English in Italy Lingua Inglese II, Sintesi del corso di Lingua Inglese

Scarica English in Italy Lingua Inglese II e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! English in Italy: linguistic, educational and professional challenges Part 1: English in contemporary Italian Anglicisms in Italian: moving on into the third millennium -Introduction After the Brexit referendum in 2016, the assumption that English is the lingua franca of the EU has begun to falter; this political event may mark the end of the momentum that English has gained from the second half of the 20th century. Loanwords provide a historical record of change in a language, with integration from the extralinguistic context and internal changes in the language itself; they can reveal the amount of cultural contact and the nature of this contact. -Lexicographic evidence The Grande dizionario italiano dell’uso features a rich variety of usage labels, which help to distinguish between common CO, high-frequency AU or low-frequency BU lemmas. Lemmas of foreign origin are marked as ES, while TS indicates technical and specialistic terminology and is accompanied by a specific field label. Because the GDU’s wordlist includes lemmas up to 2006, there are other two general dictionaries of Italian: ZING and DO. ZING contains about 145,000 entries and it labels as English the entries that retain an English form and need the addition of the native pronunciation in phonemic transcription, accompanied by the Italian pronunciation. DO contains a wordlist 100,208 entries and 3,522 non-adapted Anglicisms. A chronology of Anglicisms in Italian -Early loanword in the 13th-18th centuries Contacts between Britain and Italy only took place through the commercial activities of merchants and bankers, and the political relations of ambassadors. Among other terms referring to social and political life we can find in the GDU sceriffo (1498), ale (1498, alcoholic beer), milady (1557). Direct and stable cultural and linguistic exchanges between English and Italian were established from the 18th century, when many Italian intellectuals moved to Britain and viceversa. Many dictionaries were published in both countries, and so were translations of major literary works. At that time French was the language of many European courts and of the upper classes. Anglomania started in France as a cultural fashion and arrived in Italy by means of a French mediation in the second half of the 18th century, among with many Anglicisms. Anglomania spread in Italy as a reaction to the French dominance in culture and life-style. At this time, we find 38 Anglicisms in ZING, 28 in DO and 26 in the GDU; we find a high number of sea terms, witnessing the British superiority in the field of navigation, as well as terms referring to political and social life. English acts as mediator of terms coming from other languages with which Britain came into contact through colonialism. -1801/1900 In the 19th century cultural exchanges between Britain and Italy increased, and so did translations of English and American writers and historical and scientific works. The diffusion of newspapers contributed to the input of foreign words into the general vocabulary. The number of words relating to politics and fashion increased, as did terms relating to transport and sport. Britain was a leading nation of the Industrial Revolution; it was politically and economically strong, while Italy was socially and politically divided. Most fashion terms come from French, but some menswear terms have derived from British fashion (smoking, shorts), and other words are related to British lifestyle such as dandy, snob. Historically, many sports originated from Britain in the 18th century and then were exported to other countries. The word sport was borrowed by many European languages, the same happened for tennis, football. Sports terminology went through a strong Italianisation, especially during later periods of national purism. In the 19th century a reform in the Italian educational system made English a curricular subject for its importance in the learning of technical and scientific vocabulary, while French continued to be the main foreign language in Italian secondary education until the second half of the 20th century. -1901/1950 In the first half of the century Italy suffered two WW and two decades of fascist regime, while in the second half it experienced the material and moral reconstruction of the country, followed by the phenomenon of economic and cultural Americanisation. Lots of Italians emigrated to America due to job opportunities, and the country was seen as a place of prosperity from all Italians. English continued to be taught in secondary school, always overshadowed by French. Rando found the reasons behind the increase and decrease of borrowings from English in the political tension between Italy and Britain in the post-WW1 years, and in the fascist campaign against the use of foreign words. In 1942 Migliorini founded a movement called Neopurism, with the aim of contrasting excessive use of foreign words. This all turned into an open opposition: legislative measures were taken against the use of foreign words and a commission was led to provide Italian substitutes for loanwords. The GDU adopts a wide range of field labels and so we grouped them according to the three disciplinary domains used by the European Research Council to cover the spectrum of knowledge: SH (social sciences and humanities), LS (life sciences), PE (physical sciences and engineering). In each domain are listed the fields more affected by English loanwords. Sport is the most productive field of borrowing; apart for games, it includes terms such as game, corner, cross. Music follows as the second most productive field, with the introduction of new music styles coming from America. The emerging cinema industry brought to Italy words like casting, dubbing. In the domain of PE we find many sea terms such as racer, skipper and many technical loanwords (detector). In the field of LS we find many names of dog breeds (yorkshire) and foods (pancake). business to be successful it is necessary to do things that may hurt people. There’s a total of 192 