I    First Year English  for English minors (A-Z)
Prima annualità per gli studenti di inglese seconda lingua, cognomi A-Z

    Modules:  I. “Seeing and saying things in English” tural encounters”
   Modules:  II. “The use of local Englishes in multicultural encounters”

Regulations, credits - Regolamenti, CFU> 
Assessment - Esame: contenuti e date> 
Roll - Registro iscrizioni-presenze-voti> 
Office hours - Ore di ricevimento> 

 <Programma e testi - Syllabus, set texts
  <Sunto lezioni - Recap of lessons
 <Attività di ricerca - Research tasks
 <Notizie, avvisi - News, Messages

 Mondays 3 – 4:30pm  and  Fridays 3 – 5 pm, Room A 
 Lunedì, ore 15-16.30 e venerdì, ore 15-17, aula  A 

SYLLABUS,  SET TEXTS,  HANDOUTS 
 

Syllabus 

 
“Seeing and saying things in English”  -  “The use of local Englishes in multicultural encounters”

     In these Modules we will examine what language is "beyond words and syntax" -- a move toward a linguistics of parole alongside the traditional Saussurian linguistics of langue.  Then, on the basis of our wider definition of language, we will attempt a cultural description of "English" -- or rather, Englishes, as they exist in today's globalized yet fragmented world.

In Module I (for both OCI and LL students) we will examine language as a “will to mean” and thus a particular existential state. We will then describe the multiple varieties of English – in our globalized yet fragmented world – as a family of such states.

In Module II (for OCI students only) we will learn to use a local English in encounters with culturally diverse native speakers of that variety, as a practical application of Module 1.

Meanwhile, in your Lettori courses you will be acquiring formal competence in contemporary R.P. English – at level B1 or higher – through class and lab work.

The organizational aspects of the module -- requirements and credits, evaluation 
   criteria and so on – are indicated in the main menu.   The Reading List follows.   
 

 Set texts
("programma")

 
For Module I  (OCI + LL students; 3 credits)

a. Book: D. Crystal.1997. English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.   Available at university book stores. Note: Attenders read chapters 2 and 5; non attenders read all chapters (1 to 5).
 
b. Monograph: P. Boylan. "Understanding others". SIETAR Deutschland Journal 10:1 (April, 2004), pp. 28-32. 
To read the text click here>    To download the text click here> . 
Note: For both attenders and non attenders.    Only the downloaded version is divided into sections for group work.
 
c. Avviso sull'esame  Attention: The exam will contain questions on this text!
To read the text click here>    To download the text click here> . 
Note: Although aimed at non-attenders, the text constitutes exam material for all students since it analyzes what it means to "know" English in the context of the exams for this Course.  (International students: read the English version; Italian students: read the Italian version as it discusses your particular situation in more detail).
 
 

     
 
For Module II  (only OCI students; 2 credits)
 
a. Book: P. Kistler & S. Konivuori (eds.), 2003, From International Exchanges to Intercultural Communication, Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä.   Thanks to permission granted by the authors, photocopies of the book may be had at Pronto Stampa, via Ostienese 461. Note: Attenders read chapters 2, 5,9: non attenders read entire book (chapters 1 to 10).
 
 
b. Monograph: “P. Boylan, 'Seeing and Saying Things in English', IV annual IALIC conference, Lancaster University, 16.12.2003.” To read the text click here>    To download the text click here> . 
Note: For both attenders and non attenders.   
 
 
c. Avviso sull'esame  Attention: The exam will contain questions on this text!
To read the text click here>    To download the text click here> . 
Note: Although aimed at non-attenders, the text constitutes exam material for all students since it analyzes what it means to "know" English in the context of the exams for this Course.  (International students: read the English version; Italian students: read the Italian version as it discusses your particular situation in more detail).

     
    NOTE for STUDENTS FROM LETTERE AND OTHER DEGREE COURSES    
Students from the corso di laurea in Lettere (and other degree courses) who need 4 credits are to study both books (Crystal and Kistler & Konivuori) and, among the monographs, "Understanding others".  In addition, they are responsible for reading and assimilating the Avviso sull'esame above (the Italian version): there will, in fact, be several questions on the Avviso during the exam.

 

 Handouts 
 
("Dispense per i soli frequentanti -- i non frequentanti NON devono leggere questi testi.")

<cliccare                     "Learning language as culture" (in italiano)
 
Documento storico di 20 anni fa: è il Manifesto (la prima dichiarazione di principio scritto in lingua italiana) di una nuova concezione di apprendimento delle lingue vive, basata sull'introiezione culturale.
La pagina riprodotta è la Postfazione al volume Accenti sull'America di Patrick Boylan, Roma: Armando Curcio Editore, 1987, p. 387. In glottodidattica, "Learning language as culture" viene chiamato anche "l'approccio comunicativo-culturale".

