The course is aimed at consolidating students' knowledge of English grammar and their reading comprehension techniques, in order to help them get ready for Idoneità B2.

1) Revision of the main grammatical structures:

Past Simple vs Present Perfect Simple;

Past Tenses: Past Continuous, Past Perfect Simple and Continuous;

IF-clauses.

2) Practice for Reading Comprehension B2:

"Walking with Dinosaurs";

"The Robots Are Coming - or Are They ?";

"Endangered Languages";

"Our Vanishing Night";

"Is There a Psychologist in the Building ?".

3) Advice on how to synthesize and present a text to the oral exam.

None.

Knowledge and understanding: by the end of the course, students will have acquired sufficient knowledge of B2 English grammar and lexis and will be able to understand complex, contemporary texts, both on abstract and concrete topics, also in the domain of educational sciences.

Applying knowledge and understanding: by the end of the course, students will have acquired the ability to communicate relatively fluently and spontaneously in English.

Making judgements: by the end of the course, students will have acquired the ability to express their opinion on both current affairs and educational topics, by highlighting the different issues involved and arguing their stance in English.

Communication skills: by the end of the course, students will have acquired the ability to communicate with a sufficient degree of spontaneity and fluency to interact effectively both with native and non-native speakers.

Learning skills: by the end of the course, students will have acquired good awareness of their language competence, in addition to a sufficient ability to deepen and expand it.

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

A 23-hour, B1+ workshop will be available both to fourth and fifth year students. It will be led by Dr. Patricia Barzotti on Mondays, from 9.00 to 11.00, Palazzo Albani, room D2. Students are warmly invited to attend.

In addition to this, students are advised to get in touch with CLA (Centro Linguistico di Ateneo) to join their free, General English courses at all levels.

Teaching

Lessons will be partly traditional (lectures) and partly interactive. Multimedia tools will be used.

Attendance

Students' English will need to be around level B1+ CEFR or higher. Students are warmly invited to attend CLA free English courses, which are offered at all levels.

Students will need to study all the materials discussed in class, in addition to the listed grammatical topics, by making reference to the suggested grammar text and to the materials on blended.

Attendance to lectures is warmly encouraged.

Attendance to English labs is mandatory.

Course books

Angela Gallagher and Fausto Galuzzi, The Complete Mastering Grammar. La grammatica completa dal livello A1 al livello C1, Milano, Pearson, 2022.

Assessment

The exam (prova di idoneità) is composed of a written part and an oral part.

The written part includes a Reading Comprehension and some grammar and vocabulary exercises around B2 level. This part is supervised by Dr. Nadia Stevenson at Centro Linguistico di Ateneo (CLA). See the CLA webpage https://cla.uniurb.it/?page=Pil-DISTUMLM85bis-inb2 for the complete syllabus concerning the written exam and some examples of texts, in addition to all the information needed for the preparation and for the enrolment. 

Students can access the oral part only after passing the written test.

The oral part consists in the discussion (presentation plus comprehension, grammar and vocabulary questions) of one of the texts analyzed during the lessons. Assessment criteria for the oral part will be based on: a) ability to articulate and express a complex thought by making use of adequate language structures; b) adequacy of lexis and grammatical constructions to level B2; c) showing a degree of fluency which might be compatible with level B2.

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

Individual study.

Attendance

Students' English will need to be around level B1+ CEFR or higher. Students are warmly invited to attend CLA free English courses, which are offered at all levels.

Students will need to study all the materials discussed in class, in addition to the listed grammatical topics, by making reference to the suggested grammar text and to the materials on blended.

Attendance to lectures, whenever possible, is warmly encouraged.

Attendance to English labs is mandatory.

Course books

Angela Gallagher and Fausto Galuzzi, The Complete Mastering Grammar. La grammatica completa dal livello A1 al livello C1, Milano, Pearson, 2022.

In order to give non-attending students the possibility to compensate for the work carried out during the lessons with their own independent study, they are warmly recommended to look up all the materials published on the blended platform (slides, exercises, supplementary materials), which are particularly useful for a full understanding of the syllabus contents. In addition to this, they are also advised to look up monolingual dictionaries in English and thesauruses (Collins, Cambridge or Oxford). 

Assessment

The exam (prova di idoneità) is composed of a written part and an oral part.

The written part includes a Reading Comprehension and some grammar and vocabulary exercises around B2 level. This part is supervised by Dr. Nadia Stevenson at Centro Linguistico di Ateneo (CLA). See the CLA webpage  https://cla.uniurb.it/?page=Pil-DISTUMLM85bis-inb2 for the complete syllabus concerning the written exam and some examples of texts, in addition to all the information needed for the preparation and for the enrolment.  

Students can access the oral part only after passing the written test.

The oral part consists in the discussion (presentation plus comprehension, grammar and vocabulary questions) of one of the texts analyzed during the lessons. Assessment criteria for the oral part will be based on: a) ability to articulate and express a complex thought by making use of adequate language structures; b) adequacy of lexis and grammatical constructions to level B2; c) showing a degree of fluency which might be compatible with level B2.

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.

Attendance to this course does not in any way substitute the mandatory attendance to the English Labs offered for each year.

N.B.: The written part of the idoneità will be valid for a maximum of 4 sessions, including the session where it has been taken. For example: a written idoneità taken in the Winter Session 2023/24 will be valid until the Winter Session 2024/25 included.