ACADEMIC DISCOURSE
COURSE OUTLINE
COURSE COORDINATORS
Elly Ifantidou
Bessie Mitsikopoulou
Angeliki Tzanne
A. STRUCTURE OF THE COURSE
This course is organized as a workshop in which students are invited to participate actively. For this reason, attendance is highly recommended.
Specifically, students in this course are invited to:
1. attend a weekly session
2. engage in self study work
1. WEEKLY SESSIONS
Weekly sessions aim, firstly, at familiarising students with academic texts and helping them understand and produce academic discourse successfully. To this end, these sessions embark on a detailed presentation of academic style and genres, and address issues such as interpreting data, quoting and synthesising from different texts. The second main aim of weekly sessions is to help students develop academic study skills such as note-taking, paraphrasing and summarising. A tentative course outline is the following:
Tentative outline
Week 1: Introduction to the course – Understanding academic texts
Week 2: Dealing with textbooks – Surveying material
Week 3: Note-taking
Week 4: Academic style
Week 5: Academic genres
Week 6: Generalisation, qualification and caution
Week 7: Interpretation of data
Week 8: Paraphrasing
Week 9: Summarising
Week 10: Quoting and referencing – Synthesising from sources
Week 11: Preparing for exams
2. SELF STUDY WORK
At university level, self study work aims at enabling students to become independent and autonomous learners, responsible for their own learning. In this course students are asked to systematically engage in self-study work in order to improve their overall language proficiency. This will lead to the successful completion of the Language Programme (4th semester, Genres in English) offered by the Department, which requires a C2 level of English Language Competence. Below are some suggestions for additional work:
(1) Improve your grammar by working on a number of units from
Thornbury, Scott. 1997. About Language. Tasks for Teachers of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Book to be found in the Library)
The suggested units are:
Unit 12: Sentence structure: the simple sentence
Unit 13: Sentence structure: the complex sentence
Unit 15: The verb phrase
Unit 16: Time and tense
Unit 19: Modality
Unit 22: The noun phrase
Unit 26: Cohesion
Unit 27: Texts
This book addresses teachers of English as a Foreign Language, and aims to raise their consciousness about language; in other words, to raise their language awareness. It is designed to be used for self study and it is based on the principle that “working out something for oneself pays greater dividends in terms of memory and understanding than simply having it explained” (Thornbury, 1997: xi). For this reason, the second part of the book (pp 183-255) includes extensive commentaries and keys to all tasks, which, in addition to providing sample answers to tasks, attempt to provide explanations for the answers. It is expected that in this way students will be better prepared to deal with language from a pedagogical perspective and consider pedagogical implications and classroom applications.
(2) Use online resources for self-study
Visit the new website of the Self-Access Centre of the Faculty of English Studies at http://www.enl.uoa.gr/centre. The site provides you with several opportunities for language practice:
A) Click on ONLINE RESOURCES and select language activities from a list of more than 200 carefully selected websites. The websites are organized according to thematic categories. You are advised to use these online resources in the following way: choose one of the main categories (e.g. grammar or listening) and work systematically on the activities found in each one of the websites for a period of time. Be organized and prepare a programme for your self-study. It would be good to keep a record of the websites you visit and the activities you do every time you visit the website.
B) Click on LANGUAGE ACTIIVITIES and select vocabulary, reading and grammar activities. A number of quizzes will give you an opportunity to check what you have already learned.
(3) Listen to lectures for self-study
Visit the Self-Access Centre of the Faculty of English Studies (9th floor, Room 905) to watch lectures from the famous collection The Great Courses- Teaching that engages the mind. Professors from distinguished universities give lectures on a variety of themes (see short list below). You may watch the lecture while following the detailed outline of the lecture in the accompanying leaflet.
We suggest that you work on the lectures systematically over a long period of time in order to develop good listening skills, enhance your understanding of academic lectures, practice note-taking and outlining. When you start listening to lectures, you may be aided in your understanding by the detailed outline given in the leaflet. After a few weeks we suggest that you start keeping your own notes and outline which you may later compare to the suggested outline provided in the leaflet.
Select a lecture from the detailed catalogues available in the Centre, identify the specific DVD where you can find it and then borrow the DVD and a set of headphones from the Centre staff.
