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Insights from an ERASMUS Teaching Programme on Academic Writing: The French Case

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Mediating Specialized Knowledge and L2 Abilities

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Abstract

This chapter focuses on the relevance of Erasmus teaching staff mobility within the context of internationalisation. It deals with a brief course of English for General Academic Purposes (EGAP) run at the Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France in Valenciennes (France). Around 100 first-year students from the Marketing Techniques Department at the Valenciennes IUT completed a questionnaire distributed at the end of the course commenting on its usefulness. It was found that, overall, students were satisfied with the quality of this short academic course. Above all, they felt that the content of the study materials presented was relevant to the course topic and the lectures resulted in a high-level presentation. These participants also showed preference towards specific skills in academic writing, such as interpreting the research essay topic, paraphrasing, summarising and discussing results found in research papers. Suggestions for improvement included issues on the length of the course, division of smaller groups and more interaction between the tutor and the students. In addition, an issue relating to the impact of French culture on learning was observed. Hence, a set of preliminary pedagogical implications are provided so as to enhance departmental language policies, which promote internationalisation of academic staff.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Patras, Patras, Greece

    Ourania Katsara

Authors
  1. Ourania Katsara
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Correspondence to Ourania Katsara .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Humanities, National University of Distance Education, Madrid, Spain

    Linda Escobar

  2. Faculty of Humanities, National University of Distance Education, Madrid, Spain

    Ana Ibáñez Moreno

Appendices

Appendix 1: EAP Course Programme

Tuesday

Reviewing the topic/literature review guide.

  • Interpretation of the topic (direction, topic and focus)

  • Literature review (Why literature reviews are necessary, what is and what is not a literature review, six stages for writing a literature review)

Using published sources to write a literature review

  • Summarising (what makes a good summary stages of summarising)

  • Paraphrasing (the elements of effective paraphrasing and techniques of paraphrasing)

  • Combining sources (quoting sources, taking a critical approach, the writer’s credibility and tone)

Tasks are done in groups to practise topics discussed.

Wednesday

Building your argument

  • Giving examples (using analogies)

  • Mentioning and responding to opposing views

  • Appealing to authority (citing experts)

  • Pointing out consequences or implications

Organising your argument

  • Inductive approach

  • Deductive approach

Tasks are done in groups to practise topics discussed.

Dangers in developing your argument

  • Exaggeration and unsubstantiated generalisations (sweeping generalisation)

  • Oversimplification (false dilemma and false analogy)

  • Logical flaw/fallacy (irrelevancies, non-sequitur)

  • Appeal to inappropriate authorities

  • Emotionally charged words

  • Out-of-date facts

Tasks are done in groups to practise topics discussed

Thursday

Writing the paper: basic structure of a research paper—features of the sections of a research paper

  • Title

  • Abstract

  • Introduction

  • Literature review

  • Methods

  • Results

  • Discussion

  • Conclusions

  • References

Tasks are done in groups to practise topics discussed.

Appendix 2: Evaluation Questionnaire Results

Table 12.1 Gender
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Table 12.2 Level of English
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Table 12.3 Overall evaluation
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Table 12.4 Aspects of the presentation
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Table 12.5 Detail in the presentation
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Table 12.6 Favourite part
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Table 12.7 Least favourite part
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Katsara, O. (2021). Insights from an ERASMUS Teaching Programme on Academic Writing: The French Case. In: Escobar, L., Ibáñez Moreno, A. (eds) Mediating Specialized Knowledge and L2 Abilities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87476-6_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87476-6_12

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-87475-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-87476-6

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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