At the end of the course, the students must be able to apply the tools of pragmatics to all text types

The course aims at developing students' linguistic and metalinguistic knowledge and competence, enabling them to analyze complex texts and conversations pragmatically. More specifically:

1) Discussion of main linguistic theories. Analysis of various text genres with a view to fixing the theoretical concepts.

2) Presentation of pragmatic theories - specifically, speech act theory and implicature theory. Analysis of various text genres with a view to fixing the theoretical concepts.

3) Politeness theory. Analysis of various text genres with a view to fixing the theoretical concepts.

4) Conversation analysis and ethnomethodology. Analysis of various text genres with a view to fixing the theoretical concepts.

At the end of the course, the students will have acquired analytical abilities and a good working knowledge of pragmatics. They will be asked to apply those abilities and that knowledge to various forms of English dialogue/conversation. They will be expected to be able to form independent judgments in their analyses, and to expound the same both in written and in spoken form. More specifically:

Knowledge and understanding: at the end of the course, the students will be required to show extensive knowledge of the above linguistic theories.

Applying knowledge and understanding: the students must be able to apply their knowledge of these theories to the analysis of dialogue and conversation.

Making judgements: the students must acquire the ability to make decisions on the best analytical strategies for each text or conversation they have to deal with.

Communication skills: at the end of the course, the students must be able to conduct their analyses in terminologically adequate English (written/spoken), at the level required by the course.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

See blended learning

Teaching

Presentation of theories and textual analyses, with seminar-like moments

Attendance

70% (in order to be considered as "attending students")

Course books

S.P. Levinson, Pragmatics, Cambridge University Press, 1983.

Assessment

Oral presentation in class (pragmatic analysis of a short dialogue/conversation), as well as active participation in the course. The final assessment will be based not only on the validity of the analyses, but also on methodological relevance (references to the course books) and on the student's argumentative abilities in spoken English. In practice, in in-class debates and analytical exercises, as well as in their papers, the students will have to demonstrate notions in the field of linguistics, to apply these notions to their analyses of various genres, to exercise their own judgement in their analytical choices, and to show a good command of spoken English (at the level required by the course).

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Teaching

See "Course books" for non-attending students

Course books

P. Brown, S. Levinson, Politeness. Some Universals in Language Usage, Cambridge University Press, 1987.

M.A.K. Halliday, R. Hasan, Cohesion in English, London/New York, Longman, 1976.

G.N. Leech, Principles of Pragmatics, London/New York, Longman, 1983.

S.P. Levinson, Pragmatics, Cambridge University Press, 1983.

Assessment

Written test: pragmatic analysis of a short dialogue/conversation. Use of monolingual dictionaries is allowed. The final assessment will be based not only on the validity of the analysis, but also on methodological relevance (references to the course books) and on the student's argumentative abilities in English. In practice, in their written tests, the students will have to demonstrate notions in the field of linguistic theory, to apply these notions to their analysis, to exercise their own judgement in their analytical choices, and to show a good command of written English (at the level required by the course).

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.