Mirrored aims, methods, materials and assessment in teaching English for political science as reflected in two Italian and Romanian higher educational environments

In the same way in which English has become the language of science and technology after World War II, so it has also turned into a lingua franca with yet undisputed supremacy in the language of diplomacy, international relations, political science, and politics in general. Since the early sixties, English for Specific Purposes, a relatively new field within the well-established ELT tradition, has attracted a wealth of publications concerned with the very practical aspects of teaching and learning language combined with a specialized disciplinary framework and content. Helping students and novice scholars to respond to the demands of scientific exposition and effective communication in the increasingly English-dominated international environments becomes, therefore, an undeniable priority. Our paper approaches crucial aspects in the structure and evaluation design of the English language courses we carry out in two well-known European universities (University Federico II in Naples and National School for Political Science and Public Administration in Bucharest) where TESOL/ESP centers around the needs of Political Science students increasingly grappling with the sheer amount of top-quality English-medium reference materials. The paper analyses the course designs, as well as the underlying educational framework influencing the teachers’ decisions in the delivery of the course. At times overlapping, most of the times interconnecting, due to different educational, cultural and national contexts, our teaching paradigms greatly influence the learning experience of Italian and Romanian students, becoming instrumental not only in the language acquisition processes, but also in the development of lifelong learning skills. In conclusion, the in-depth study of two higher education environments in Italy and in Romania has shown that, even within the multifaceted landscape of the Euromosaic, «far more unites us than divides us».