 
Linda Beamer – Cultural Parameters Illustrated: How to predict communication friction. Warning: To see this text, your computer must have a PowerPoint Viewer (most do).  You can get one free at www.microsoft.com  (enter “PowerPoint viewer” in the search box or, for a direct link, click here).

 
Common European Framework of Reference (CEF)
You'll hear teachers at Roma Tre (and elsewhere) speak of the Common European Framework (CEF) levels of competence in a second language. For example, our university entry test is targeted for Level B1 in reading ability and A2 in speaking ability. What does this mean? Click the orange dot if you want to know more about the system (which many people criticize as simplistic, so it will probably undergo change in the near future).
 

Learn English on the Internet... FREE (no fees to teachers or schools!)
Clicking on the orange dot will open a page full of Internet sites where you can practice and extend your English. But you have to know how to distinguish what sites are most useful to you. This means asking yourself (1.) what learning English really means and thus (2.) what kinds of competence you need to acquire and only then (3.) what exercises are best for you.

Return to Menu 

LESSONS  FIRST MODULE

 Please form groups of 6-8 students and
sit together in one of the colored areas below:

                                         Room A

 
           Seating Arrangement of groups
 
Groups consist of 6/8 students, 3 (or 4) in front and as many behind, like this:
              
This arrangement allows everyone to participate in the group discussions.
 

     
AFTER EACH LESSON, SEE HERE FOR THE SLIDES/NOTES USED.
 

 Overall purpose of course: see handout Learning language as culture

27.2 

 Pre-Lesson. Course regulations, didactic proposal.  What learning English means.  How this influences behavior in class and the focus of study (intentionality more than words).  Difference between “language” and “words” is like the difference between “music” and “notes”, or “culture” and traditions-expressions-artistic heritage (the second elements are only a repertory of realizations). 

Example of a “language” difference between English and Italian:
-- the explicit/popularizing vocation of English administrative texts,
-- the non-explicit and coded character of Italian administrative texts.

Next lesson: Friday – course content (second and last pre-lesson entirely in Italian)
Group formation and research tasks. Texts for the exam and how to read them.
 
Schedule: To accommodate prof. Bonola, lessons on MONDAY will be from 3 to 4:30.
On Friday the schedule remains from 3 to 5 (but one group, the students of Arab with two other students, will leave at 4:30).
 
Your Student Representatives' site is: 
 http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/rappresentanti_lci/  
 
 

 3.3.

 
 Culture = a “will to be”, i. e. a voler essere in a certain way. For example, a “romano de Roma” has a “will to be” in a certain characteristic way and you can hear it in his language and expressive habits. In the English-speaking world, the same is true for a Black American from Harlem, an East-End Londoner, or a New Zealand professor trying to be an English gentleman, as we saw in the film (he was a mixture of New Zealander culture and pronunciation, with academic culture and a professorial way of enunciating and, at moments, English upper class culture and R.P. pronunciation...). Each “will to be” produces a particular vision of the world (in German, Weltanschauung) which then conditions what is subsequently viewed (it forms a “Gestalt” or “form” which we tend subsequently to impose on what we see, until we accept to change it). And, as just indicated, it is associated with a characteristic way of expressing oneself.

Language = a “will to mean” (un voler dire) in a communicative situation, that is an emanation of one's “will to be”. It includes all behavior: speech which is verbal behavior, gestures, facial and bodily expression, management of space and time.... The sedimentation (in the mind) of multiple communicative acts produces a disposition to communicate in the future in a similar way. We call the verbal part of that overall behavior this or that “language” (using the term “language” restrictively). In other words, the sedimentation of speech acts over time produces a specific historical “language” -- Italian, English, Chinese, Hindi (again, we are using the term “language” very restrictively here).  In other words, we develop a verbal language and expressive habits that qualify us (to our interlocutors) as, for example, a Romano de Roma speaking a typical variety of Italian and using typical expressive habits sedimented over the centuries but that many Italians still consider as disreputable, or as a Black speaking a characteristic vernacular that is an integral part of the family of Englishes but that many white Americans consider disreputable, or as an Eastender speaking another historically-marked variety of English that has spread from London to Australia and elsewhere but that many Brits consider disreputable, or as a cultivated New Zealander (as in the case of the professor in the film clip we saw...) attempting to be an R.P. speaker of English and thus a proper English gentleman, not entirely successfully.

