Conceiving language courses for specific purposes

Teacher(s)

Bibauw Serge;

Language

French
> English-friendly

Prerequisites

The concepts, principles, methods and structures of didactic sequences seen in Didactics of French as a Foreign Language (LFLE2005) will be considered as known. 

Main themes

1. Teaching of languages for specific purposes 
2. Needs analysis 
3. Gender analysis 
4. Design of courses with specific objectives 

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	Analyze a language teaching situation based on specific needs;
2	Recognize the linguistic specificities of specialized discourse in French;
3	Develop a training program in French as a foreign language in accordance with the principles of the didactics of French for specific purposes and the task-based approach;
4	Construct a didactic use (with different types of exercises and activities) of an authentic document from a specialized discourse.
This teaching unit contributes to the development and mastery of the following skills and knowledge from the School of Languages and Arts syllabus (see ELAL AA table).

Content

Foundations of languages for specific purposes 

• Concepts and terminology 
• History: from specialized language to LSP 

Needs analysis 

• Stakeholders and literature review 
• Analysis of the target situation 
• Analysis of the initial situation 

Analysis of specialist discourse 

• Characteristics of professional languages 
• Gender analysis 

Course design 

• Objectives, skills, tasks 
• Task-based approach 
• Gender approach 
• Construction of sequences and projects 

Teaching methods

An interactive lecture that encourages questions and comments and promotes regular student participation in class through immediate group responses.
Weekly required reading is to be completed online on Perusall via Moodle. Active and collaborative reading is factored into the final grade.

Evaluation methods

Learning outcomes will be assessed through several components:

• Final project (85%): completion, over the course of the four-month term, of the various stages involved in developing a language course focused on specific objectives. This work will be carried out in groups based on a specific case study. Individual participation within the group may be assessed separately from the group’s final report and will influence each group member’s individual grade.
  • Various interim presentations or quick progress checks will be held throughout the four-month term.
  • At the end of the four-month term, each group will present its work at a “knowledge fair.”
    An unexcused absence from this final presentation will result in a 2-point penalty out of 20.
  • Students must submit a final group report.
  • An individual oral exam may be administered, during which each student will present their individual contributions to the group project and answer questions to demonstrate their mastery of the concepts, principles, and steps involved in designing a language course with specific objectives.
• Preparatory readings and active participation (15%), through collaborative annotation of readings on Perusall, active participation during class, and participation in ongoing group activities on Moodle.

Since the assessment for this course unit is based primarily on the completion, as a group and over the course of the semester, of a long, complex, multi-stage project, and on the continuous assessment of this project, failure to participate in the intermediate stages or in the completion of the group project will result in a score of zero for those stages, which cannot be redone from scratch in a subsequent session. Only an individual improvement on a partial grade is possible for these scores (85% of the final grade).
Rules relating to the use of AI and plagiarism
Generative artificial intelligence (AI), if used, must be used responsibly and in accordance with academic and scientific integrity practices. Scientific rigor in both academic works requires both the verification of information and citations (consulting source articles, checking citations, and cross-referencing the results of several tools to limit bias) and the traceability of results and procedures (clearly indicating which tools were used, at what stages, and with what precautions). The use of AI must therefore always be reported in a precise and detailed manner.
Whether reported or not, the presumed use of AI tools will be considered non-compliant with academic standards when it leads to:

• citing bibliographic sources to support statements without having consulted the sources in question and/or without there being a close link between these statements and the ideas developed in these sources, or
• including references in the bibliography that have not been verified or that are completely non-existent.

Similarly, throughout their work, students must demonstrate a perfect command of the rules of bibliographic referencing; at the risk of being suspected of plagiarism (see https://uclouvain.be/fr/etudier/uss/lutter-contre-le-plagiat.html), they must ensure that they

• do not copy a text without quotation marks and/or without mentioning the source; 
• do not reproduce a graph, data, illustrations, etc., without mentioning the source; 
• not to rephrase or summarize an author's original idea without citing the source; 
• not to translate, in whole or in part, a source without citing it.

This definition supplements the one given in Article 107 § 2 of the RGEE and constitutes a specific provision within the meaning of § 3 of the same article. Students who do not comply with the guidelines set out above are liable, in the event of irregularities or plagiarism being detected by the jury, to academic sanctions as detailed in the RGEE (section 7).

Bibliography

Anthony, L. (2018). Introducing English for specific purposes. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351031189
Basturkmen, H. (2010). Developing courses in English for specific purposes. Palgrave Macmillan.
Hyon, S. (2017). Introducing Genre and English for Specific Purposes. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315761152
Mangiante, J.-M., & Parpette, C. (2023). Le français sur objectif spécifique. Ingénierie de la formation et conception de programme. Hachette.
Paltridge, B., & Starfield, S. (Eds.). (2013). The handbook of English for specific purposes. Wiley-Blackwell. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/book/10.1002/9781118339855
Woodrow, L. (2018). Introducing course design in English for specific purposes. Routledge.

Teaching materials

• Références disponibles sur Moodle

Faculty or entity

> ELAL