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Teaching English Professional Writing in an E-learning Environment: An Italian Case Study

Received: 30 July 2015    Accepted: 28 August 2015    Published: 3 November 2015
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Abstract

This paper will report on the author's four-year experience of teaching English for International Organizations and Their Discourse, a course especially developed for the distance learning Master program in Comunicazione nelle Organizzazioni e Imprese Internazionali (Communication in International Organizations and Enterprises) launched by the Linguistic Center of the University of La Tuscia, in Viterbo, Italy, in 2008, and the teaching of a Business Communication course, focused on business writing, initially offered as an elective and subsequently transformed into a core (blended-format) course in the graduate program of Marketing and Quality at the same University. The specific features, aims and target of the two courses will be briefly explained and followed by the discussion of the program development and results obtained.

Published in International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 3, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.21
Page(s) 383-393
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

ESP, E-learning, Moodle, Writing Skills Development, Error Analysis

References
[1] S. Harrington, R. Rickly and Michael Day (Eds.), The Online Writing Classroom. Cresskill, N.J.: Hampton Press, 2000, p. 8.
[2] L. Ortega, "Interaction and attention to form in L2 text-based computer mediated communication," in Multiple Perspectives on Interaction, A. Mackey and C. Polio, Eds. New York: Routledge, 2009, pp. 226-253.
[3] M. Warschauer, "Computer-assisted language learning: An introduction", in Multimedia language teaching, S. Fotos, Ed. Tokyo, Japan: Logos International, 1996, pp. 3–10.
[4] M. Hamilton, Autonomy and Foreign Language Learning in a Virtual Learning Environment. New York: Bloomsbury Academy, 2013.
[5] J.W. Creswell, Educational research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall, 2002, p. 485.
[6] D. H. Hymes, "On communicative competence," in Sociolinguistics, J.B. Pride and J. Holmes, Eds. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1972.
[7] J. M. Swales, Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
[8] C. Berkenkotter and T. N. Huckin, Genre Knowledge in Disciplinary Communication: Cognition/Culture/Power. Hillsdale: Laurence Herlbaum, 1995.
[9] Cfr. Moodle Statistics. Retrieved July 20, 2015 from the site https://moodle.net/stats/.
[10] A detailed description of this free, open source Learning Management System and clear instructions for course designers can be found in W. H. Rice's manual, Moodle Teaching Techniques: Creative Ways to Use Moodle for Constructing Online Learning Solutions. Birmingham: Packt Publishing, 2007.
[11] C. W. Pollard, The Soul of the Firm. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000, p. 123.
[12] A small learner corpus has indeed been created with the business correspondence produced by the University students of the Bus. Com. course in the last few years. The corpus, manually annotated following the Louvain error tagging guidelines, will be available on the University webpage next year. A detailed description of the Corpus and initial Computer-aided Error Analysis of the collection of the Italian learners' writing samples can be found in A. Romagnuolo, "ItalBEC: An Italian Learner Corpus of Business English", unpublished.
[13] M. S. Marx, "Distant writers, distant critics, and close readings: Linking composition classes through a peer-critiquing network," Computer and Composition, vol. 8 (1), pp. 23-39, November 1990, retrieved March 2012 from http://computersandcomposition.candcblog.org/archives/v8/8_1_html/8_1_2_Marx.html.
[14] B. Davis, and R. Thiede, "Writing into change. Style shifting in asynchronous electronic discourse," in Network-based Teaching. Concepts and Practice, M. Warschaucher and R. Kern, Eds. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 87-120.
[15] L. L. Irvin, "The shared discourse of the networked computer classroom," in Trends and Issues in Post- secondary Studies, K. Austin, Ed. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 2000, pp. 219-228.
[16] M. Warschaucher and R. Kern (Eds.), Network-based Teaching. Concepts and Practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
[17] The expression is commonly credited to Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger who used it to describe apprenticeship experiences; in their later studies, it has became a synonym of communities of practitioners who share implicit, pre-acquired knowledge and, therefore, foster the production of new knowledge. Cfr.: J. Lave and E. Wenger, Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
[18] For an overview of the state of the art in written error correction research, see the numerous studies conducted by Dana R. Ferris on students' reactions to teacher corrective feedback and its effect, and, in particular, Treatment of Error in Second Language Student Writing, 2nd ed., Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2013.
[19] E. M. Mestre Mestre and M. L. Carrió Pastor, "A pragmatic analysis of errors in University students' writing in English", English for Specific Purposes World, vol. 12, pp. 1-13, 2012.
[20] C. Pérez-Sabater and B. Montero-Fleta, "Pragmatic competence and social power awareness: the case of written and spoken discourse in non-native English environments", International Journal of English Studies, vol. 14, pp. 21-38, 2014.
[21] A. Rossett, "Waking In The Night And Thinking About E-Learning," in The ASTD E-Learning Handbook, A. Rossett, Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, pp. 3-18.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Anna Romagnuolo. (2015). Teaching English Professional Writing in an E-learning Environment: An Italian Case Study. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 3(6), 383-393. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.21

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    ACS Style

    Anna Romagnuolo. Teaching English Professional Writing in an E-learning Environment: An Italian Case Study. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2015, 3(6), 383-393. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.21

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    AMA Style

    Anna Romagnuolo. Teaching English Professional Writing in an E-learning Environment: An Italian Case Study. Int J Lang Linguist. 2015;3(6):383-393. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.21

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.21,
      author = {Anna Romagnuolo},
      title = {Teaching English Professional Writing in an E-learning Environment: An Italian Case Study},
      journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
      volume = {3},
      number = {6},
      pages = {383-393},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.21},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.21},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20150306.21},
      abstract = {This paper will report on the author's four-year experience of teaching English for International Organizations and Their Discourse, a course especially developed for the distance learning Master program in Comunicazione nelle Organizzazioni e Imprese Internazionali (Communication in International Organizations and Enterprises) launched by the Linguistic Center of the University of La Tuscia, in Viterbo, Italy, in 2008, and the teaching of a Business Communication course, focused on business writing, initially offered as an elective and subsequently transformed into a core (blended-format) course in the graduate program of Marketing and Quality at the same University. The specific features, aims and target of the two courses will be briefly explained and followed by the discussion of the program development and results obtained.},
     year = {2015}
    }
    

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Author Information
  • Department of Economics and Management, Università Della Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy

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