UNICAL

Scuola di Specializzazione all’Insegnamento Secondario (V Ciclo)

A.A. 2004/2005

Lingue Straniere – Inglese (Classe 46/A)

 

Modulo: ABILITÀ ORALI E SCRITTE: Formazione, Sviluppo, Verifica

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

             

 

 

 

 

 

Prof. Pietro Gentile

                                                          Dott.ssa Giovanna Ausilio 

                                                                Matr.1636

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title of the module                                            

 

Addressees  2^nd year Liceo Linguistico

 

The modules of the whole year focus on The United Kingdom:

v    1^st module:  Grammar review  (10 hours)

v    2^nd module:  A trip across England and Wales (30 hours)

v    3^rd module:  Going around Scotland  (25 hours)

v    4^th module:  A look at Northern Ireland  (24 hours)

 

Module number   3^rd  

 

Language Level    B1

 

Hours  25

 

Themes of teaching units:

1.     Scotland through geography (ex. The Scottish Highlands) and economy (main cities: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee). (2 hours)

2.     The Scots through history and language (both presented from the point of view of the film Braveheart with Mel Gibson).  (5 hours)

3.     Scottish castles (such as Glamis Castle – Tayside, Balmora Castle – Grampian, Edinburgh Castle), music, celebrations, festivals.  (5 hours)

4.     Scottish traditions (ex. bagpipes, kilts, whisky), common proverbs (such as: “A deaf man will hear the clink o’ money”), folklore and folklife.  (4 hours)

5.     Eating in Scotland (searching some particular recipes on the Net). (2 hours)

6.     Hobbies and pastimes of Scottish teen-agers. (1 hour)

7.     The mystery of Loch Ness.  (2 hours)

8.     Revision – dedicated to assessment.  (4 hours)

 

 

 

PRE – REQUISITES:

Grammar: knowledge of the basic grammar structures necessary to introduce the new ones, including in particular the use of the present simple and the past tenses of regular and irregular verbs.

Vocabulary: vocabulary referred to places, people, habits, geography.

Functions: giving personal opinions about a simple text, expressing thoughts about abstract or cultural topics, commenting on a text about topics of interest, talking about past events, comparing different cultural contexts.

Communicative activities (Can do statements)

 

LISTENING

Ø     Can understand enough to be able to meet needs of a concrete type, provided speech is clearly and slowly articulated.

Ø     Can understand and extract the essential information from recorded passages dealing with predictable everyday matters which are delivered slowly and clearly.

Ø     Can generally identify the topic of discussion around him/her, when it is conducted slowly and clearly.

 

READING

Ø     Can understand short, simple texts containing the highest frequency vocabulary, including a proportion of shared international vocabulary items.

Ø     Can identify specific information in simple written material he/she encounters such as letters, brochures and short newspaper articles describing events and telling stories.

 

SPEAKING 

    (Spoken production)

Ø     Can give a simple description of places, people, living conditions.

Ø     Can tell a story or describe something in a simple list of points.

Ø     Can give short, basic descriptions of events and activities.

 

(Spoken Interaction)

Ø     Can interact with reasonable ease in structured situations and take part in short conversations about familiar topics, expressing personal opinions and exchanging information.

Ø     Can say what he/she likes and dislikes.

Ø     Can agree and disagree with others.

Ø     Can ask and answer questions about habits, events, past activities and personal experiences.

 

WRITING

Ø     Can write a series of simple phrases and sentences linked with simple connectors like “and”, “but” and “because”.

Ø     Can write about everyday aspects of his/her environment.

Ø     Can write short, basic descriptions of past and present events and stories.

 

AUDIO-VISUAL RECEPTION

Ø     Can catch the main points of films in which visuals and actions carry much of the storyline, and which are delivered clearly in straightforward language.

 

 

GENERAL AIMS:

o       To compare Scotland with the other countries of the U.K. in order to develop a more general and complete knowledge and awareness of the British world.

o       To find links with other subjects such as history, geography, art, etc.

o       Capability to work in group.

 

 

OBJECTIVES:

 

Grammar knowledge and use:

q       Review of prepositions of place, time and movement.

q       Consolidation of question words such as When?, How?, Why?

q       Comparatives and superlatives

q       To reinforce the use of regular and irregular past tenses

q       Linkers: but, however, or, therefore

q       To talk about past habits or states using “used to”

q       To use temporal connections

 

 

Vocabulary knowledge and use:

q       Words used in geographical descriptions

q       Improving vocabulary, with many references to expressions and slang terms commonly used by Scots and found in the film Braveheart.

q       Typical Scottish words related to their traditions and habits.

 

 

Functions:

q       Describing people, places and events

q       Making comparisons

q       Describing usual actions that happened in the past

q       Describing something that people (Scots) used to do in the past but no longer do.

