Courses overview
English for Academics is the only organization in Italy to offer scientific English courses targeted at researchers, PhD students and administrative staff. The courses cover every aspect of academic writing and correspondence.
Much of what participants will learn is applicable not just in English but also in any language.
Duration
All courses are designed to last for 10 hours. However, courses can be combined together, extended or reduced to meet your department’s requirements.
Costs
The cost of each course is €1950,00 + IVA (20%).
The cost of a course is irrespective of where your university or institute is located and includes all our travelling and accommodation costs. We are happy to travel anywhere in Italy that has good rail or air connections with Pisa.
The cost includes a 60 day free subscription to our Resources, beginning 30 days before Day 1 of the course and continuing 30 days after Day 1 of the course. This free access is limited exclusively to attendees of the course who register with the site.
If you already have a paid subscription to our Resources then you will be entitled to a reduction for each course corresponding to 25% of your subscription fee. For example, if you pay a €500 subscription fee you will earn a discount of €125 on each and every course you choose.
Number of participants
All courses, except for Presentations, can be held with up to 50 participants. Given the nature of presentations, and the fact that each individual participant needs to practise giving a live presentation in front of the class, the smaller the number of participants the better.
Scientific disciplines
We offer courses for all disciplines except medicine and law.
Students from a variety of disciplines can attend the same course.
However, where possible we recommend grouping together students from similar disciplines.
What is "Scientific English"?
The term 'scientific English' for us does not mean teaching scientific and technical vocabulary. It is assumed that participants already know the specific terms of their field.
Instead we focus on:
- structure (e.g. the specific parts of a scientific paper, or the logical sequence of a presentation)
- style - clarity and conciseness
- word order
- readability (written documents), watchability (presentations)
- making their work 'sound English'
- communication skills
- cultural awareness
Organization and Registration
If possible the courses need to be organized at least one month in advance. This will enable participants to register to the E4AC site and to download the exercises that they will be required to do before the course begins.
How the courses are arranged will depend on how close your university or institute is in relation to our headquarters in Pisa. Those outside a 120 km range from Pisa are generally conducted intensively over 1-3 consecutive days with a minimum of five and a maximum of seven hours per day. This may entail combinations of courses, for example, English for Writing Scientific Papers combined with English for Presentations at Congresses.
Here is a typical example of the timetable of a 10-hour course spread over two consecutive days.
- Day 1 (5 hours): 11.00-13.00, 14.00-17.00
- Day 2 (5 hours): 09.30-12.30, 13.30-15.30
If the course is for 20 hours or 30 hours, then we suggest doing two consecutive days, having a pause of at least one week, then two more consecutive days etc. This allows participants to assimilate what has been learned in the course. This works particularly well when a Paper course is combined with the Presentations course - the students learn a lot about the theory of Presentations in the first week, then two weeks later they put it all into practise having had time to prepare their presentations in the intermediate week.
Once you have confirmed that you wish people from your doctorate school, department or institute to do the course, we will ask you to send us the names of all the participants and their email addresses. We will then explain how they can register to the site and send them a password. This will give them free access to materials for a period of two months.
English level required
All courses are held in English.
To participate in the courses, participants should have at least B2 of the Council of Europe's Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (http://www.cambridgeesol.org/exams/cef.htm). B2 is approximately the equivalent of First Certificate or TOEFL.
Pre-course preparation
We tailor courses to meet the participants' particular needs.
We thus ask participants to send us in advance various examples of their work , for example:
- papers,
- presentations,
- CVs,
- emails.
We then integrate these materials into our courses.
One month before the course begins participants are thus requested to upload their documents onto our site.
Participants may also be required to download documents. These include notes, guidelines and exercises to do or read before the course begins. It is essential that you encourage participants to complete such exercises as the success of the courses to some extent depends on such preparation.
Self study and Tests
We try to make maximum use of our time by not doing in the lessons what participants could easily do by themselves before the course begins or when the course has finished. This typically includes:
- grammar exercises
- vocabulary exercises
- writing assignments
- the final test
The above exercises and the test can all be downloaded by participants once they have registered to the site.
Final Test
Each course has a final test. Again, to maximise the use of our time, we encourage the organizers to allow students to do the test online rather than in the 'classroom'. This means that the teacher is always active during the lessons, rather than passively watching students do their test.
In the online test, students log on, access the test and then have 90 minutes to complete it. We suggest that they do the test within 5 days of completing the course. After those 5 days they will no longer have access to the test, unless upon specific request.
The first part is a multiple choice test on grammar, vocabulary and word order.
The second part consists of one or more of the following, depending on the course
- revising documents or presentations
- writing a specific section in a paper or report
- writing an email or formal letter
We will send you the results within one week after the last possible day for students to complete the test.
How to subscribe a course
If you wish your students to attend one of our courses please email us directly at email address with the following information:
- name of course(s) you are interested in
- period when you want the course to be held. Please check our calendar to see if we are available to do courses in the period of year that you are interested in
- number of hours you would like a course or combination of courses to last (minimum 10 hours)
- type of students (undergraduate, postgraduate, PhD + their department)