Course Catalogue

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This course aims to develop students' general and academic English language skills for social and study purposes. Using an integrated approach to language skills development, students will focus on texts and events of a social and academic nature. They will focus on all four language skills, developing their ability to work as independent and reflective learners.

12 hours per week over 10 weeks

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Written exam: writing, reading 30%

Project output: written project 20%

Group discussion: 15%

Oral presentation: 15%

Set exercise: in-class test of listening and writing 20%

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. Where, exceptionally, reassessment on Honours courses is required to satisfy professional/accreditation requirements, only the overall course grade achieved at the first attempt will contribute to the Honours classification. For non-Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

Due to the nature of the group discussion assessment, this component cannot be reassessed. The initial grade for the group discussion will be used when calculating the resit grade.

This course aims to:

■ develop students' understanding of academic study practices and their knowledge of typical written and spoken academic discourses at undergraduate level

■ build interactional skills for effective participation in academic seminars, tutorials and group discussions, and in everyday communication

■ introduce key skills for formal academic presentations

■ develop English language and key academic skills to support students in their academic study.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ use a number of strategies to follow and understand talks and lectures

■ take organised notes from academic spoken and written texts

■ participate actively in academic group discussions and independent study tasks using appropriate listening and speaking skills

■ apply a range of skills and sub-skills to interact with academic texts

■ present information and opinions effectively in formal and informal spoken and written contexts

■ use strategies to develop vocabulary range

■ reflect on their learning and set independent learning goals

Students must submit or attend all the scheduled summative assessment components (written project, group discussion, class test of listening and writing, oral presentation, and written exam) to ensure that all language skills are assessed. Due to the interactive nature of this course students must be present at 90% of timetabled seminars and tutorials, at which attendance is recorded.