English
Level A2+ (CEFRL).
At the beginning of the course, a mandatory placement test will be administered, in order to assess the students' initial level. Those who score low will have to attend a computer-based additional course (consisting of reading, listening and writing exercises), at the end of which they will take a further test. If the student reaches the desired level, they will have access to the oral exam.
During the oral exam, the students will present a project, demonstrating the acquisition of grammatical, lexical and communicative skills.
The course aims to improve the practical skills of communicating in English (level B2 – Upper intermediate in the evaluation grid of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages - CEFRL).
The lessons are designed to help the students develop a greater command of the English language (both in terms of grammar and vocabulary), as well as acquire a wide range of communication skills useful in the workplace. In particular, through the use of role-play, the students will learn how to deal with job interviews, presentations, meetings, etc. At the end of the course, they are expected to have acquired the main morpho-syntactic structures of the language, to read and understand specialized texts, to be able to understand speakers of English as a first or second language, to recognize and use the vocabulary of IT, and to know how to interact in standard business contexts.
Course syllabus
The course consists of two modules:
A) Upper Intermediate language practice
In this module, upper-intermediate lexical and grammar skills will be developed, concentrating in particular on speaking and listening comprehension. The students will be introduced with the following topics:
Time and Tense
- The simple present
- The present continuous
- The past simple
- The past continuous
- Used to and would
- The present perfect simple
- The present perfect continuous
- The past perfect
- Going to and will
- Present tenses for talking about the future
Verb forms
- Verbs followed by the infinitive or the –ing form
- First, second and zero conditional sentences
- The third conditional, wishes and regrets
- The passive
- Get/have something done
Naming and describing
- Articles
- Personal, possessive, reflexive and demonstrative pronouns
- Countable and uncountable nouns and expressions of quantity
B) Using the language of Information Technology
In this module, through role-play activities, the students will acquire the specialised language of IT and will use for presentations, meetings, interviews, etc.
Mandatory books:
Hashemi L. and Thomas B. 2013. Grammar for First Certificate, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, second edition.
Additional materials (i.e. slides, notes, etc.) will be available online on the Moodle platform (Lingua Inglese > Berti: http://elearning3.uninsubria.it/)
The lecturer will present the above-mentioned topics to the students and will require an active participation through listening and reading activities as well as through exercises.