 

 

Communicative Activities:

 

LISTENING

• Understanding factual information about common everyday topics, identifying both general message and specific details, provided speech is clearly articulated in a generally familiar accent.
• Understanding the main points of clear standard speech on familiar matters regularly encountered at school, leisure, etc., including short narratives.
• Understanding the main points of extended discussion around him/her, provided speech is clearly articulated in standard dialect.
• Understanding the information content of the majority of recorded or broadcast audio material delivered in clear standard speech.

 

READING

• Reading factual texts with a satisfactory level of comprehension.
• Scanning longer texts in order to locate desired information, and gather information from different parts of a text, or from different texts in order to fulfil a specific task.
• Finding and understanding general and relevant information in authentic material, such as letters, newspaper articles, web pages and short official documents.

 

SPEAKING

(Spoken production)

• Delivering a fluent description on one of the subjects within his/her field of interest.
• Relating the plot of a film and describing his/her reactions.
• Describing events, real or imagined.
• Narrating a story.
• Summarising and giving opinions about a short story, article, talk, discussion, film.

 

(Spoken interaction)

• Taking part in conversations on familiar routine and non-routine matters, expressing personal opinions and exchanging information.
• Expressing thoughts on abstract, cultural topics such as films, books, music.
• Comparing and contrasting alternatives, discussing what to do, where to go, who or which to choose, etc.
• Giving or seeking personal views, opinions, beliefs, agreement or disagreement in discussing topics of interest.

 

WRITING

• Writing clear texts on familiar subjects, by linking a series of shorter discrete elements into a linear sequence.
• Taking notes as a list of key points (listening to an interview on the audiocassette).
• Narrating a story by writing it.
• Writing a description of an event, a recent trip – real or imagined.

 

AUDIO-VISUAL RECEPTION

• Following films in which visuals and action carry much of the storyline.

 

 IDENTIFYING CUES AND INFERRING

(Spoken and written)

• Extrapolating the meaning of unknown or unfamiliar words from the context and deducing sentence meaning provided the topic discussed or written is familiar.

 

 

COMPETENCES INVOLVED:

General competences:

Declarative knowledge (savoir)

1.     Knowledge of the major geographical, historical, economic, social and linguistic aspects of Scotland.

2.     Knowledge of Scottish traditions, folklife and folklore (such as the legendary story about the Loch Ness monster).

3.     Knowledge of various aspects of everyday life in Scotland.

 

                   Intercultural skills and know-how (savoir-faire)

1.     The ability to bring the culture of origin and the foreign culture into relation with each other;

2.     Cultural sensitivity;

3.     The capacity to fulfil the role of cultural intermediator between one’s own culture and the foreign culture;

4.     The ability to overcome stereotyped relationships.

5.     Being aware of, and looking out for signs of, the most significant differences between the customs, usages, traditions, attitudes, values and beliefs prevalent in the community concerned (Scottish people) and those of his or her own.

 

Existential knowledge (savoir-être)

1.     Openness towards, and interest in, new experiences, other peoples, thoughts, ideas, societies, traditions and cultures.

2.     Working not only individually, but also in team (for ex. searching for something on the Internet, etc.).

 

Pragmatic competences:

     Functional competence

1.     Interacting on the topic expressing his/her opinion.

2.     Expressing notions and ideas comprehensibly, using a discrete range of simple language, both in oral and written form.

Discourse competence

1.     Relating fluently a straightforward narrative or description as a linear sequence of points.

2.     Linking separate elements into a connected, linear sequence of points.

 

 

 

 

Linguistic competences

1.     Communicating with reasonable accuracy and precision in familiar contexts.

2.     Expressing thoughts on abstract or cultural topics such as films and music with sufficient precision.

3.     Using a sufficient range (the domains, themes covered) of language to describe unpredictable situations.

 

Sociolinguistic competences

1.     Choosing the right language register in conversations, according to the context.

2.     Recognizing different accents and dialects and being able to understand different lexical expressions and words (ex. Scottish wee for ‘small’), differences in grammar and pronunciation (phonology).

 

 

TEXTS TO BE USED:

 

Spoken: Entertainment (the film Braveheart with Mel Gibson), inter-personal dialogues, conversations, recorded interviews.

 

Written: Articles from magazines and newspapers, extracts from books, textbooks, web pages, monolingual dictionary,  dictionary of synonyms.