In philosophical (Aristotelean) terms, we can therefore speak of language as the essence of a communicative act.  That essence becomes being through the actualization of the various behavioral repertories at our disposition (facial language, gestural language, verbal language, etc.).  In other words, we use these repertories to give form to some kind of material (sound waves, body positions...) and thus to create the substance we call “utterance” (enunciato) which makes our communicative intent perceptible.  But, properly speaking, language is not that substance (neither the material sound waves nor the lexicosyntactic forms, which grammarians love to study): it is the underlying essence.  That essence is the particular communicative intent erupting in a particular communicative event (Saussurian parole, although Saussure was speaking only of the verbal repertory used) as well as the sedimentation over time of the characteristic features of those modulations of intent producing a disposition to express oneself in a consistent way – this is what Saussure calls langue (although he was speaking only of the verbal repertory used, which is the “outside”, not of what makes the verbal material take the particular form it takes, which is the essence of language).

Learning English therefore means more than learning words (or even words and “gestures”). It also means learning the “will to be” that produces the characteristic “will to mean” that native speakers of English manifest (with with idiosyncratic and cultural attributes that mark them as African Americans, Eastenders, Kiwis...). 

This means that in an English class in an Italian University where students learn to express themselves in English, the overall behavior should also be different from what those same Italian students would produce in one of their other courses (philology, Italian literature..). These differences include the gestures and facial expressions, the way themes are discussed, the way of interrupting (or not interrupting), the way of joking, the attitude towards “talking during the lesson” or “cheating on exams”, etc.

Practical issues
Group formation is now definitive. Group leader for next week = L1 (not L2 as mistakenly indicated on the handout). Explanation of web site www.boylan.it – please read it thoroughly. The page TEACHING contains much useful information for you as students at Roma Tre. The page FIRST YEAR ENGLISH contains important information about REGULATIONS, the course SYLLABUS, ASSESSMENT, etc. Please read the entire page and all links.
 

 6-3

 
What it means to “know” (i. e., to “know” what another person means when speaking to us in English).
 
What it means to “study” English in a language course.  An example of behavior of some American students (from El Cerrito, California) as they try to “construct” what they will consider to be “knowledge”.
 
Class organization.
 

 10-3

 
Question basic concepts

communication = establishing a relationship language = one's will to mean (<one's will to be)
 
a language = behavioral matrix (sedimentation)
 
English = a Métis family of idioms (divergent wills to mean)
 
knowledge = a volitive state (cognitive post hoc)
 
to learn = acquire such a state to teach = get out of the way and let students learn
 
(Concepts explained in the articles on www.boylan.it > research.)
 
Scenes from the film Secrets and Lies by Mike Leigh ,Channel Four Films, London, 1996> 
Homework: Choose an English speaking double (some English speaking person you would like to be for a day, i. e, the person would like to be if you were born in that country. Begin to document how that person speaks and how that person thinks (feels, wants...).

 13-3

  Test on notions covered last time. Result: almost everyone defines things as I do.
Is this a class or a religious sect?
We'll have to do better in the future.
Explanation of the concepts English / Englishes.
Englishes of the world.
Explanation of cultural IdentiKit project.
Homework for next time: select a native speaker of any English of the world whom you would like to be for a day (or more!).
 

 17-3

 
No mobile microphone today!  So a traditional lesson. All in Italian. With people talking all the time. So most people heard only half of what I said. It cannot continue like this, unless you want a traditional class.  I'm putting the essential here:

Take responsibility for your own learning.

Activity 1 is due on March 24^th. You will do it between March 21^st and March 24^th at 3 pm. It is explained here>
Activity 2 is due on April 10^th. You will do it on March 30^th at Trinity College (Avventino) and then in the following days.
 

 20-3

                    The 4-step Repair Routine (How to ask for a clarification):> 
The rationale:
  - Pinpoint what you don't know so that your interlocutor does not rephrase everything. 
  - The best way of pinpointing: repeating what you do understand and adding a question word
  - Example: “You said you want to take a trip ... when?”
  - As a double check, verify by repeating what you heard again: “Did you say 'next June'?
 
 
Start documenting yourself on your future interlocutors on March 30th, 8:15 pm (and 8:15 means 8:15) at Trinity College, via Clivio dei Publici, 2 -- 00153 Rome.
For example, you an check out these web sites:
an Encyclopedia Britannica article
the Trinity home page (U.S. campus): check out the student newspaper!
from the Trinity Rome campus site
Then compare what you learn by visiting other American university sites and looking for a web copy their Student Newspaper.
 

 24.3

Thanks, Roberta and Claudio
 Roberta and Claudio discussed their dissertation (tesi di laurea) and what it means to produce a “scientific study”.  Claudio talked about the “biases” any such study inevitably has.  Roberta talked about the inevitable subjectivity in framing any inquiry, which characterizes quantitative as well as qualitative research.

Discussion with Trinity College students.
 In your discussion on the American and Italian conception of honesty, you can use the chart I discussed last Monday  (click here>   )  as the basis for your questions:

Comment on the Identi-kits received so far.