(4) Explore the language of lectures
Visit the Self-Access Centre of the Faculty of English Studies (9th floor, Room 905) to use the multimedia programme Listening to Lectures, an interactive CD-ROM designed to help you improve your academic listening skills. It contains digital video clips from 40 authentic lectures given in 25 different departments across the range of faculties – sciences, social sciences and humanities. There are hundreds of interactive exercises based on the video clips. This CD-ROM has been specifically designed for students:
· whose first language is not English
· who have to listen to lectures in English
· who wish to improve their academic listening and speaking skills.
In addition to listening, the CD-ROM also includes several vocabulary and grammar activities.
Below are the contents of the CD-ROM:
Unit 1: Opening of lectures
Includes exercises on: ways to introduce a topic, talking about earlier lectures, structure and structural phrases, use of questions, vocabulary, notetaking, formal words vs everyday words.
Unit 2: Structure and organization
Includes exercises on: opening and closing summaries, signaling words, markers, transitions, vocabulary (idioms and metaphorical usages, connotations).
Unit 3: Definition, classification, comparison/contrast & exemplification
Includes exercises on: defining, classifying (the language of classification, categories), comparing & contrasting, exemplifying (signalling examples, using examples), notetaking.
Unit 4: Referring to and evaluating sources, indicating cause, effect and purpose
Includes exercises on: referring to sources, evaluating sources, indicating cause &
effect, indicating purpose, interacting, notetaking.
Unit 5: Qualification, markers of attitude and significance
Includes exercises on: markers indicating importance, paraphrasing, making connections, listening for significant points, importance markers, qualification and strength of claim, style and manner, attitude, non-literal meaning, vocabulary, nouns in groups, prepositions.
Unit 6: Argumentation
Includes exercises on: thesis (the lecture as argument), identifying the thesis, antithesis, the language and structure of arguments, vocabulary (terminology, explanatory phrases).
B. COURSE ASSESSMENT
Students will be assessed on the basis of the following:
a. Assignment 10 points
b. Final Exam 90 points
Total final mark 100 points
Students are requested to hand in individual assignments in accordance with the allocated deadlines, beyond which no assignment will be accepted.
Students who do not attend classes regularly may find assignment topics in the e-class of the course (http://eclass.uoa.gr).
C. COURSE COORDINATORS
Elly Ifantidou Office: 904, 9th floor E-mail:
Bessie Mitsikopoulou Office: 902, 9th floor E-mail:
Angeliki Tzanne Office: 903, 9th floor E-mail:
D. COURSE BOOKS
Section(s) taught by Elly Ifantidou
· Ifantidou, E. (2011) Genres and Pragmatic Understanding. Athens: Patakis.
Section(s) taught by Bessie Mitsikopoulou
· Jordan, R. R. (1999) Academic Writing Course. London: Longman.
Section(s) taught by Angeliki Tzanne
· Jordan, R. R. (1999) Academic Writing Course. London: Longman.
All sections
· Academic Discourse: A Reader (2012) Athens: University of Athens.
· Academic Discourse Online Practice Workbook (2012) Athens: University of Athens. (Key to the ADOPW is available in the e-class of the course)
E. THE E-CLASS OF ACADEMIC DISCOURSE
E-class is an asynchronous e-learning platform developed by the University of Athens to support traditional educational processes of teaching and learning with multi-media content and educational software. Students are advised to use the e-class of Academic Discourse regularly for latest information about the course. They are also asked to enroll in the e-class of the course in order to receive all course announcements at their email address.
How to use the e-class of the course
1. Go to http://eclass.uoa.gr
2. Click on “Κατάλογος Μαθημάτων” > “Αγγλικής Γλώσσας και Φιλολογίας” > “Τομέας Γλώσσας-Γλωσσολογίας” > “Academic Discourse”
3. Go to “Documents” to download useful information for the course.
How to enroll in the e-class of the course
1. Go to http://eclass.uoa.gr
2. Click on “Εγγραφή Χρήστη”
3. Select “Λογαριασμός Εκπαιδευόμενου. Νέος Λογαριασμός”
4. Complete the form.
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