UCL CENTRE FOR LANGUAGES
& INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
SSCs 2015-2016
Italian for Professional Purposes – Medicine
Prerequisite for entry
Successful completion of Italian Current Affairs and Culture (Social, Historical and Political) at the UCL CLIE, or equivalent
qualifications/experience.
Course duration
Year 1 students: double-block (16 x 3-hour classes. Block 1: 8 x 3-hour classes; Block 2: workshops and tutorials related
to Project).
Year 2 students: single block (8 x 3-hour classes).
Self-Study
40 hours in total.
Course codes
LCIM6007.
Aims and Objectives
The course is designed for very advanced level students requiring the language for professional purposes.
It comprises knowledge and understanding both of the structure of the language and its use in professional
environments, such as presentations, meetings and conferences. The course covers career development in the target
language countries, business culture and conventions, negotiating and interacting, reading specialist medical texts,
note-taking and debates as well as other related topics. These areas will be related back to medicine.
The course will enhance knowledge and use of linguistically complex structures (a variety of styles and registers from a
range of authentic material).
Various transferable skills will also be further developed.
Functions
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expressing specialised opinions, critical topic-related comments;
debating, commenting, negotiating;
suggesting, accepting, refusing;
describing, defining;
composing written pieces of information for professional purposes;
conducting presentations on complex professional topics;
conference skills;
note-taking.
Course Content
Main topics/themes to be covered
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employment in medical and pharmaceutical industries;
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job applications and interviews;
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conference papers;
conducting meetings;
medical research;
project management.
Skills
Reading
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reading for gist, scanning for specific information in professional sources;
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in-depth analysis of professional topics in relevant publications.
Writing
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formal business letters;
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analysis and review of articles;
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note-taking from presentations;
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writing up presentations;
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professional reports and conference papers;
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journal articles;
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CVs and covering letters.
Listening
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radio, TV, audio- and video-tapes;
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presentations;
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professional debates.
Speaking
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formal and informal discussions, debates, round table;
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presentations;
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conferences.
Linguistic Structures
Discourse Strategies
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analysing/comparing texts from various professional sources (different text types, styles and registers);
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preparing oral contributions for different audiences;
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spoken versus written professional communication.
Main Aspects of These Strategies
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structuring (logical structures);
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linking devices (lexical, grammatical);
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stylistic levels and their usage;
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professional vocabulary.
Learning Resources
There is no textbook for this course.
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Dizionario dell’uso dei verbi (Guerra Edizioni) 2004 – ISBN: 9788877157294
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Il Ragazzini 2015, Dizionario Inglese-Italiano/Italiano-Inglese (Zanichelli) – ISBN: 9788808600820
Materials for the course will be drawn from:
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Authentic written material from various sources such as La Repubblica, Il Sole 24 Ore, Il Corriere della Sera
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Authentic audio and audio-visual material.
In addition there is a wide range of language learning materials available for self-study in the Self-Access Centre.