The difficulty to identify cultural values. Claudia's Filipino double (click to hear> )
 
CLAUDIA: OK, I would like to document your way of seeing things and saying things through your cultural values ... because I think (your) cultural values give shape to what you say.

So, what are the most important cultural values that you have?

DOUBLE:    As for my cultural values, I would say that, first of all from ... uhhh... the fact that I have a ... uhhh... a ↑Catholic education::: the first thing is, you know, to... uhhh... to respect people ... uhhh... the elderly, in particularly... and children ...and honesty... and the family, for me the family is the most important thing in life↓ ... ↓my children, my husband, my mother ... uhhh... and then... that's it, I guess.

CLAUDIA: OK, thank you.

Question: Did Claudia get her Double to define her cultural values? In my opinion, not much. Because a traditional Italian, American or Danish speaker would say that “the family is the most important thing in life”.  But what does it mean for a Filipino, for an Italian, for an American, for a Dane... to make the family the most important thing in life? In practice it means very different things. Claudia did not get her Double to specify what her words mean.

However Claudia did discover something about Filipino culture: it is matrilinear (at least, traditionally). In fact, the Double defined the family as “children, husband and mother”. And it is Catholic, but in a strangely self-conscious way for this speaker (who hesitated before saying “Catholic” and then said the word with a high pitch, indicated by the arrow ↑).  Finally we learn that “respecting people” means first of all the elderly: this is not so true in Italy and certainly not in America.   Why “respecting the elderly” is “Catholic” is not clear and probably indicates a Filipino value.
 

 27-3

     
Example of a good Identi-kit >
Example of a poor Identi-kit >

How to use Wikipedia to document your double's Engish
http://en.wikipedia.com for the main version of the encyclopedia,
http://simple.wikipedia.com for the version in simplified English (what's simplified English?> )
http://it.wikipedia.com for the version in Italian.


Trinity college Tursday evening, 8:15!

31-3 

 
For those who did not go last night, before the lesson (at 2 pm) interview of the Trinity Students who are coming to see the brief sketches that Third Year Students will be presenting. After the schetches form little groups, ENTER INTO THE MENTALITY AND SPEECH PATTERNS OF YOUR DOUBLE, and do your interview about Honesty in the U.S. and Italy while you verify if YOU FEEL DIFFERENT and if your INTERLOCUTOR REACTS DIFFERENTLY when you switch between scholastic English and your double's English.
 

Why a language needs to be learned as a will to mean expressing a will to be

3 functions of language (Karl Bühler, Sprachtheorie. Jena: Verlag von Gustav Fischer, 1934):
-- representing (action on the mind),
-- “striking” (action on the affects),
-- “summoning” (action on the will).

In the version we are using in this course:

1. language as representation: you use language to represent something (to yourself, to others) such as an idea, the description of a feeling, etc.
  and you study this function of language in your linguistics courses. These courses ask: “What are the formal constructions of series of sounds and graphemes that produce meaning?”;
 
2. language as action: you use language to do something
  and you study this function of language in your sociolinguistics courses. These courses ask: “What are the 'rules of use without which the rules of grammar are useless'?” – Dell Hymes, “On communicative competence” in J. Pride & J. Holmes (Eds.), Sociolinguistics. Penguin, 1972 (orig 1971), p.278
  
3. language as a will to mean, stemming from a will to be: you use language to BE something
  and you study this function of language in courses on Intercultural Communication. (At Roma Tre, this present English course is the only course on Intercultural Communication that you will receive.) For a definition of Intercultural Communication studies click here:

03-4

Task 2 for Friday, April 7^th -- Write a report on your interview, transcribing (IF YOU HAVE RECORDED YOUR VOICE AND YOUR INTERLOCUTOR'S VOICE);
--a short exchange (approximately 4 utterances) while you were your double.
--a short exchange (approximately 4 utterances) while you were yourself;
and then describing the differences (if any) in your English in each case; plus the differences in the reaction of your double to your English in each case.

IF YOU DON'T HAVE A RECORDING OF BOTH “WAYS OF SEEING AND SAYING THINGS”, you must do the task in a different way. See “Task 3” under RESEARCH TASKS in the main menu.
 

 10-4

  The Trinity students' opinion about “behavior” in the American classroom:
 Here are four excerpts (click on each title) from a typical interview on:

Coming late to lessons  Chatting during lessons  Cheating on exams  Copying homework

Students' IDENTI.KITS on line > 

 LESSONS  SECOND MODULE 

5-5

 
Patrick Boylan. “Seeing and Saying Things in English” (IV annual IALIC conference, Lancaster University, 16.12.2003). To read the text click here> 
 
Discussion on the pedagogical and philosophical premises.
(The eidetic technique of "variation in imagination.")
 
