Language level: This course is designed for upper-intermediate learners, aligning with the CEFR B2 level.

Course Objectives

Listening Skills

By engaging with a variety of media such as podcasts, TED Talks, English films, YouTube channels, and audio recordings, students will improve their ability to comprehend different accents, speaking styles, and complex contexts, including subtle nuances and implied meanings. They will also learn to identify and interpret tone and pitch, and develop skills in note-taking and summarizing information.

Audio recordings, such as those from the British Council’s and NGL-Cengage’s Keynote audio zone, provide additional practice with transcripts and interactive exercises. These resources help students refine their listening skills and vocabulary, and in using collocations, idioms, and phrasal verbs effectively in context through engaging topics and diverse accents.

Develop Natural Communication Skills: Through immersion in authentic and challenging English materials, students will develop the ability to express themselves fluently, more naturally and confidently in English, adapting to different situations and audiences.

Grammar

The course aims to solidify students' understanding and application of a wide range of grammatical structures, enabling them to communicate effectively and accurately in both spoken and written English. This increased competence will enhance their confidence at the upper-intermediate level.

Key objectives include mastering important grammatical concepts for effective communication, such as narrative tenses (used to, would, past perfect, past continuous), future forms (will, going to, future continuous, future perfect), modal verbs (for permission, obligation, necessity, and speculation), conditionals (zero, first, second, third, and mixed), the passive voice, gerunds/infinitives, relative clauses, and adjectives/adverbs (comparatives, superlatives, adverbs of frequency and degree).

During the first and second semesters, our focus will be on listening and grammar.

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

Course books

Grammar

Text Book -  Prodromou, L. (2012) Grammar and Vocabulary for Cambridge First (with Key), Second Edition, Pearson Longman, England.  ISBN 978-1-4082–9059-0

Having your own copy of the book is essential for class participation, homework assignments, and independent study. It is important to thoroughly study all sections of the book, including both grammar and vocabulary sections.

Additional Materials

Throughout the year, the textbook will be complemented with additional advanced materials and links as needed. These resources will be provided in class and made available on the Moodle platform. To stay updated, students are expected to regularly visit the platform.

Listening

Throughout the year, the necessary listening materials and links will be provided in class and made available on the course page of the Moodle platform.