Fachsprachen kondtruieren: Kurskonzept für eine mehrsprachige Universität in Italien. TEIL I.

Abstract

In this paper the authors aim to show how theory and practice are interlinked in planning an LSP language course. It is the result of a project conducted at a trilingual university in Italy over 1,5 years. In the first part of the paper the theoretical impact will be discussed. The second part of the paper shows an example of a teaching exercise. Even though the authors describe the course concept by starting with the more theoretical impact and coming then to the practical one, both aspects are seen as one. The authors see themselves as teachers and researcher, and aim to show how important it is to define theoretical aspects of practice on the one hand and to study theory from a practice-oriented point of view on the other. It is part of the job of a teacher/researcher to continuously discuss how both are intertwined. This theoretical part of the paper shows key concepts of “language” and “language learning”. It furthermore shows data about students’ needs as well as the summery of a focused reading of German and Italian LSP-literature. Planning a language course should always consider all of these points and lead to a definition of an agenda of theses. Those connect theory and practice. Both parts of the paper aim to motivate practitioners to re-think their practice critically and stress the importance of theory. NB: The second part of this paper (Teil 2) published in LSP and Professional Communication, Volume 3, Number 2, October 2003.