Prepare for a simulated exam on the pedagogical and philosophical premises.
 

8-5

Preparation for the final exam: practice writing quick answers to the following 3 questions:

1.QUESTION ON THE PEDAGOGICAL PREMISES

How can the student, as a bricoleur, produce knowledge that is comparable to the knowledge of an expert (a professor of the discipline)?

BECAUSE THE PROFESSOR IS A BRICOLEUR, TOO.

(All knowledge is a social construction.)

YOUR OTHER ANSWERS ARE ALSO GOOD. FOR EXAMPLE:

"Like a professor or researcher, the student must freely construct his knowledge. If the student is not free, he will not acquire knowledge, but only memorized notions."

2.QUESTION ON THE Philosophical PREMISES

What must I do to be able to say:

"I know what I am, really."

"I know what the person I love is, really."

"I know what the English word pub really means."

"I know what my English interlocutor means

when she or he says 'I like a good pub!'"

 Your answer? (Discussion)

My answer: We must grasp the (conceptual) essence behind the (empirical) appearances, and then the (volitional) being behind that essence.

Empirical - verb forms, speech acts in “practical” language lessons.
(language schools, lettori)
 
Conceptual - the understanding of verb forms, speech acts (etc.) as
-- general categories (university linguistics courses)
-- unique instances (only university literature courses)
 
Volitional - the grasping of a unique, historical “will to mean” in the verb form, speech act, etc.    (This course, and... ??? )

Given the scarce utility of lessons based on “clearly explaining” the text.

Let's learn to read the next section (“Linguistic premises”) using various study strategies.

HOW TO STUDY THE SECTION:
 
3.LINGUISTIC PREMISES

Ask two fundamental questions:

(a.) What does the author want me to believe?

This is NOT the same as asking “What do the words mean?”. Instead of looking for meaning, we look for INTENT and the, within the framework of hypothesised intent, look for meaning in the words.

(b.) How does he make this believable?

AFFIRMATION 1. "The linguistic justification of the activities described in this paper requires another recasting -- that of the term 'language'."

 
 
(a.) What does the author want me to believe?   The term "language" must be "recast".
 
(b.) How does he make this believable?   He doesn't. So this will be the meaning of what follows.
 

 
AFFIRMATION 2. “To facilitate comprehension, a parallel may be made with the redefinition of the term 'culture' proposed a half century ago by cultural anthropologists and now widely accepted:
 
'culture'is the collective mind set (the 'will to be') that produces a community's habits, ideologies and artefacts (tools, institutions, works of art...).
 
Thus, habits, ideologies and artefacts do not constitute 'culture'; they are the products of a culture.”
 

(a.) What does the author want me to believe?
“Language” needs the same kind of redefinition as the term “culture”.
 
(b.) How does he make this believable?
Anthropologists have shown the usefulness of their redefinition of “culture”.

AFFIRMATION 3. “Similarly, it may be claimed (Boylan 2002, building on Saussure, 1969 [1916], Vygotsky, 1962 [1956]; Gadamer, 1975 [1960]: Piaget, 1968; Halliday 1975 and 1978) that the concept of 'language'-- and thus the concept of 'English' or 'Arabic' as 'languages' -- ought not to apply to verbal artefacts (e.g., phonemic realisations, [associated] semantic fields and grammatico-pragmatic constraints, texts, metatexts...), but rather to the 'will to mean' that produced these phenomena in particular speech communities.”

(a.) What does the author want me to believe?
“Language” is not a series of objects, but a will to use those objects in a particular way.
 
(b.) How does he make this believable?
1. By the analogy with culture (“similarly”)...
2. and by the various “experts” cited.

AFFIRMATION 4. “This 'will to mean' is more than the 'essence' of language; it is its very being.”

 
(a.) What does the author want me to believe?
Language forms are the essence of language; but they are not the being of language. The being is a configuration of the will.
 
(b.) How does he make this believable?
He doesn't. So this will be the meaning of what follows.)
 
 
 
ANOTHER WAY OF EXLAINING THE IDEAS ABOVE...
                     Martina: "...capisci, Mamma, voglio essere.
                     E essere non vuol dire soltanto analizzare;
                     vuol dire fare."

 
Listen to a short passage from the English course Accent on America by Patrick Boylan (Curcio Editore, 1987).
 
Instead of explaining the “philosophy” of the course in pedagogical, philosophical and linguistic terms, the author presents the same ideas given above in the form of a dramatization.
 
You will hear a telephone conversation between Martina (an Italian student who has gone to study English in California) and her Mother back in Rome.    Martina has explained to her mother that her teacher, Dave, is using a book called Accent on America that teaches English by teaching students to internalize role models.

