L0644 - CIVILIZATION OF ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES

LEARNING OBJECTIVES The course aims to offer students a knowledge of the historical, socio-cultural and institutional realities of three anglophone areas: the United Kingdom, the United States of America and India. Besides providing notions of history, politics, sociology, education and economy concerning the above-mentioned countries, the course aims to encourage the students’ reflection on such important aspects of British, Indian and North-American cultures as religion, media and the arts. The LM38 Curriculum aims to train future experts in international relations and information research and management, translators and interpreters. In line with these professional objectives, two main objectives of the course are to develop the students’ strong motivation for studying foreign cultures, as well as their mastery of communicative codes typical of international relations. On a linguistic plane, in addition to encouraging a reflection on world varieties of English, the course will reinforce the students’ acquisition of a specialized vocabulary in the areas of culture and institutions, their ability to understand specialized texts written in a foreign language, and to expound the themes they have learnt in critically autonomous speeches in correct, formal English. Film in original language will be shown and commented, in order to favour the students’ ability to understand English and analyse other media. LEARNING OUTCOMES Reinforcement of fundamental knowledge of the cultural and institutional contexts of the three Anglophone countries studies under scrutiny, including solid knowledge of historical, social and economic aspects of these contexts; acquisition of specialized vocabulary related to cultural and institutional fields; ability to make comparisons with other realities and to apply their knowledge to the analysis of various questions and problems from interdisciplinary, intercultural and internazional perspectives; ability to use communicative techniques that are usually employed in institutions and in international relations; ability to read and understand specialized texts in English and to discuss about other media (films) that are culturally relevant; ability to classify and sum up data and information, to elaborate them autonomously and to communicate them orally in a well-argued speech in correct, formal English.