3020 Academic English in the Governance and Economics of the Public Sector
Content
The course is based on the reception or comprehension of academic texts in the field of governance and economics of the public sector, and the productive use of acquired knowledge in written and spoken forms. It adopts a top-down approach, starting with the genre analysis of academic texts as a whole (IMRAD structure of academic papers), continues at the paragraph level (paragraph structure, topic sentence, textual cohesion and coherence), followed by coordinate and subordinate sentences (nominal, adjectival, and adverbial clauses, to express time, place, manner, cause/effect, condition, purpose, result, concession, and comparison), and finally at the lexical level of academic vocabulary. Based on the knowledge of the written genre of academic texts, a comparative analysis shifts the focus onto the genre of oral presentations.
Objectives and competences
Objectives
The course provides students with knowledge about the structure of academic texts, and enables them to understand, write about, and give presentations on topics from the field of governance and economics of the public sector in a way that is typical of their academic community. Students are able to embed, summarize, and paraphrase information and knowledge extracted from academic literature into their own cohesive and coherent texts, and in the process respect the intellectual property of others.
Competences
Students understand the specificities of the genres of academic texts and oral presentations, including specific academic vocabulary. Students’ writing and presentation skills involve the use of digital and printed language resources. The course enables students to further develop their receptive and productive language skills, as well as those syntactical elements and academic vocabulary that are typical of academic texts and oral presentations in the field of governance and economics of the public sector. Students further develop their skills for lifelong language learning, and maintain a positive attitude to speakers of other languages and to other cultures.