The aim of this course is to provide social students of the social sciences with the language components and academic skills in order to achieve better standards in their use of Academic English for their current studies and future careers. It focuses on improving performance in the 4 language skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening Comprehension) in academic contexts. This is designed as a support course for students completing their undergraduate degree taught in English. Regardless of their incoming level of English, students are encouraged to improve and fine-tune their communication and study skills in Academic English. Close guidance will be ensured to help students learn to identify their problems, find viable solutions and make progress.

Knowledge and understanding: Students will be given a solid grounding in lexical components, communication strategies and academic study skills related to the subject areas of the social sciences (politics and governance, economics, law and human rights). Through input presented from academic sources, they will gain awareness of the tools and strategies necessary to broaden their lexical range and to academic study skills including reading and listening strategies. Applying knowledge and understanding: Students will apply the acquired components and skills to communicate effectively in subject areas like democracy, the world economy, social media, governance and human rights. They will also apply the acquired strategies and study skills to carry out academic activities like note-taking and summarizing, and communicative tasks like perform problem-solving or teamworking skills. They will use the methods acquired to demonstrate their mastery to devise and sustain clear, coherent argumentation. Making judgements: The course materials are designed in such a way as to encourage comparison and evaluation of alternative sources, stances and text organization. Critical reading and critical thinking are developed with the aim of helping students form and express well-founded analyses. Error correction tools and self-evaluation will allow students to independently fine-tune and adapt their skills to deal with new tasks. Communication skills: At the end of the course, students will be able to use the appropriate lexical range, accuracy and appropriacy in the four communicative skills to operate effectively in contexts linked to their degree course and future career. They know how to structure their ideas coherently and adapt their discourse depending on the purpose and contexts. Learning skills: By putting into practice the methodologies learned during the interactive lectures, students will learn to assess their own performance in view of fine-tuning the acquired strategies when faced with tasks related to their academic and professional careers. They will have acquired transversal skills which will be crucial for them in their lifelong learning.

The course draws principally on resources from reputable academic sources in order to assist students in acquiring in English core concepts and terminology related to the fields of politics, economics, law and communication, and in developing academic competences and study/research skills in English. Academic tasks involve note-taking, summarizing, interpreting graphs, brief presentations, simulations, discussion/debate on academic topics, team projects, report writing and essay writing. A good deal of attention is paid to reading/listening/viewing with a critical eye, and to developing a motivated personal stance on controversial issues. To encourage higher order thinking, students are asked to: analyse and evaluate texts; transform information and ideas; solve problems; gain understanding at a deeper level and discover new meaning. The work on terminology and academic communication skills is systematically integrated with exercises specifically designed to raise students’ language awareness in order to eliminate typical errors of pronunciation, grammar, syntax and vocabulary (for example, those resulting from the so-called ‘false friends’).

Course textbook: Texts, Terms and Tasks: Academic English for Students in the Social Sciences, edited by Linda Lombardo and Christine Eade, LUP 2022. The teaching materials in this volume are intended especially for use with students of the Social Sciences at an intermediate/advanced level of competence in English. They are the fruit of intense experimentation over the past several years by a group of language professors in an Academic English course which prepares undergraduate students in Political Science at the Luiss Guido Carli University for the final examination. They are also a response to the growing internationalization of the University and the increasing number of degree courses taught in English.

Interactive, practical sessions where students can apply what they have learned and assess their performance. A blended learning approach based on in-class acquisition and practice followed up by activities to help students consolidate newly acquired competence.

Assessment will be based on: 1) Continuous Assessment (70%) consisting of class participation (minimum required attendance 70%): activities, exercises and projects covered in course textbook, Student Portfolio of out-of-class assignments and research project 2) Final Written exam: (15%) 43 Final Oral examination: (15%) Assessment takes into account the student’s language level as determined by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, and the progress made during the course. The Final Written Exam (time 2 ½ hours) is divided into two parts: Reading comprehension on a text related to the subject areas studied during the course program (politics, government, economics, law, human rights, etc) Written Essay addressing a question related to the reading text. The Essay should be clearly organized and contain an introduction, development and conclusion. It should be broken down into well-constructed paragraphs which are linked with transitions. Students will be evaluated on --their ability to organize a logical essay which clear states their argument and then proceeds to support it -- their ability to express their ideas clearly and accurately using an adequate academic lexical range and complex sentence structures. The Final Oral Exam consists of two parts: 1) a discussion of the subject areas covered during the course 2) A mini-research project based on one of the subject areas from the book NOT covered during the course. The student will be required to show that he/she knows and can apply the notions and lexical components related to the subject areas covered (politics and government, economics, international law and human rights, political communication), and can carry on an academic discussion in these fields. The Oral exam lasts 20-30 minutes and counts for 15% of the student’s final assessment. The level of preparation of the student will be assessed using the following evaluation criteria: ability to use the target language and skills to discuss specific issues related to political sciences ability to communicate clearly and with appropriate language and register ability to effectively structure discourse to successfully fulfill the task at hand Non attending students will be assigned a course professor who will follow them in their completion of the non attenders’ programme, providing feedback and guidance.

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