Institutional Academic Discoursein European Universities’ websites
CLAVIER 13 conference
Marco [email protected]
Chiara [email protected]
Modena, 6-8 November 2013
Research project
� Multidisciplinary research project on ‘internationalisation’ at the University of Napoli Federico II
Research project
� Multidisciplinary research project on ‘internationalisation’ at the University of Napoli Federico II
� University governance: analysis of institutional and regulatory process
� Economics: analysis of effects of competition within a general regulatory framework
� Linguistics: analysis of European university websites
Research project
� Multidisciplinary research project on ‘internationalisation’ at the University of Napoli Federico II
� University governance: analysis of institutional and regulatory process
� Economics: analysis of effects of competition within a general regulatory framework
� Linguistics: analysis of European university websites
� University of Bologna in Forlì
� AcWaC-EU
Context
� Great impact on the way Universities disseminate knowledge on the web
� Accommodate the information provided to the needs of their international audience
Marketization of university discourse via the use of ELF
Previous work
• Marketization of University discourse
� Fairclough (1993); Mautner (2005); Morish and Sauntson (2013); Swales (2004).
• Corpus linguistics
� Biber (2006) – academic and institutional genres [catalogues, course syllabi, handbooks, programme web pages]
• ELFA in academic domain
� Mauranen (2010) – English as a Lingua Franca in Academic Settings
• Academic Web-as-Corpus
� Bernardini, Ferraresi, Gaspari (2010), Vigo, Bernardini, Ferraresi, Gaspari e Venuti (2012), Bernarini, Ferraresi(2012, 2013)
Corpus
• “acWaC-EU” (an acronym for “academic Web-as-Corpus in Europe”),
• nearly 90-million words of web pages in English crawled from the websites of European universities.
• Bernardini and Ferraresi (8th Web as Corpus Workshop (WAC-8) @ Corpus Linguistics 2013)
Keywords
� Comparison between native and ELF websites
� Keywords (WordSmith Tools 5, Scott 2008) as a tool to identify differences / similarities:
� Content (Scott and Trible 2006)
� Style (web-based genres)
� Communicative function (descriptive, interactive)
� Key words are those words found in a corpus we are interested in, whose frequency is high in comparison with a corpus we have taken as reference corpus.
Keywords
Keywords
� Native university websites vs. ELF universitywebsites
� ELF university websites vs. native universities’websites
� First 400 keywords
Keywords
Common keywords
� Native corpus:
� Places (London, Ireland, Dublin, Glasgow)
� Nationalities (British, Irish)
� Departments, subjects (physics, mathematics)
� ELF corpus:
� Places (Russia, Ukraine, France, Paris, Germany, Dublin, Amsterdam)
� Nationalities (Russian, Ukrainian, French)
� Departments, subjects (economics, sciences)
‘native’ keywords
� Personal pronouns and possessive adjectives
� you (4), our (6), your (7), we (9), my (235)
‘native’ keywords
� Personal pronouns and possessive adjectives
� you (4), our (6), your (7), we (9), my (235)
Ex. You will give yourself the best possible chance if you apply as early as possible once you have decided on your course and institution
Ex. We will provide you with the information you need to make an informed choice about courses at Birmingham City University
Ex. Hi, my name is Vicki and I'm studying Food Production and Supply Management. My time
‘native’ keywords
� Personal pronouns and possessive adjectives
� you (4), our (6), your (7), we (9), my (235)
� Modality
� will (14), may (94), can (181), need (281), would (378)
‘native’ keywords
� Personal pronouns and possessive adjectives
� you (4), our (6), your (7), we (9), my (235)
� Modality
� will (14), may (94), can (181), need (281), would (378)
you will be, you will need, students will be, you will have,
you will find, the university will
you may be, you may have, you may also, you may not,
the university may, you may find
‘native’ keywords
� Personal pronouns and possessive adjectives
� you (4), our (6), your (7), we (9), my (235)
� Modality
� will (14), may (94), can (181), need (281), would (378)
� Imperative forms
� find (24), click (77), contact (87), visit (150), provide (151),open (167), see (175), ensure (190), include (199), make (218), trust (227), undertake (252), do (277), apply (278), talk (315),deliver (329), use (336), explore (363)
‘native’ keywords
� Course organisation and description + useful info
� hons (17), postgraduate (19), modules (26), campus (30), course (32), advice (39), details (46), information (48), scheme (49), careers (54), prospectus (61), skills (62), honours (65), facilities (69), undergraduate (73), enquiries (91), staff (99), links (100), opportunities (131), employability (139), module (142), fees (143), services (160), bursaries (163), community (169), disability (180), bursary (205), queries (206), accessibility (209), employers (215), enquiry (222), progression (233), accommodation (234), qualifications (243)
‘native’ keywords
� Course organisation and description + useful info