occurrences as an illocutionary act. An Italian equivalent may be gli affari sono affari. -(don’t) try this at home It may be used in Italian as a directive illocutionary act, either in a negative form with an advising function, or in its positive form with an inviting function. It was found as an illocutionary act for a total of 20 occurrences. At times it can be used as a disclaimer and it can be self-mocking and trivializes the seriousness of the plausible consequences. Italian equivalents are non provate/provare a farlo a casa in its negative form and prova/provate a farlo a casa in its positive form. -(doesn’t) make(s) sense It is used as a representative illocutionary act with a deducing function, and has both a positive and a negative form. An Italian equivalent may be avere senso compiuto in a positive form, and non ha senso in the negative one. This phraseological Anglicism totals 12 occurrences. Sometimes it can be included in rhetorical questions. -get down This phrasal verb can be used in Italian as a directive illocutionary act with a requesting function, but no occurrences were found in the itTenTen. It is defined by the OED as a relaxed behaviour, while the Mirriam-Webster defines it as “to have a good time partying”. The Italian equivalent could be dacci/dateci dentro and datti/datevi da fare. -give me/gimme five It’s the English phrase from which the Italian calque originated: dare/battere un cinque. It is found in Italian as a directive illocutionary act, functioning as a request. This phraseological Anglicism counts 10 occurrences. -I love you It is transparent and it translates into Italian as ti/vi amo. It is a commissive illocutionary act that implies a promise. It wasn’t possible to manually extract illocutionary uses due to the large amount of occurrences, namely 893. -it’s not my business It’s not found as a phraseological unit in any of the monolingual dictionaries consulted. Italian equivalents are non è affare mio and non mi riguarda. Only 1 instance showed the illocutionary force of a concluding remark, thus a declaration. It classifies as a hapax. -keep calm and... It may be used in Italian as a directive illocutionary act with an advising function, with its Italian equivalent being (mantieni la) calma. There are no occurrences of illocutionary act since they are all quotations. This phraseological unit has entered spoken Italian, especially via social media. It originated from the prototypically British keep calm and carry on, one of the memes that have recently invaded the Internet. -make some noise It’s a directive illocutionary act functioning as a request, but no occurrences showed illocutionary uses. Its meaning is not immediately clear even by looking at the definitions provided by the OED or the Merriam-Webster. It is an example of metonymy typical of African American Slang, usually used in black urban variety shows. Its Italian equivalent may be fa/fate casino/rumore. -pay attention Italian equivalents are fare/prestare attenzione, state attenti. It may be classified as a directive with multiple functions, such as advising, asking and commanding, and 5 pragmatic occurrences were found. -take it easy It is defined by the OED as “to make oneself comfortable”. As a directive illocutionary act functioning as an advice, it is translated into Italian as andarci piano, calma. 181 pragmatic occurrences of this phraseologism were found. -(the) show must go on It is defined by the OED as “things must carry on as planned despite difficulty”, with its Italian translation being lo spettacolo deve andare avanti. This phraseological Anglicism is among those words/expressions taken from TV and radio shows of the past, rooted in the common language. It is used as a representative illocutionary act, or as a directive, and it was used illocutionarily 23 times among those counted. -welcome to… It is an expressive illocutionary act with a welcoming function, and with a transparent meaning. Its Italian equivalent may be benvenuto/i in/a... It wasn’t possible to extract all illocutionary uses, but at least 27 were found. -you are welcome It has a double illocutionary function: on the one hand, it works as an expressive, with the function of responding to thanking; on the other hand, especially when followed by the preposition to, it acts as a directive, functioning as an invitation. It may be translated as prego, non c’è di che, sei libero di. 4 illocutionary uses were found, and this pragmatic item can work also in Italian either as a response to thanking, or as an invitation. Part 2: English in translation and interpreting Direct Anglicisms in dubbing in Italy: state of the art -Introduction Anglo-American audiovisual products dubbed into Italian for a large part of the programmes aired on Italian television and cinemas; this may affect the way Italian people speak. The English language can leave its fingerprints in dubbing in two ways: through English loanwords and calques, which can be of different types, from semantic to structural and phraseological. -The language of dubbing and Anglicisms The term dubbese tended to have a negative meaning in the past, and now indicates a specific language variety; it can be defined as “the language variety used in dubbed audiovisual texts”. It is characterised by linguistic trends such as geographical undifferentiation, register and style neutralization, less textual cohesion. Gottlieb talks about “Anglification in screen translation” through the presence of Anglicisms in translated works. Direct English borrowings can be divided into non-adapted Anglicisms, adapted Anglicisms, false Anglicisms and hybrid Anglicisms. -Anglicisms in film titles A sign of the growing presence of English in our culture through audiovisual texts is testified by the number of audiovisual products distributed in Italy with an English title. Examining film titles between 1996 and 2000, Viezzi identifies a number of strategies: some films keep their original titles, while others add an Italian subtitle that translates it; some films contain a subtitle which clarifies the topic of the film, while a fourth strategy is that of distributing films with an English title that differs from the