 

 

TASKS TO BE PERFORMED:

 

Key-word searching in written texts; skimming and scanning activities (in both listening and reading), comprehension questions in written and oral texts; sharing information in the class preparing and producing a debate on Scotland; summarizing and giving opinion about: the film Braveheart, some extracts from books and articles from newspapers and magazines; looking up unknown (above all Scottish) words in a monolingual dictionary and a dictionary of synonyms; doing research on some topics of the module on the Internet in L2; taking notes as a list of key points while listening to some short interviews about life in Scotland on audiocassette, creative writing on an imagined trip to Scotland; taking part in a role play in which SS are asked to simulate a conversation among friends who have just seen the film Braveheart at the cinema.

 

 

 

 

STRATEGIES INVOLVED:

 

Reception strategies: Identifying cues; inferring information. 

 

Production strategies: Building on previous knowledge; self-correction.

 

Interaction Strategies: Co-operating (interpersonal); Asking for clarification.

 

 

 

 

AIDS:

Magazines, newspapers, books, textbooks, monolingual dictionary, dictionary of synonyms, handouts, audio- and video-cassettes, tape recorder, video recorder, computer (for Internet sites). 

 

 

 

 

ASSESSMENT TOOLS:

 

Written:

Structured tests (objective): multiple choice {ex. ~ In Scotland lakes are called: a)firths, b)lochs, c)loughs}; true or false {ex. ~ The inhabitants of Scotland are called Scottish (t/f)}, gap-filling {ex. The patron saint of Scotland is ______. The students have to choose among: St. George, St. David and St. Andrew}.

Non-structured activity (subjective): Free writing (Writing an appealing article for the school’s magazine in order to convince the schoolmates to visit Scotland).                      

 

Oral:

Participating in a class debate on the most relevant and interesting aspects which characterize Scotland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:

For structured tests: right or wrong answers.

For non structured tests:      

 

 

  WRITTEN:

1.     Content

2.     Grammatical correctness

3.     Lexis

4.     Coherence and cohesion

5.     Spelling and punctuation

  

 

 ORAL:

    1.   Content

    2.   Communication

    3.   Grammatical correctness

    4.   Lexis

    5.   Pronunciation                     

 

 

 

 

 

 

CRITERIA FOR CREDIT GRANTING

Students will be assessed through 2 grids, one for the oral production and another for the written:

 

                    

 

                               

 

Minimum mark  5  =  narrow pass

Minimum mark  6  =  pass

Minimum mark  8 - 9 =  pass with merit

Minimum mark 10 =   pass with distinction                                                  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ORAL WORK

CONTENT	0-2
Absent	0
Incomplete/Insufficient	0.50
Sufficient	1
Almost complete	1.50
Complete and articulated	2
COMMUNICATION	0-2
No interaction	0
Insufficient interaction	0.50
Interaction on a very simple level	1
Interaction on a more complex level	1.50
Proficient	2
GRAMMATICAL CORRECTNESS	0-2
Too many mistakes: the message does not get through	0
Many mistakes, but the message gets through	0.50
Some mistakes	1
Very few mistakes	1.50
Accurate	2
LEXIS	0-2
Completely inadequate	0
Too much simple and with many mistakes	0,50
Simple, with some mistakes	1
Simple, but correct	1.50
Accurate. Use of specific words	2
PRONUNCIATION	0-2
Incorrect: prevents understanding	0
Insufficiently clear, but does not prevent understanding	0.50
Sufficiently clear	1
Almost clear	1,50
Accurate	2

 

   Tot. ....../10

 

 

 

WRITTEN WORK

 

CONTENT	0-2
Absent	0
Incomplete/Insufficient	0.50
Sufficient	1
Almost complete	1.50
Complete and articulated	2
GRAMMATICAL CORRECTNESS	0-2
Too many mistakes: the message does not get through	0
Many mistakes, but the message gets through	0.50
Some mistakes	1
Very few mistakes	1.50
Accurate	2
LEXIS	0-2
Completely inadequate	0
Too much simple and with many mistakes	0.50
Simple, with some mistakes	1
Simple, but correct	1.50
Accurate. Use of specific words	2
COHERENCE AND COHESION	0-2
Illogical and incomplete sentences	0
Separate sentences. No use of linkers	0.50
Some logical sequence and use of linkers	1
Acceptable sequentiality and use of linkers	1.50
Perfectly coherent and cohesive	2
SPELLING AND PUNCTUATION	0-2
Incorrect: prevent understanding	0
Insufficiently clear, but do not prevent understanding	0.50
Sufficiently clear	1
Almost clear	1.50
Accurate	2

                                                                                Tot. ....../10

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                          

REMEDIAL WORK:

 

It must be defined according to the outcomes after assessment (formative and summative).

It may include: gap filling, multiple choice questions, scrambled order exercices, questionnaires, etc.

 

 

 

 

LINKS TO OTHER SUBJECTS

This module  could be connected with the following subjects:

v    Geography

v    History

v    Economics

v    Religion

v    Music

v    Art