� hons (17), postgraduate (19), modules (26), campus (30), course (32), advice (39), details (46), information (48), scheme (49), careers (54), prospectus (61), skills (62), honours (65), facilities (69), undergraduate (73), enquiries (91), staff (99), links (100), opportunities (131), employability (139), module (142), fees (143), services (160), bursaries (163), community (169), disability (180), bursary (205), queries (206), accessibility (209), employers (215), enquiry (222), progression (233), accommodation (234), qualifications (243)
‘native’ keywords
� Course organisation and description + useful info
� Promotional language
� range (12), available (36), award (95), awards (107), full (108), creative (189), ensure (190), exciting (197), delighted (238), fantastic (256), wide (266), committed (268), excellent (365), flexible (372), bespoke (374), supportive (382), reputation (385)
‘native’ keywords
� Course organisation and description + useful info
� Promotional language
� range (12), available (36), award (95), awards (107), full (108), creative (189), ensure (190), exciting (197), delighted (238), fantastic (256), wide (266), committed (268), excellent (365), flexible (372), bespoke (374), supportive (382), reputation (385)
� Wh- words and deixis
� how (88), what (198), here (122), this (133)
‘native’ keywords
� Course organisation and description + useful info
� Promotional language
� range (12), available (36), award (95), awards (107), full (108), creative (189), ensure (190), exciting (197), delighted (238), fantastic (256), wide (266), committed (268), excellent (365), flexible (372), bespoke (374), supportive (382), reputation (385)
� Wh- words and deixis
� how (88), what (198), here (122), this (133)
� Overseas students
� overseas (254)
ELF keywords
� University organisation and description
� faculty (8), rector (20), prof (29), professors (31), institutions (44), administration (51), admission (52), studies (54), bachelor's (62), specialists (64), according (68), thesis (92), faculties (112), documents (115), semester (123), activities (139), teachers (140), training (163), researches (178), projects (179), candidate (196), laboratories (221), laboratory (225), departments (255), specializations (286), institution (290), internship (311), specialities (316), personnel (321), tasks (326), representatives (342), curricula (351), problems (358), institute (359), official (361), president (362), informational (367), rectors (372)
ELF keywords
� University organisation and description
� faculty (8), rector (20), prof (29), professors (31), institutions (44), administration (51), admission (52), studies (54), bachelor's (62), specialists (64), according (68),thesis (92), faculties (112), documents (115), semester(123), activities (139), teachers (140), training (163), researches (178), projects (179), candidate (196), laboratories (221), laboratory (225), departments (255), specializations (286), institution (290), internship (311), specialities (316), personnel (321), tasks (326), representatives (342), curricula (351), problems (358), institute (359), official (361), president (362), informational (367), rectors (372)
ELF keywords
� University organisation and description
� Mobility
� relations (76), language (108), integration (127), agreements (134), mobility (135), abroad (176), sphere (186), implementation (218), participants (238), languages (262), affairs (292), bilateral (331), Mediterranean (333), Euromed (376), joint (377), passport (388)
ELF keywords
� University organisation and description
� Mobility
� Erasmus
� European (18), ECTS (35), exchange (40), erasmus (48), europe (129), euro (295), euros (345)
ELF keywords
� University organisation and description
� Mobility
� Erasmus
� Bologna process
� Bologna (201)
ELF keywords
� University organisation and description
� Mobility
� Erasmus
� Bologna process
� Descriptive verbs
ELF keywords
� University organisation and description
� Mobility
� Erasmus
� Bologna process
� Descriptive verbs
� was (60), organizes (220), organize (301), participated (350), became (375), took (396)
ELF keywords
� University organisation and description
� Mobility
� Erasmus
� Bologna process
� Descriptive verbs
� (limited) Promotional language
ELF keywords
� University organisation and description
� Mobility
� Erasmus
� Bologna process
� Descriptive verbs
� (limited) Promotional language
� specialists (64), possibility (203), different (267), specializations (286), specialities (316), goal (332), possibilities (343), speciality(387)
Preliminary findings
� ‘native’ websites:
� Marketisation
� Promotional language
� User oriented (choice of content)
� More dialogic nature
� Genre conscious communication
Preliminary findings
� ‘native’ websites:
� Marketisation
� Promotional language
� User oriented (choice of content)
� More dialogic nature
� Genre conscious communication
� ELF websites:
� More monological nature
� Institution oriented (choice of content)
� Lack of web-communication features
Preliminary findings
� Internationalisation / integration of a common European Higher education system:
� ELF websites:
� Little or no competition
� Lack of awareness of web-based communication
Preliminary findings
� Internationalisation / integration of a common European Higher education system:
� ELF websites:
� Little or no competition
� Lack of awareness of web-based communication
� Compliance to regulations
� Need to improve web mediated communication
� Need to improve communicative competence in ELF
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