original one, which can attract people’s attention. This approach was adopted by the film Made in Dagenham, which was distributed in Italy as We want sex; this title is misleading, since the film is about a group of female workers who protested against sexual discrimination in 1968. According to Viezzi, the alteration of a title by adding a sexual hint is a common practice in film distribution in Italy. For Italian audiences, English is felt to be more seductive, able to catch the audience’s attention and to provide added value to the audiovisual text. The use of English title might also hide an attempt to create ambiguity. We can also add marketing and commercial motives, especially for animated films and popular sagas, so that products could be easily sold in various countries with no need for translation. -Anglicisms in dubbed dialogues Direct borrowings aren’t frequent in dubbing. In his analysis of two episodes of Beverly Hills 90210, Brincat observed a limited use of foreign words, consisting of lexical items belonging to the semantic fields of sport and music, plus some generic terms. Some specialised Anglicisms might be used as linked to the setting and situation where the action takes place. Minutella examines the presence of English loans in the dubbed dialogues of nine Anglo-American films and TV series distributed between 2000 and 2008 and aimed at a young audience: 169 different Anglicisms were found. The Italian dialogues contain some uncommon words which are also absent from Italian monolingual dictionaries. The discourse marker yo is an informal interjection used to express warning and to attract attention, and it’s associated with hip hop culture. It has become widespread among white Americans; it is exploited in film dialogues to create linguist characterisation for specific speakers, a stereotypical marker of ethnicity, of black characters and rap language. In the dialogues analysed, it is used in the animated film Shark tale, alone or in combination with fellas. The PEC contains 5 occurrences, one in contemporary Italian fiction and four in social networks; it is still rare in Italian, but it can be used to mimic a specific, gangsta rap style. The use of yo, yo fratello in Italian connote a specific type of character and suggest slang typical of African Americans. The language of conferences is usually English, together with the language of the host country, and simultaneous interpreting is often not available, assuming that everyone can speak English. Most speakers at international conferences are non-native speakers of English and ELF phonological, lexical and syntactical features are stressful for interpreters. Bent and Bradlow’s study consisted in recording native speakers of English, as well as a mixed group of speakers, reading simple English sentences, following with a sentence recognition task based on the recordings from five speakers. Native English listeners found the native English speaker more intelligible, whereas for non-native listeners, a non-native speaker with their own native language background was as intelligible as a native speaker. -Teaching ELF The priority for ELF speakers is the ability to communicate in an international context and to be mutually intelligible. When learning English, students should be encouraged to reflect on the diversity of English and its changes. Strategic competence is important in ELF contexts where there’s solidarity among speakers who do not share a common background but aim at common communicative goals. -ELF in translation and interpreting training- some examples In her interpreting courses Maura Radicioni, as well as a professional translator and interpreter, present students with ELF talks, exposing them to a variety of talks from the real world and the Internet. This course includes presentations by non-native speakers of English architects: one of them, the Russian-German Sergej Tchoban, made a presentation where some elements were pretty clear, while a part of his discourse showed some features which made comprehension and interpreting difficult even for professional interpreters. Pietro Luigi Iaia held a translation workshop where students made an intralingual translation of the subtitles of a video; he asked the students to adapt the subtitles of the English version for an international audience with the aim of training them to consider the function of the target text and audience. Iaia’s work allows them to acquire market-oriented skills by practising with learning materials that take into account the spread of ELF. Translating into a second language has become common given the high demand for translation into English and the limited number of mother- tongue translators. As non-native speakers of English, the students can observe and reflect on the lexical and syntactic peculiarities of their written English. Stefania Taviano makes students acquire translation strategies and techniques by selecting a variety of texts related to professional experiences, including those written in a hybrid form of English. The extracts are taken from advertising materials in which Italian farmers and distribution companies present and sell their products to potential foreign buyers. The first two texts are a combination of MT and/or parts showing ELF lexico-grammatical features. The third text reveals the typical Italian manner of expressing pride in belonging to our culture. In these examples it is difficult to tell the difference between a translation from Italian and a text directly written in English, unless the information is provided by the company itself. It’s interesting that whether the texts have been translated from Italian or written by Italian speakers in English, mother tongue’s influence is evident and useful for training purposes.Editing texts and documents of international organisations makes students practise an aspect of their future job: translators mentally edit ELF texts before translating them. Editing these texts makes them realise that their mistakes when writing in English are similar to common features of EU documents. Amanda Murphy developed a module to editing in which students have to reflect on revisions of already edited EU