The aim of the course is to introduce students to a wider Anglophone economic world, including the so-called former colonies of the British Empire (in particular Australia, Canada, India, Nigeria and South Africa),  as to explore the variety and peculiarity of the English language used in texts on financial and economic issues.

Students will learn how to deal with specific terms and realities, as well as to analyze different kind of texts from a linguistic and stylistic point of view. They will be able to realize how texts about innovation, social and economic inequalities, emerging economies, advertising, marketing and business ethics are based on specific linguistic and discursive strategies and constructions.

After a general overview of the contemporary Anglophone world and its socio-economic and historical processes, the course mainly focuses on the presentation of texts about financial and business issues, together with linguistic theory and discourse practices to be used for the analyses.

Texts range from newspapers and magazines to audiovisual material and websites on the topics proposed,  as well as academic writing and narrative. Texts are discussed and analyzed in class and the students are asked to actively participate, in order to better understand the topics and the practical application of theories for textual analysis. 

At the end of the course, the students will have acquired analytical abilities and a good working knowledge of textual analysis. They will be asked to apply those abilities and that knowledge to various texts regarding economics and business. They will be expected to be able to form independent judgments in their analyses, and to expound the same both in written and in spoken form. More specifically:

Knowledge and understanding: at the end of the course, the students will be required to show extensive knowledge of the linguistic theories and economic issues.

Applying knowledge and understanding: the students must be able to apply their knowledge of these theories to the analysis of various texts regarding economics and business.

Making judgements: the students must acquire the ability to make decisions on the best analytical strategies for each text they have to deal with.

Communication skills: at the end of the course, the students must be able to conduct their analyses in terminologically adequate English (written/spoken), at the level required by the course.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

See the blended learning platform.

Teaching

See course books.

Attendance

Attendance is highly recommended, in order to actively participate to discussions and analyses in class.

Course books

N. Fairclough, Critical Discourse Analysis, Essex, Longman, 1995 (selected chapters)

G. Bamford, R. Salvi (eds), Business Discourse. Language at Work, Roma, Aracne, 2007.

Assessment

Written test: guided textual analysis of a text. Use of monolingual dictionaries is allowed. The final assessment will be based not only on the validity of the analysis, but also on methodological relevance (references to the course books) and on the student's argumentative abilities in English. In practice, in their written tests, the students will have to demonstrate notions in the field of linguistic theory, to apply these notions to their analysis, to exercise their own judgement in their analytical choices, and to show a good command of written English (at the level required by the course).

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Teaching

See Course Books

Course books

John E. Richardson, Analysing Newspapers, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007 (selected chapters)

N. Fairclough, Critical Discourse Analysis, Essex, Longman, 1995 (selected chapters)

G. Bamford, R. Salvi (eds), Business Discourse. Language at Work, Roma, Aracne, 2007.

Assessment

Written test: guided textual analysis of a text. Use of monolingual dictionaries is allowed. The final assessment will be based not only on the validity of the analysis, but also on methodological relevance (references to the course books) and on the student's argumentative abilities in English. In practice, in their written tests, the students will have to demonstrate notions in the field of linguistic theory, to apply these notions to their analysis, to exercise their own judgement in their analytical choices, and to show a good command of written English (at the level required by the course).

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.