For her first lesson Martina is learning the role of the protagonist in “The Spider Woman”.  Her mother is not happy with the method, the role, the teacher, or even Martina's idea of studying English in America.  Martina tries to convince her and, in doing so, to convince those students, using the course, who may have the same reserves as Martina's mother. 

To listen to the last part of the conversation click here>  

AFFIRMATION 5. “It is the culturally-connoted expressive intent that, irrupting in a communicative event, proclaims a historically constituted 'will to be' (culture).
 
It is itself collectively constituted over time through the repeated attempts of the members of a community to manifest their wills within the constraints of memory, processibility and commonly shared resources. Resourcescan include any repertory of material artefacts and their associated significations, albeit with different overtones according to the repertory used: verbal artefacts (spoken words, written words, Braille words...), gestures, paralinguistic utterances, scientific notation, graphic emblems, facial expressions, ceremonial protocols, etc.”
 
(a.) What does the author want me to believe?
 
(b.) How does he make this believable?
 

 
AFFIRMATION 6. “Indeed, the concept of 'language' as something divorced from specific repertories of material artefacts and their associated significations is recognized in everyday talk by expressions like: 'We may not use the same words or concepts, but we sure speak the same language'.”
 
(a.) What does the author want me to believe?
 
(b.) How does he make this believable?

Prepare for a simulated exam on the pedagogical and philosophical premises.
Homework: read the Linguistic premises.

12-5

ANOTHER QUIZ

1. What authorizes me to make the affirmations below?
 
     "I know what I am, really."

     "I know what the person I love is, really."

     "I know what the English word pub really means."

     "I know what my English interlocutor means
      when she or he says 'I like a good pub!'"

 Your answer?
 
My answer: We must grasp the (conceptual) essence behind the (empirical) appearances, and then the (volitional) being behind that essence.

2. What does the schema below tell us about
a.) what it means to understand English;
b.) how we should study English?

You can study communication phenomena on 3 levels:
 
Empirical - verb forms, speech acts in “ordinary conversation”;
 
Conceptual - the understanding of verb forms, speech acts (etc.) as
      -- general categories or
      -- unique instances of the general categories;
 
Volitional - the grasping of a unique, historical, alogical “will to mean” in the verb form, speech act, etc.   

(a.) Empirical and conceptual understanding must be founded on volition (you have to “feel” a word to understand a word);

(b.) Language learning should start from doing and feeling things, then analyze this, and finally formulate rules.

3. Listen to the conversation between Martina and her mother and note down the epistemological explanations that Martina tries to give her mother in “ordinary language.”

>  

15.5

Click> to see an example of a successful interview using a QUANTITATIVE method (a questionnaire for numerical processing):
NOTE: The video is of two Dutch university students of English who stop and interview an Englishman on a sidewalk in Amsterdam.

(The video is part of the work-in-progress materials for the E.U. PICTURE project.)
for use in the classroom :   questionnaire   video_clip
 
Discussion of activities described in “Seeing and saying things in English” and choice of activity to do.

22.5

26.5

Difference between the Interview Project (in the previous lesson's video) and the 10 activities listed in “Seeing and saying things.”

Internalization of language as a volitional matrix but
- NOT imitation of a native speaker of English,
- NOT becoming someone else

The volitional matrix is a composite of latent volitional states.
Cf: in phonology the capability of children, when born, to imitate all sounds, ability which progressively undergoes atrophy when producing the sounds of the surrounding language community is constantly reinforced.

Discussion of projects to present.
 
 

29.5

 
An example of a pastiche (Alessandra Mollica's activity 4) Click>

The volitional nature of knowledge.

The state of eiditic reduction in a poem by a RomaTre graduate:

Losing my mother tongue | Cecilia Costantini
------------------------------------------------------------
Words slip away,
they escape through the gaps of my nomad life.
When I left
I did NOT know
I was going to lose with my fatherland my mother tongue.
There was NO war
and there was NO reason
but words just drifted away, unheard
grew silent day after day
and got replaced by something similar
not quite the same.
And so I lost the old me
but I still have not found
a new one to take the place of what is gone.
And I will be unfillable emptiness
not quite defined.
And when my mother talks to me
I will look at her WORDLESS.

Guest presentation: Sandra Gianesini – intercultural adaptation of European advertising to the Chinese media.
 
Bye-bye Party  (if YOU make it happen)
 

FOR YOUR MODULE TWO ACTIVITY, SEE “Module II, Task 1” BELOW IN THE TASK SECTION.