documents, before editing a document. Post-editing of machine translations is really challenging, and there’s a difference between the revision of a translation made by a translator and the post-editing of a machine translation. In the latter case, 10% of the MT may be perfect, 30% may require detailed rewriting, and 60% may need to be post-edited. Another way to make training more relevant in terms of future job demands is by making students reflect on how translating and interpreting is generally perceived. People with a limited knowledge of a foreign language translate and interpret without having the necessary qualifications, and it’s a problem related to the assumption that a basic knowledge of a language is enough. Since English is often the only language of international conferences, interpreters have started to believe that clients are losing confidence in interpreting, and this is reinforced by conference delegates who don’t make use of interpreting even when it is available. Part 3: English-medium Instruction in higher education English-mediated instruction in Italian universities: a cuckoo nest scenario? -Introduction The European paradox is the fact to implement university courses held in English, as a result of the post-Bologna Process. This is explained through the cuckoo nest metaphor developed by Phillipson who defines linguistic dominance in terms of naturalistic behaviour; in his view, English is the “lingua cucula” in the European Higher Education scenario. -Englishising European universities- Threat or opportunity? Phillipson advocates the importance of maintaining the tradition of linguistic diversity well-rooted within the European Union. In his view, the fact that English is increasingly occupying space is a paradox which needs readjusting. He argues that a language of wider communication is never neutral, but always loaded with culture and ideology; as he explains, English is not neutral. He also highlights the importance of distinguishing between conceptual universes expressed in different languages. The challenge is to explore how English can cohabitate with local environments, so that its prevalence can represent an added value to the users who “own” it. -The state-of-the-art of EMI in Italian higher education Promoting internationalisation through English-taught programmes implemented in many disciplines at the postgraduate level of education is now a recurrent practice across Europe. A first stage of research on EMI in Italy has been characterised by studies focusing on language policies and the ideology of internationalisation. This stage is framed by two discourses: the internationalist one which is represented by politicians committed to making the nation internationally competitive; the culturalist one is represented by politicians committed to safeguarding national culture. A second stage of EMI research in Italy involves studies that complement the internationalist- culturalist debate with data obtained from the analysis of teaching practices. Mediterranean countries are keen on promoting the internationalisation agenda through English-medium instruction, despite the fact that in these countries EMI is perceived as an extra hurdle, especially in settings traditionally shaped by multilingual communities. There is also a language problem that concerns inadequacy of language skills in the incoming international students, and a low level of proficiency in English among the Italian students. Most content lecturers involved with Costabello’s survey report anxiety due to the risk of losing disciplinary terminology in the native language, and the risk of underperforming when lectures are delivered in English. EMI research in Italy is investigating remedial practices in the form of training courses to offer both linguistic and methodological scaffolding to content lecturers/students involved in the EMI experience; this support mainly comes from universisties language centres. -Parallel Language Use in the Nordic countries English-mediated instruction is a tradition in the Nordic countries. As a result of the post-Bologna Process, Northern European universities have implemented English-taught degree programmes and mainly in scientific disciplines. This has given rise to emerging anxieties about the English agenda and research gaps in specific areas of EMI practices: some scholars have pointed out that very few Nordic studies deal with disciplinary learning in a second language. Second, studies measuring EMI perceptions show mixed feelings from students and lecturers who worry about the risk of underperforming due to having to study/lecture in a language other than their mother tongue. Third, there’s the fear of domain loss especially related to scientific terminology which risks becoming “Englishised”. PLU reflects a Nordic orientation to guarantee the dual use of English and of the national language in higher education contexts. This concept isn’t new in Sweden, but it goes back to the 1990s when the Swedish Language Council prepared an Action Programme for the Swedish Government highlighting the importance of reinforce the students’ ability to use Swedish and English in parallel. In their studies of Swedish society, Bolton and Kuteeva report concearns about the threat of English related to how high levels of domestic immigration have re-shaped Sweden into a multilingual/multicultural society. Swedes were proud of their competence in English, but their perception of the language gradually changed. PLU is being investigated for its assumed lack of clear pedagogic aims: one obstacle in using it derives from inadequate levels of linguistic competence in English and in the local language, and this is a common situation considering that many students and lecturers operating in Scandinavian universities are international. They end up not being proficient with the local language and using English mainly as an academic lingua franca. Another obstacle regards conflicting ideologies underpinning parallellingualism: state-authored university language policies carry out nationalist discourses defending the local language over the risk of English dominance, while institution-authored policies are