Basics of English Grammar

This ongoing basic reference grammar was created to support the Italian students of the funerary archaeology courses held at the University of Pisa in the years 2011-2014 in the study of the English language. The courses conducted by a University Professor specialized in the discipline and by an expert English language teacher were delivered according to the CLIL (content and language integrated learning) methodology, which combines the teaching of a particular subject with the study of a vehicular language of instruction. In this online grammar resource the different parts of speech (nouns, pronouns, adjectives, etc.) and elements of the sentence or clause are explained in a simple and concise manner, so as to help the students develop their grammar skills. On the model of the same English grammar (2010), written in Italian and accompanied by short reading passages extracted from Henry Duday's The Archaeology of the Dead, this grammar written in English will be constantly enriched with contextualized examples illustrating the different grammar items. The subject teacher and the native language teacher will select the most appropriate examples extracted by the students from a number of acknowledged funerary archaeology texts used during the courses and dealing with the subjects of funerary archaeology and of other related research areas, in particular with the funerary customs and practices of specific historical periods (Anglo-Saxon, Roman, Medieval). The examples illustrating a particular grammar rule will not only show the use of the word in context, but will at the same time be rich in content, providing some useful notions about the discipline, so that the grammar can be studied not in isolation but in meaningful contexts and real-life situations. The CLIL classes fall within the framework of a wider project carried out at the Division of Palaeopathology - Department of Oncology, Transplants and Modern Technologies in Medicine of the University of Pisa, which is aimed to develop specific training for those (master and specialist level graduate students, post-doctoral scholars, etc.) specializing in funerary archaeology.