistic behaviors of African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans in relation to media representations (Module 1). From the perspective of Critical Genre Analysis, they must be able to examine the genre of the annual report as produced by corporations that pursue different communicative purposes (Module 2).

 3) Making judgements

Students must be able to detect the connection between the linguistic identity and the cultural identity of the ethnic groups they are studying and observing in the context of media representations as well as their relationship to the standard US language, culture and society (Module 1). They must also know how and why professionals create and disseminate specialist knowledge; which semiotic resources and discursive modalities they employ – and how they employ them – to achieve their specific objectives, especially with reference to the annual report and the way it is “bent” in different professional contexts for different needs of communication (Module 2).

 4) Communication skills

Students will develop both linguistic and intercultural communicative competences. In addition, they must be able to argue about the language issues and phenomena that are proposed using the tools of Sociolinguistics and Discourse Analysis (Module 1) as well as of Critical Genre Analysis, through the approaches employed on various levels (textual and genre analysis, Habermas’s theory of communicative action, multimodality) (Module 2).

 5)   Learning skills

Students must be able to employ the tools of analysis proposed for the study of linguistic phenomena in the socio-cultural and professional domains in an autonomous way, including the possibility of writing their thesis in these fields.

Frontal lessons and seminars + language practice

Attendance, of both lessons (54 hours) and language practice classes (60 hours) is highly recommended. Students who will not be able to attend must in any case register for the course via Studium and keep in contact with the professor as well as with her language assistant teacher.  

·      Language and communicative skills at level C1 (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages)

·      Contrastive phonetics (differences between British English and American English)

·      Elements of Pragmatics, Discouse Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis

Optional

1) Language and Cultural Diversity in the United States (5cfu)

American English: language variation and standardization. Ethnic cultures and dialects: African-American and Hispanic-American identities; African American Vernacular English, Chicano English, Spanglish.

 2)Professional Communication (4 cfu)

Dynamics of Professional Communication and analysis of specific texts through the multidimensional approach of Critical Genre Analysis. Hybridization and interdiscursivity. Disclosure practices: the annual report in the context of business corporations and, in the domain of international cooperation, of non-governmental organizations.

1)   Language and Cultural Diversity in the United States (5cfu)

·   Bonfiglio, T.P., Race and the Rise of Standard American, Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2002 (pp. 1-73);

·   Fought, C., Chicano English in Context, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003 (pp. 1-10, 30-110, 211-225); 

·   Morgan, M., Language, Discourse and Power in African American Culture, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002 (pp. 1-131);

·   Nilep, C., “‘Code Switching’ in Sociocultural Linguistics”, Colorado Research in Linguistics, Vol. 19, June 2006, pp. 1-22;  

·   Stavans, I., Spanglish, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008 (pp. 3-7, 35-40, 42-71, 123-124). 

For private practice:

To integrate their training, students are highly recommended to use the following textbook on phonetics and phonology:

-      L. Mojsin, Mastering the American Accent (with 4 Audio CDs), Hauppauge, NY, Barron's Educational Series, 2009.

Spelling, lexical, morphological, syntactical and grammatical elements of American English will be examined in the classes for language practice. For individual study, students can consult the following textbook:

-      G. Tottie. An Introduction to American English, Malden, MA, Blackwell, 2002.

 2) Professional Communication (4 cfu)

· Bhatia, V.K., Critical Genre Analysis. Investigating Interdiscursive Performance in Professional Practice, London and New York, Routledge 2017 (pp. 3-111; 142-160); 

· Dhanani, A., & Connolly, C., “Non-governmental Organizational Accountability: Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk?” Journal of Business Ethics, 129.3 (2014): 613-637; 

· Hiippala, T. “Multimodal Genre Analysis”, in S. Norris and C. D. Maier (eds.), Interactions, Images and Texts. A Reader in Multimodality, Boston/Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2014, pp. 111-123;

· Kress, G., “Multimodal Discourse Analysis”, in J. P. Gee and M. Handford (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis, Abingdon: Routledge, 2011, pp. 35-50;

· Stoian, C.E., “Analysing Images: A Social Semiotic Perspective”, Scientific Bulletin of the Politehnica University of Timişoara. Transactions on Modern Languages, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2015, pp. 23-30.

 

Please remember that in compliance with art 171 L22.04.1941, n. 633 and its amendments, it is illegal to copy entire books or journals, only 15% of their content can be copied.

For further information on sanctions and regulations concerning photocopying please refer to the regulations on copyright (Linee Guida sulla Gestione dei Diritti d’Autore) provided by AIDRO - Associazione Italiana per i Diritti di Riproduzione delle opere dell’ingegno (the Italian Association on Copyright).

All the books listed in the programs can be consulted in the Library or, to the extend permitted by law, made available on Studium.