neo-liberalist and prioritize economic profit and free trade. the researchers to administer the questionnaire to their students during their classes. All the students interviewed were attending the first year of a Master’s degree course. A total of 160 questionnaires were administred, 125 of which were answered in Italian and 35 in English. -Research tool To collect data, a two-page questionnaire was used: a title, an introductory text, 17 closed questions and 4 open questions. The quantitative analysis of this study was applied to the closed questions and the qualitative one to the open questions. The questions’ content was chosen partly in accordance with the existing literature, and partly according to what the researchers considered relevant issues in EMI. The closed questions investigated whether: the students were interested in foreign languages; their learning a foreign language had been a positive experience; they had enrolled to improve their knowledge of English; they thought their pronunciation and vocabulary had improved during the course. In the open-ended questions, students were asked: to describe what worried them before starting the course; what the differences between learning in an L1 or an L2 were; whether CLIL or EMI better described the type of course they were attending. -Data collection and analysis The questionnaire was anonymous and students could choose between Italian and English. Once collected, the student data were entered into LimeSurvey: since the data included both discrete and semi-quantitative items, a descriptive statistical analysis was performed. A content analysis was undertaken for the open-ended answers, coding them into thematic categories. There was great variety in both the number of respondents and their answers: sometimes the respondents answered only one of the open-ended questions, at other times several answers were given by students to a single open-ended question. When less than four students gave the same answer, this wasn’t taken into account as the total was considered too low to be significant compared to the total number of respondents. -Results Questions 1 and 3 focus on the students’ experiences and attitudes towards foreign languages. Economics and Engineering students have a strong interest in foreign languages, and the majority have had at least one working or study experience abroad. Question 4 deals with the students’ perception of the difference between L1 and L2-taught courses: most student think content is learned differently on an L2-taught course, but the overall percentage varies. Question 5 is about the non-native lecturers: 48.08% of Economic students think that a native speaker would have been better, while the others wouldn’t agree. 38.89% of Engineering students think that it would have been easier to follow a lecture given by a native speaker, while the rest doesn’t. Questions 6 and 7 focus on the students’ reasons for enrolling on the English-taught programme. For the majority i twill benefit their learning of subject-specific content, with Economics students showing unanimous conviction about the advantages of learning in English. The majority shows an interest in improving their English. Question 8 investigates the students’ perception of their worries about attending an English- taught course. Most of them are confident, but Economics students were worried before starting the course, more than Engineering students. Questions 9, 10, 11 and 12 asked students to evaluate their English skills. Despite being worried at the beginning, Economics students are more assertive in their evaluation of their receptive and productive skills. Speaking in English about the subject matter is considered the most difficult task, particularly by Engineering students. Questions 13, 14 and 17 reflect the students’ perception of the effectiveness of English-taught courses, which met their expectations with regard to learning technical vocabulary in the L2, but not as far as pronunciation is concerned. When it comes to subject matter learning, Engineering students are less satisfied than Economics students. The answers to question 15 show that students didn’t need too much time to adapt. Question 16 focuses on the use of code-switching in class. Most Economics students don’t consider it useful, while the replies of the Engineering students varied. -Open-ended answers These answers aimed to gather information on the students’ worries and on their perception of the differences between L1 and L2-taught courses. As regards students’ worries, six of them indicated their concern about the teacher’s level of preparation, while seven expressed reservations about their own competence in English. They didn’t worry about their understanding of the specialised language, because they assumed that their knowledge would improve. The most common answer to question 19 was that they didn’t feel there was any need for change. Another common answer was the request for more teaching aids, such as slides or summaries. Eight students expressed the need for greater teacher preparation. As for the difference between L1 and L2-taught courses, for 27 students there were no differences; for 15, the differences involved English lexis and this was an advantage because they would learn discipline-related terms used in the international community. A large number pointed out that the L2 allowed them to focus on key concepts. 4 students answered that the course is slower in the L2, which is seen as positive. The students also indicated that more concentration was needed and that understanding was less immediate. Their assessment of EMI was positive. Its positive aspects were considered to be the slower pace of the lecture, the need for more concentration and attention, a higher teaching quality etc. The answers often revealed a rejection of CLIL, wich might suggest that the students identified themselves as content specialists and saw language as an instrument. When required to label the type of course they’re attending, they chose the acronym EMI; some decided to add comments to their choice, while others seemed annoyed by the question. Only 14 students answered this question, 7 of whom were foreigners.