23 July 2008

3rd year EXAMS September & January 2008

English III° Anno (Level 3)
The following bibliography applies to the written exams of September 2008* and January 2009**
(i) Written English for Advanced Learners, Jennifer Pudney.
(ii) Mastering Advanced English Language, Sara Thorne. Sections: 1, 3, 4, 11, 12, 19 and 20.
(iii) Advanced Learners’ Grammar, Mark Foley & Diane Hall, Longman.

The written exam consists of a grammar part (the writing of grammatically correct English versions of Italian sentences) and a linguistic analysis of a written advertisement (an essay). For the oral exam students are required to choose and to bring two newspaper articles, one from a broadsheet, one from a tabloid (see Sara Thorne), and a photocopy of the two articles for the examiner. The newspapers must be on the same topic and of the same date, which must not be earlier than a week before the oral exam. Students have to do a linguistic analysis, comparing the two articles.

The lettori responsible for the September and January sessions are Joanna Leyland and Stephen Wilson.

For A.A. 2008/2009 (June 2009, Sept 2009, Jan 2010) the lettori responsible will be Maria Hillan and Anne Smith, who will be teaching 3rd year courses from October 2008.

* week beginning 8th September ** week beginning 19th January
Students have to book for the exam (booking sheets in the Anglistica corridor, first floor, Villa Mirafiori)

USEFUL ADVICE (from Joanna Leyland):
(i) The web edition of Corriere della Sera has a section called Italian Life, which is composed of Italian articles translated into English. There is also a link on the page to the original article. Printing out both articles and comparing them is extremely useful to see how a translator can deal with culturally-specific terms such as “lavavetri” or “terrazza abusiva”.
(ii) All the main British and American newspapers, both tabloids and broadsheets, now have web editions, all with photographs and some with video footage.
(iii) If you have satellite, there are many programmes in English (including C.S.I., Cold Case, Friends, etc., not to mention news programmes and the documentaries on the Discovery and History Channels). English programmes with Italian subtitles, e.g. BBC Prime, are also interesting as the subtitles are often adaptations not translations.