English Language Laboratory

Letizia Cinganotto has a degree in Foreign Languages and Literatures and a PhD in Synchronic, Diachronic and Applied Linguistics, with a thesis on CLIL methodology. She has completed masters and advanced courses in foreign language teaching, Italian L2 and digital and multimedia teaching.

She is currently a researcher at INDIRE, Territorial Branch of Rom and her research areas concern English language and translation, English language teaching, CLIL methodology (Content and Language Integrated Learning), TELL (Technology Enhanced Language Learning) and digital teaching.

She participates in numerous working groups and technical-scientific committees at the Ministry of Education, the European Commission and the OECD.

She is a member of the consultancy team of the project ‘Pluriliteracies Teaching for Deeper Learning’ promoted by the European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe.

She has published articles, essays and digital educational content, as well as four volumes on CLIL methodology.

She has presented papers at national and international conferences in Italian and English.

The introductory part of the course will focus on teaching/learning English in the digital age, providing suggestions for digital tools and resources for self-learning, not neglecting contemporary varieties of English, with particular reference to EFL- English as a Lingua Franca.

In the second part of the course, particular attention will be paid to English language learning from a life-long learning perspective, also with the help of European platforms, such as EPALE.

The course is organised in 2 modules:

• Module 1 – Learning English in the digital era
  • Introduction to the course.
  • Language Learning in the European Agenda.
  • How to improve your English.
  • EFL, ELF, EMI, CLIL.

• Module 2 – Life-long learning English
  • Learning English as adults
  • Learning English through EPALE and other platforms.

TRAINING OBJECTIVES

The activities and contents proposed will be aimed at the development of language skills in an integrated way (Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking, Interaction, Mediation) based on level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001), as well as on the recent “Companion Volume to the CEFR” (2020), which revised and integrated the original version. Web 2.0 tools will be used, which are particularly effective for cooperative learning and the development of linguistic and communicative competences, promoting at the same time, also the development of digital skills. Particular attention will also be paid to translation, through the analysis of some specific webtools for computer-aided translation.

Within each module the following linguistic-communicative activities will be proposed:

• Reading Comprehension: reading passages, articles or digital texts, through activities and exercises of comprehension and inference guided by the lecturer;
• Listening comprehension: listening to texts and other authentic material through podcasts, videos and other online resources;
• Writing: activities on English vocabulary and phraseology; written production exercises; computer-aided translation exercises.
• Speaking/Interaction: dialogues, interviews in asynchronous mode through platform tools and Web 2.0 webtools, as well as in synchronous mode during webinars; voice recordings through specific tools.

EXPECTED RESULTS

A. Use of advanced textbooks, knowledge of some cutting edge topics
in the subject studied.
Students will be guided to the use of not only traditional bibliographic resources (paper) but – through a critical analysis of online resources – also digital ones.

B. Professional approach to their work and possession of appropriate skills to devise arguments, support them and solve problems within the subject studied. Ability to collect and interpret data useful for making independent judgments. Through the analysis of “case studies” and practical examples taken from everyday life, the socio-psycho-pedagogical mechanisms, at the basis of our critical thinking and which underlie the ways in which we can formulate judgements and opinions, will be highlighted. In addition to the tools for retrieving and evaluating data, some of the main “good practices” for the correct interpretation of the acquired data will be provided.

C. Ability to communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to specialists and non-specialists.
Students will be provided with useful indications and methodologies to organise a multimedia presentation and to know how to present it using vocabulary and communication methods appropriate to the target audience.

D. Ability to undertake further studies with a high degree of autonomy.
Students will be helped to organise their study in a fruitful way by means of tools and methods conducive to the ‘learning to learn’.

DIDACTICS PROVISION

• 4 recorded video lessons available on the platform;
• 2 synchronous meetings on the platform;
• Podcasts of all the above-mentioned video lessons.

INTERACTIVE DIDACTICS

• 1 course orientation forum;
• 2 thematic follow-up forums (1 per module);
• Possibility to carry out work in groups.
• 2 structured e-activities (as described in the section “in itinere assessment methods”).

SELF-LEARNING

Teaching materials are provided for each module: in-depth thematic studies, articles and slides by the lecturer, open access readings, online resources, reference bibliography, etc.

Pre-structured courseware on platform; Slides of video lessons and synchronous meetings;

Open source materials suggested on the platform during the course.

Access to the final examination is subject to the following 2 e-activities:

• Module 1 – e-tivity 1: Webtools for English.
• Module 2 – e-tivity 2: Webquest.

The assessment of learning will take the form of an oral interview on the course contents and on the final report submitted, if any. The grade (min 18, max 30 with possible honours) is determined by the level of performance for each of the following dimensions of the oral interview: mastery of contents, appropriateness of definitions and theoretical references, clarity of argument, command of specialist language.

Italian and English in translanguaging mode