ENGLISH B1 (THRESHOLD LEVEL)
cod. 1004418

Academic year 2013/14
1° year of course - First semester
Professor
Academic discipline
Indefinito/interdisciplinare (NN)
Field
Per la conoscenza di almeno una lingua straniera
Type of training activity
Language/Final test
21 hours
of face-to-face activities
3 credits
hub: PARMA
course unit
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Learning objectives

By the end of the course the students are expected to reach level B1 of the European Frame of Reference

Prerequisites

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Course unit content

Main topics


Grammar

• articles
• demonstratives
• possessives and possessive ‘s
• personal pronouns
• some and any
• countable and uncountable nouns
• quantifiers
• comparatives and superlatives
• relative pronouns
• main prepositions of place and time
• indirect questions
• main conjunctions
• main phrasal/prepositional verbs
• Present Simple and Present Continuous
• Past Simple
• Past Continuous
• Present Perfect Simple
• The future (going to, will, Present Simple, Present Continuous)
• First conditional
• Time clauses and the Present Simple)
• The Passive voice (Present Simple, Past Simple, Present Perfect)
• Modal verbs (can, could, must, will, would, should)

Vocabulary

* spelling
• numbers (prices, quantities, dates, etc.)
• family
• free time activities
• house and furniture
• public places and shops
• jobs
• food and drinks
• animals
• weather
• clothes
• parts of the body and health problems
• means of transport
• everyday objects

Functions

• describing people (character and appearance)
• telling the time and dates
• describing everyday habits and routines
• ordering in a restaurant or in a hotel
• understanding notices, labels, adverts
• road directions
• describing holidays, trips, etc.
• describing objects (size, colour, shape, etc.)
• warnings and prohibitions
• obligation and absence of obligations
• agreement/disagreement
• criticisms and complaints
• talking about preferences
• describing feelings and emotions

Full programme

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Bibliography

For grammar, functions and vocabulary:

M. Vince, G. Cerulli, Inside Grammar, Macmillan (+ keys)
M. Swan, C. Walter, The Good Grammar Book with answers, Oxford UP

or:
P. Conti, E. Sharman, L. Green, A. Cowan, The Burlington English Grammar, ed.
Burlington Books Le Monnier (+ keys) (grammar only)
M. McCarthy, F. O’Dell, English Vocabulary in Use Elementary (edition with key), Cambridge University Press (vocabulary only)


Textbook

S.A. Hill, M.L. Freeman, Change Up! Intermediate Students’ book & Workbook Pack, ELI (ISBN 978 885 360 4064)

Further practice:

J.Newbrook, J.Wilson, PET Gold Exam Maximer Self-Study edition (with audio CD set), Longman

A. Capel, R.Nixon, PET Masterclass Intermediate Workbook with answers and Audio CD pack, OUP

Graded readers published by BlackCat Cideb (Green Apple Step2 or Reading & Training Elementary/Pre-Intermediate)

Dictionary

Oxford Study Dictionary (bilingual)
Longman Dizionario Compatto (bilingual)
Cambridge Essential English Dictionary (monolingual)

Students can consult pre-intermediate level material for the reading and listening sections of the exam at:

Laboratorio Self-Access del Centro Linguistico
Viale Scienze, 45/A Campus
www.unipr.it/arpa/cla/

Interesting websites:

www.unipr.it/arpa/facecon/weblingue/newactivitypage.htm
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/
http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish
http://www.diariodiozzy.it/
http://www.educationuk.org/
http://www.i-uk.com/
http://www.visitbritain.com/
www.ildivertinglese.rai.it/

Teaching methods

Methodology: presentation of structures, deduction of rule, contrastive use of the language, use of different teaching aids (slides, audioCDs, textbook, etc.).

Assessment methods and criteria

Assessment: final test with multiple choice questions on grammar, lexis, functions, reading and listening comprehension

Other information

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