Introduction to English for Specific Purposes: Course materials for students of Social Sciences

Before you is a collection of materials composed of 5 units designed to gradually develop the academic and professional English language skills of students of Social Sciences at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences. Since the course is taught in the first year of university studies, this will be the first time most students are exposed to academic English and English for specific purposes. Needless to say, English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) differ from General English (GE) mostly taught in secondary schools, so Unit 1 will briefly point out the main differences and bring students’ attention to the special features of academic and professional writing, speaking, listening and reading, which are all highly relevant skills in today’s globalized transnational world, where the majority of most prominent academic work is published in English and where people work on the global market. As students will need to work with sources throughout their course and practise academic reading and writing, the introductory unit points out the main characteristics of academic English to make it easier for the students to engage in the many tasks of the course materials. The course materials also feature English for Specific Purposes (ESP) as they have been specifically designed for students of social sciences, in general.