Further research on pedagogical implications of teaching codes of ethics at tertiary level

A second step into the study of the integration of codes of ethics (CoEs) into the syllabus of a Business English course in an Italian public university. As highly specialized corporate documents, CoEs represent a specific genre, as intended by Swales (1990). They are commonly used to implement ethical principles into business practice (Krč 2015), however, studies on the pedagogical implication of using CoEs in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) courses, especially in Italy, are scarce. On one hand, CoEs as a specific genre are expected to reveal their potentiality in providing students with the necessary tools to meet the needs of disciplinary communication (Bhatia 2002). On the other hand, they could be considered useful in raising content, communication, cognition and culture-related skills in EFL learning, thus exemplifying the integration of content and language in education at large. Previous findings (Giglioni & Patat 2020) suggested that CoEs are functional pedagogical tools for students in terms of lexicon enhancement and overall engagement in corporate communication and behaviors. Within the theoretical framework of genre analysis and its possible implications for language teaching, this paper addresses issues raised in the first phase of the study. More specifically, this second stage of the research, which provides data for comparison, focuses on students’ perceptions and achievements in their EFL learning process with special attention to language awareness at a micro-textual level. Even if based on a small sample, it is believed that this qualitative and quantitative approach to CoEs allows for learners’ improvement in language proficiency without neglecting corporate discourse.