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Task 0:
Due date: Monday, March 13^th (extended to Monday, March 20^th)
Create the cultural Identi-kit of an English-speaking person you would like to be for a day

Information you should have in order to make the Identi-kit > 

Those who were not able to make an Identi-kit will use this one in the future> 

TASK 1
Due date: March 24^th

 The first task becomes “official”on Monday, March 20^th. Here it is.
You are to make a recording in which your group explains the text “Understanding Others”.
Each person reads the ENTIRE text but explains one, two or three sections. (There are 10 sections, so the actual number you must read depends on the number of people in your group.)
Each person speaks as his/her double. This means that you have until Monday to choose a double and document her/his way of seeing things and saying things. (See the NEWS for information on how to find audio and video clips on the Internet. Go to the main Menu and click NEWS).
If on Monday you have not chosen a double, I will give you one. All the people who have not chosen a double will get the same person I will indicate on Monday. In your group recording you will be that person.

When you meet with your group to make the recording (From March 21^st to March 24^th before 3 pm), you will explain to the other members of the group the section of Understanding Others for which you are responsible. But, in giving your explanation, you will speak like your double.
I realize that this is impossible to do well.  But the point is to do your best.  This is just a first step towards internalizing another way of seeing and saying things.

When you are not giving the explanation, you will be listening to the explanation given by the other students. But you will not listen passively. You will interrupt continually, every time you do not understand a word.  You will interrupt using the 4-step technique you will find here> 

After everyone has spoken, the Group Leader will listen to the recording and give a mark to each participant. The leader will use the evaluation sheet you will find here> 
The Leader will give you:

-- 0, 1 or 2 points (not good, good, excellent) for your presentation; obviously you must be extremely clear in your speaking and in your exposition to be excellent; but what importance should you give (1.) to pronunciation and grammar, (2.) to the convincing way you speak like your double, (3.) to the intelligent analysis you make of the text, (4.).... to.... to...??? I'm stopping here. It is up to you and your group to decide what criteria you think should apply. This means you must define what it means to speak English well. The group leader will write the criteria on the back of the sheet;

-- plus 0, 1 or 2 points (not good, good, excellent) for your participation as a listener; obviously you must use intelligently all 4 steps in questioning to be excellent. But what is enough questioning and what is too much? What is an intelligent way of questioning? These are questions you must answer in your group. The group leader will write the criteria on the back of the sheet;

-- plus 0 or 1 point (passive, active) in helping organize the recording; “passive” means you were a dead weight (peso morto) in fixing the day to record and during the recording: “active” means that you helped the Group Leader make the recording a success. (You don't have to discuss this criteria. Just apply what I wrote above.)

On Friday, March 24^th, the Group Leader gives me the evaluation sheet with the cassette. I will accept whatever criteria the group has chosen and whatever marks the Leader gives each participant. But if I think the marks are irresponsible, the Leader will be penalized and receive a bad mark. So the group leader is responsible for the integrity of the evaluation sheet.

In the future, most of you will be a group leader and be responsible for the integrity of an evaluation sheet. So start NOW to take responsibility for your learning.
 

 
Task 2 and 3
Due date: give to your Group Leader by Friday, April 7^th
(for example, this Wednesday would be perfect)
There is no class on Friday, so you must meet your Group Leader either in our empty classroom on Friday or during the week wherever you choose. You must give your Group Leader the time to mark your work so that s/he can
give me the evaluation sheet on Monday April 10^th.

 Students' IDENTI-KITS on line> 
Read the Notice about the exam here > 

On March 30^th (at Trinity College in Rome) or on March 31^st (at Roma Tre) many of you had the opportunity to record a brief conversation with an American student. You were supposed to ENTER INTO THE MENTALITY AND SPEECH PATTERNS OF YOUR DOUBLE, then interview an American student about Honesty in the U.S. and Italy while you verify if YOU FEEL DIFFERENTLY and if your INTERLOCUTOR REACTS DIFFERENTLY when you switch between scholastic English and your double's English.  Now, for Task 2, write a report about this experience.

CASE 1.  IF YOU HAVE RECORDED YOUR VOICE (AS YOURSELF AND AS YOUR DOUBLE) PLUS YOUR INTERLOCUTOR'S VOICE, your report should contain:
1. the transcript of a short exchange (approximately 4 utterances) while you were your double.
2. the transcript of a short exchange (approximately 4 utterances) while you were yourself;
3. a description of the differences (if any) in your English in each case;
4. a description of the differences in the reaction of your double to your English in each case.
 
CASE 2.  IF YOU HAVE RECORDED YOUR VOICE (BUT ONLY AS YOURSELF, NOT AS YOUR DOUBLE: OR ONLY AS YOUR DOUBLE, NOT AS YOURSELF) PLUS YOUR INTERLOCUTOR'S VOICE, your report should contain:
1. the transcript of a short exchange (approximately 4 utterances) in which the communication was NOT good because you did not understand or because your interlocutor did not understand you or because of some other reason:
2. the transcript of a short exchange (approximately 4 utterances) in which the communication was PARTICULARLY GOOD because you understood
3. a description of the differences (if any) in your English in each case;
4. a description of the differences in the reaction of your double to your English in each case.
 
