M1/M2 Theses

The team of faculty members in the Department of Languages at ENS Paris-Saclay particularly encourages master’s theses in specialized English and the teaching of English to non-native speakers (LANSAD). Specialized English is “the branch of English studies that deals with the language, discourse, and culture of specialized English-speaking professional communities and social groups, as well as the teaching of this subject” (Petit, 2002: 2).

Below are a few examples of theses completed in the department to illustrate how the discipline of specialized English can engage with cultural studies, discourse analysis, the analysis of FASP (fiction with a professional background), linguistics, translation, and even didactics.

SCIENTIFIC AND ACADEMIC DISCOURSE

• Discursive aspects of popular science texts in the field of earth sciences
• Writing the land. Specialized aspects of contemporary British geographers’ discourses
• Stance and engagement in contemporary musicological research
• The description of experiments in organic chemistry: Characterization of a Specialized Procedural Text
• Discursive Aspects of Research Articles in Mathematics

LEGAL DISCOURSE

• The Phraseology of the Irish Supreme Court. An attempt at characterization.
• The Plain Language Movement and Scottish Law.

POLITICAL DISCOURSE

• The personalization of politics: the campaign speeches of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign.
• Discourse Accreditation Strategies and Dominant Speech: A Rhetorical and Linguistic Analysis of McCarthy’s parliamentary committees.
• The political English of Irish parliamentary committee debates. A diachronic study
• The Commemoration of September 11 in the United States: Discursive analysis of a speech event.

ORGANIZATIONAL AND JOURNALISTIC DISCOURSE

• Press releases and communication strategy at Monsanto: a rhetoric of diversion?
• Characterizing the discourse of American think tanks. A genre analysis.
• Contribution to the characterization of the rhetorical strategy adopted in the press releases of an activist NGO, Greenpeace International.
• Contribution to a characterization of professional oaths in English.

ART DISCOURSE

• An attempt to characterize the specialization of English in the field of figure skating.
• An attempt to characterize the English language of cinema.
• Around the haute couture show: language practices, discourses, and specialized actors.
  

• The Representation of British Political Circles in Professional Fiction: Specular, Didactic, and Satirical Dynamics.
• Toward a Typology of the Scientific Substratum in the Novels of Kathy Reichs.
• The Diagnostic Debate in the Television Series *Dr. House*. Characterization of a Specialized Oral Genre.
• On the Specialized Nature of Profession-Based Fiction: The Example of the Police and Crime Series NCIS
  

• Syntactic aspects of English-language political editorials.
• Linguistic markers of evaluation in contemporary British opera criticism.
• Metaphors in Apple’s advertising discourse.
• A diachronic study of terms in English-language anthropological works dealing with Aboriginal peoples.

• Toward a Protocol for the Translation of Medical Research Articles from English to French
• The SKOPOS Theory and the Translation of Medical FASP
• A Contrastive Approach to Specialized Economic Translation

• Project-based teaching in the LANSOD sector
• Analysis of the teaching approach of six medical English textbooks.
• Analysis of the English language needs of French general practitioners using a questionnaire survey
• Using MOOCs to teach chemistry in English: a case study at ENS Cachan
• LANSOD needs analysis in music and musicology