Ateneo - UPO

EAP: English for Academic Purposes
General purpose, features, and common types of academic writing; academic texts and reliable sources; critical approaches to selecting texts (reading sources and assessing the variety of materials); plagiarism vs. good practice; planning, outlining, key words; using quotations and referring to sources; writing, rewriting, and proofreading.

COMPULSORY HANDBOOKS (all the students): - FANG, Zhihui, 2021, Demystifying Academic Writing. Genres, Moves, Skills, and Strategies, Routledge. - BIBER, Douglas and BethanyGRAY, 2016, Grammatical Complexity in Academic English. Linguistic Change in Writing, Cambridge University Press. - Close analysis of academic articles (English linguistics, sociolinguistics, cultural linguistics, etc.); decoding and encoding processes; research questions/aims and methods before writing; abstract writing, book review, argumentative essay. READING LIST (compulsory), CHOOSE ONE out of four: - HYLAND, Ken, 2019 [2005], Metadiscourse. Exploring Interaction in Writing, Bloomsbury. - McENERY, Tony - Andrew Hardie, 2012, Corpus Linguistics, Cambridge University Press. - OGILVIE, Sarah, 2013, Words of the World. A Global History of the Oxford English Dictionary, Cambridge University Press. - - TANSKANEN, Sanna-Kaisa, 2006, Collaborating Towards Coherence, John Benjamins. FURTHER READING (optional for self study) - BIBER, Douglas and Susan CONRAD, 2019 (2nd ed.), Register, Genre, and Style, Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics, Cambridge University Press. - HUNSTON, Susan, 2022 (2nd ed.), Corpora in Applied Linguistics, Cambridge University Press. - PALTRIDGE, Brian and Sue Starfield, 2020 (2nd), Thesis and Dissertation Writing in a Second Language, Routledge. - WETTE, Rosemary, 2021, Writing Using Sources for Academic Purposes. Theory, Research and Practice, Routledge.

English Linguistics Specialistica A aims to investigate and discuss academic writing by combining a theoretical metalinguistic/metatextual approach (introduction to and discussion on different academic genres, text types, variety of disciplinary fields), and practical approach (close textual and linguistic analyses of academic writing on primary sources, ex. academic articles published in academic/disciplinary journals, with a focus on theoretical – synchronic/diachronic – and applied linguistics.
English Linguistics Specialistica A is characterised by a metalinguistic approach, with a view on the pragmatic aspects of reception and production of non-literary academic texts.

The course general contents and specific topics, language skills and activities, the end-of-course examination, as well as the assessment criteria applied, refer to C1 level of the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference).

Language skills at an advanced level: min. B2+, but C1 is preferred (CEFR).

Please check the prerequisites for admission to the MA Lingue, Culture, Turismo:
https://www.disum.uniupo.it/tutto-studenti/offerta-formativa/lauree-magistrali/lingue-culture-turismo/lingue-culture-turismo-0

Lectures

The course will be held in the first semester, between October 2025 and January 2026. The use of handbooks for the theoretical approach will be supported by authentic materials for the analysis of the linguistic features and the rhetorical strategies under scrutiny. Students with physical disabilities, Learning Disabilities or Special Education Needs can request specific services and tools via the Staff Sviluppo e Coordinamento Carriere e Servizi alle Studentesse e agli Studenti, consulting the University webpage: https://www.uniupo.it/en/services/services-students-physical-or-learning-disabilities Students with disabilities, learning disabilities or special education needs, once they have contacted the University Staff, can refer to the tutor in charge of the course to define the examination modalities, concerning academic aspects.

ASSIGNMENT: In-depth study of one of the books from the Testi di Riferimento, Reading List section (see above). Students will highlight the main contents, concepts and methodological approaches of the selected reading (book). Concepts and notions treated in the book will be the starting point for further in-depth discussion and detailed exemplification at the oral exam: these concepts/notions have to be related to the course contents/topics (handbook resources, academic articles, slides). The discussion of the Reading list book contents, concepts, and methodological approaches is worth 30% of the assessment process, course contents are worth 70%. Students will pass their exam if they get 18/30 in both their book review and the oral discussion of course contents. The final grade is calculated on a weighted assessment basis. With reference to the 'Intended learning objectives' (see below), the following grades correspond to different skills: 18-22/30-sufficient, 23-25/30-satisfying, 26-28/30 good, 29-30 lode-very good. ORAL EXAM: oral interaction and discussion on the course contents, concepts, notions, texts, starting from the book of your choice from the Reading List above. ORAL EXAM: oral interaction and discussion on the course contents, concepts, notions, texts, starting from the individual written task previously uploaded to D.I.R. ORAL EXAM ASSESSMENT CRITERIA: 1. appropriate presentation and discussion of topics, notions, and concepts; 2. discourse organisation; 3. lexical richness and accuracy; 4. lexical propriety; 5. lexical variety; 6. detailed text analysis (especially related to text and discourse features, and rhetorical strategies in the academic co-text/context); 7. discourse skills.

See 'Contenuti'/'Contents' and ‘Obiettivi formativi’/ ‘Aims of the course’

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
English Linguistics Specialistica A will foster a critical approach to the discussion of the main academic and disciplinary texts and genres (with a focus on, but not exclusively, the academic article of theoretical and/or applied linguistics, synchronic and diachronic).

APPLIED KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS
Linguistic awareness (including textual and discourse skills) and critical thinking in the decoding process (main components of the academic/disciplinary text, the use of language for special purposes LSP/ESP/EAP) will foster the related process of encoding: planning, establishing the research questions, and writing.
English Linguistics Specialistica A students will be able to write a variety of texts for different communicative aims in the academic context.

Linguistic knowledge and language understanding will be used at a practical level, and applied to the many disciplinary research and professional contexts.