ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The course is primarily aimed at encouraging students to strengthen their linguistic competence in order to enhance their professionalism and communication and negotiation skills with the international interlocutors they may encounter along their academic/professional career. Starting from uneven levels of competence, the goal is to bring the whole group to a minimum level corresponding to B1 within the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, in relation to all 4 aspects - reading, speaking, listening and writing. Shared content - as relevant as possible to the core subjects studied - will be analysed and discussed in class, and will encourage them to revise and deepen their grammar knowledge, to widen their vocabulary - both general and related to architecture - and to fine-tune their communication skills, through ad-hoc activities and exercises, as participative in nature as possible, in order to offer opportunities to have debates, exchange points of view and develop and express their critical sensitivity.

Use of miscellaneous material, of multi-media nature (magazine articles/academic papers, books, videos, films, audio recordings, etc.), as a basis to work on and develop students' skills, in terms of syntax/grammar, vocabulary, conversation, expression of opinions and agreement/disagreement (in written and oral form), while working both individually and in pairs or in small groups.

The material used in class, taken from books, specialised press, Internet websites and other multi-media sources, will be regularly sent by the lecturer by email. If possible, it will be also uploaded on a special web space (more info in class).