CASE 3.   IF YOU DID NOT MANAGE TO MAKE A RECORDING BUT YOU DID HAVE A CONVERSATION AS YOUR DOUBLE AND AS YOURSELF, do as in Case 1 but instead of a recording put down what you remember about each of the 4 points. You will receive one point less for your work. If I have the impression that you did not have a conversation and you are inventing one, I will ignore the Group Leader's mark and give you a zero. Plus we will have a little discussion together..
 
CASE 4.   IF YOU DID NOT MANAGE TO MAKE A RECORDING BUT YOU DID HAVE A CONVERSATION AS ONLY YOURSELF, do as in Case 2 but instead of a recording put down what you remember about each of the 4 points. You will receive one point less for your work. If I have the impression that you did not have a conversation and you are inventing one, I will ignore the Group Leader's mark and give you a zero. Plus we will have a little discussion together.
 
CASE 5.  IF YOU DID NOT PARTICIPATE IN EITHER ENCOUNTER, your task is to read “Usages, Competence and Understanding in the Transcultured Speaker” by Patrick Boylan which you will find here>   . This article explains and justifies the kind of language learning experience that we conducting in this class. You will write a report, two or three pages long, in which you defend or contest the views expressed. Do not be afraid to criticize the method or the ideas expressed. I am interested in what you think and how well you express your arguments.
 
 
IN ALL 5 CASES YOU WILL GIVE YOUR GROUP LEADER (L4)
--your report (this will count as Task 2)
--the recording you used for your report (if any)
--and a copy of your FINAL Identi-kit (I will have sent him/her the copy you sent me but you can give him an improved version).   This will count as Task 3.
 
Your Group Leader will give me all the the reports, recordings and Identi-kits for your group, together with two marks: one for your Interview Report (from 0 to 5 points ) and one for your Identi-kit (from 0 to 5 points). EXCEPTION: If, instead of an interview, you wrote a report on my article (CASE 5), your Group Leader will give you only one mark: the one for you Identi-kit. I will give you the mark for your report.

TASK 2, Interview Report. evaluation sheet >     
               Indications for evaluation>  . 
 
TASK 3, Identi-kit   evaluation sheet >     
               Indications for evaluation and IDENTI.KITS ALREADY EVALUATED (VERBALLY) BY ME>. 
 
THE EVALUATION SHEETS AND ALL WORK FOR TASK 2 AND TASK 3 ARE DUE ON MONDAY, APRIL 10^th.
 
 

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Task 4
Due date Monday, April 24^th

 Repeat the experiment you did for Task 2. This time you must find a native speaker of English in Rome. If you want, you can use this list of “lairs”> .  The best subject is a person like your double, someone who has the same language and culture.

Example: If you have chosen Bob Marley, try to find someone from Jamaica; if not, someone from the Caribbean; if not, a Porto Rican from New York or someone from the West Indies community in London.  This will be very difficult.  If it is not possible, then talk with any Brit, best if from London where they are familiar with West Indies speakers of English..  Do you see what I mean?  Given the difficulties and the time at your disposition, find the best person possible -- someone who will relate to your way of speaking, when you start speaking like your double.

This time make sure you have a recorder that works! Experiment with it to see if it picks up your voice.  Try to START THE CONVERSATION speaking with the mentality of your double, using her/his English.  Then at the end of the conversation, change back into your Italian self, using the English you learned at school.  Note the reactions of your subject.

What subject do you speak about?  There is no official subject.  Try to put yourself into the mentality of your double and talk ABOUT THE THINGS s/he likes talking about, IN THE WAY s/he likes talking about them.

When you get home, write a report which should contain:
1. the transcript of a short exchange (approximately 4 utterances) while you were your double.
2. the transcript of a short exchange (approximately 4 utterances) while you were yourself;
3. a description of the differences (if any) in your English in each case;
4. a description of the differences (if any) in the reaction of your double to your English in each case.

When you finish your report, give it, together with your recording, to your group leader L5. It is not necessary to give a copy of your Identi-kit because I will keep the kits I receive with Task 2.
 
If your group does not have a L5 and there is no one who has not been a group leader, select your L1 as your L5. Your group leader will mark your work using the following:
TASK 4 Interview Report. evaluation sheet >     
               (Indications for evaluation>  ). 

 Students' IDENTI.KITS on line >
Read the Notice about the exam here > 

MODULE II

Task 1

Read the 10 activities described in the monograph “Seeing and saying things in English”.
Choose one and produce a two or three page report showing what you did and explaining how you did it.
Example: Activity 3> Adaptation of personal scenario
Example: Activity 4> Pastiche of the style of an author
Example: Activity 7> Chatting with an assumed identity

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