Communicative competence in English at C1 level or above
This is an introductory course - no prior knowledge of corpus linguistics is required or expected

- to learn the basic methodology of corpus linguistics and its theoretical underpinnings
- to appreciate the relationship between word frequency, word co-occurrence, and meaning
- to develop analytical skills in relation to written texts and the nuanced meanings they express
- to develop academic presentation skills
- to develop language proficiency (reading and listening comprehension, oral and written production) to level C1+ in English

Pandemic discourses

This course is an introduction to corpus linguistics - a computer-assisted method widely used in lexicography, translation, discourse analysis, literary stylistics and language teaching - with particular reference to the analysis of contemporary and historical discourses regarding pandemic illness.

The main aim of the course is to introduce students to a method which allows them to discover how meaning is constructed in text. Students will learn how meaning is created and consolidated in discourse through collocation and phraseology; they will refine their reading and interpretation skills in English, and will be guided in how to use corpus linguistics software to approach texts in a new way, via word lists, keyword lists, collocations, clusters, and KWIC concordances.

The theme of pandemic discourse will be explored in two distinct collections of texts (corpora): Samuel Pepys' diaries from the London 'plague years' of 1665-66, via a corpus compiled from https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/ , and a contemporary corpus dedicated to international COVID-19 discourses, i.e. the Coronavirus Corpus (Davies 2020-) available at https://www.english-corpora.org/corona/

Attendance is not mandatory but is highly recommended due to the hands-on nature of the course. Students who are unable to attend are invited to contact prof. Philip by email. All the course materials - slides, worksheets, hand-outs, obligatory and recommended reading - will be made available in a dedicated, password-protected online environment (see 'avvisi' on this page for details); non-attending students should consider these materials mandatory and dedicate adequate time to their study (approx. 30 hours) prior to embarking on the assessment project.

Running parallel to the course is the level C1+ lettorato with dott.ssa Alatas. Attendance is not mandatory but highly recommended. All students must consult dott.ssa Alatas' web pages for details relating to the lettorato course and exam.

• 1.  (A) Lawrence ANTHONY AntConc [software] Waseda University, Tokyo, http://www.laurenceanthony.net/software/antconc/, 2015 » Pagine/Capitoli: (software)
• 2.  (A) John SINCLAIR Reading Concordances Longman, London, 2003 » Pagine/Capitoli: Preface (pp ix-xix) + 10 dei 18 'Tasks' (c.80pp)
• 3.  (A) Gill PHILIP "Corpus Linguistics. Studying language as part of the digital humanities". In A. Hewings, P. Sergeant & S. Pihlaja (a cura di) Routledge handbook of English Language Studies. Routledge, London, 2018 » Pagine/Capitoli: 361-378
• 4.  (C) S. Al-SALMAN & A.S. HAIDER "COVID-19 trending neologisms and word formation processes in English" Russian Journal of Linguistics vol. 25 n°1 [rivista accademica], http://journals.rudn.ru/linguistics/article/view/25996, 2021 » Pagine/Capitoli: 24-42
• 5.  (C) Philipp WICKE & Marianna BOLOGNESI "Framing COVID-19: How we conceptualize and discuss the pandemic on Twitter" PLOS One vol. 15 no. 9 [rivista accademica], DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0240010, 2020 » Pagine/Capitoli: 10pp
• 6.  (C) Elena SEMINO "Not Soldiers but Fire-fighters - Metaphors and Covid-19" Health Communication, vol. 36 no.1 [rivista accademica], DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2020.1844989, 2021 » Pagine/Capitoli: 50-58

All the course materials - slides, worksheets, hand-outs, obligatory and recommended reading - are available on the online environment (see 'avvisi' on this page for the URL). Access is restricted to holders of unimc credentials.

Students are invited to bring a USB stick to lab lessons so they can save data files and any work they have done on the computers.

Details of the lettorato exam (format, content, level, etc.) are available from Dott.ssa Alatas's web-pages.

Level C1 is described in detail here: https://www.eaquals.org/wp-content/uploads/Checklist-of-Descriptors_IT_2000PortfolioLanguageBiography.pdf

• Teaching methods depend on class size, but normally consist of the following:
  Presentation of the theory and methods: interactive lectures
  Language analysis practice: guided group and individual work
  Hands-on practice with corpus query software: lab sessions
  
  Active participation (questions, suggestions, contribution of ideas, discussion) is encouraged.
  
  Before embarking on their assessment projects and preferably before the Easter 2022 break, students must contact prof. Philip to discuss their proposed topic and to receive suggestions on the methods, data, background reading etc. most appropriate for their individual project. *Joint projects are not permitted.*

• Lingua e traduzione inglese I/M is evaluated in two parts:
  (i) the lettorato language exam (level C1+) which counts for 40% of the overall grade, and
  (ii) the course evaluation, which comprises a research project presented in written and oral form. The research project evaluates students' understanding of corpus linguistics theory and methods by applying them to a language area of their own choice. Written in English, it will have the following structure: introduction, background, data, methods, analysis, conclusions, bibliography. Length = 12-15 A4 pages. The oral presentation of the project (in English) should last 15-20 minutes. Both parts are graded as follows: language (40%), organization (20%), appropriateness of methods (20%), quality of analysis (20%).

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