2020/2021

Английский язык для общих коммуникативных целей. Базовый курс - 1

Лучший по критерию «Полезность курса для расширения кругозора и разностороннего развития»

Лучший по критерию «Новизна полученных знаний»

Статус: Факультатив

Кто читает: Школа иностранных языков

Когда читается: 1, 2 модуль

Преподаватели: Афонина Ольга Игоревна, Дошлыгина Анна Владимировна, Костина Юлия Викторовна, Сильдимирова Марина Александровна, Тамбовцева Ольга Борисовна, Швец Лидия Сергеевна

Язык: английский

Кредиты: 3

Контактные часы: 56

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The discipline refers to the variable educational tracks offered to students of the curricula for bachelor's and master's degree at choice while mastering the optional course of English in accordance with the Concept of developing English-speaking communicative competence of students of Higher School of Economics — National Research University https://www.hse.ru/docs/381549301.html English for General Communication Purposes: Intermediate Level is a basic course on developing English skills for general communication purposes. Throughout the course, you will have multiple opportunities to work on the four major skills, such as listening, reading, writing and speaking, through in-person interaction as well as online work. The course will boost your English speaking skills by giving you a chance to take part in numerous discussions, presentations, and other forms of spoken interaction, and by expanding your vocabulary and grammar range. You will learn how to write a variety of texts including CVs, emails, summaries, and essays. You will also hone your reading and listening skills by reading extensively both authentic and adapted texts and listening to a variety of audiovisual resources that may include, but not limited to, podcasts, TEDtalks, and everyday conversations. By the end of the course you will gain the skills and confidence to communicate effectively in English at B1 level (HSE Scale 30-39).

Learning Objectives

• This course will help students improve their command of English for interpersonal and intercultural communication and develop their listening, reading, writing and speaking skills consistent with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), B1 level (HSE Scale 30-39). Students will practice different listening and reading strategies and will be equipped with the tools to properly compose written and oral texts common to communication for general purposes.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• To develop understanding of specialised complex longer texts/articles and reports concerned with contemporary problems (CEFR)
• To form understanding of text structure
• To develop skills of using basic reading techniques skimming and scanning (predicting, understanding main ideas, understanding details)
• To improve understanding of dialogues and polylogues on both familiar and unfamiliar topics
• To develop understanding of lectures and learning context
• To develop skills of using basic listening techniques (predicting, understanding main ideas and details)
• To form skills of note-taking
• To develop writing skills: summary; essay (opinion, discussion); email (business correspondence); CV
• To participate in dialogues on general topics. (active listening, questioning, responding to questions, emphasizing)
• To produce monologues (informative/descriptive/reasoning)
• To produce presentations (informative/descriptive/argumentative/persuasive speech)

Course Contents

• Personality
  Personality types. Introverts and extroverts. Empowering figures in art and politics. Charisma and the part it plays. Grammar: Present Simple and Continuous, question forms. Vocabulary: Personality adjectives, prefixes
• Travel
  Travelling and tourism. Types of tourism. Great explorers. Virtual tourism. Grammar: Past Simple and Present Perfect. Vocabulary: Travel expressions, phrasal verbs
• Work
  Work and career. Duties and responsibilities. Job descriptions. Remote working: pros and cons. Work placements and internships. Grammar: Present Perfect Simple and Present Perfect Continuous Vocabulary: Work adjectives, dependent prepositions, expressions connected with time and work
• Language
  World languages. Language in the modern world. Language as part of cultural identity. Language of online communication. American English vs. British English. Grammar: Future forms, first conditional Vocabulary: Language learning, phrasal verbs, British and American money idioms, language style.
• Advertising
  Types of advertising. What makes an advertisement appealing. Advertising targeting children. Restrictions on advertising. Image manipulation. Grammar: Second conditional, comparisons Vocabulary: Adjectives, advertising, words with a similar meaning, word combinations.

Assessment Elements

• Written assessment
  Written assessment includes: 1 reading test, 1 listening test, 5 vocabulary and grammar tests, 2 written works (email and summary). SUMMARY ASSESSMENT CRITERIA max 10 points TASK RESPONSE: 3 - All key points are mentioned; 2 - Most key points are mentioned and/or some crucial supporting information is omitted and/or the author’s ideas are partly reflected; 1- Very few key points are mentioned and/or little supporting information is provided and/or very few of the author’s ideas are mentioned, 0 - Only the topic is mentioned and/or no supporting information is provided and/or the author’s ideas are not reflected. VOCABULARY: 3 – Without mistakes; 2 - The original expressions are paraphrased. A wide range of vocabulary is used. 1-2 lexical mistakes are made; 1 - The original expressions are partly paraphrased and/or an adequate range of vocabulary is used and/or 3-4 lexical mistakes are made; 0 - The original expressions are copied and/or a limited range of vocabulary is used and/or more than 4 lexical mistakes are made. GRAMMAR: 3 – Without mistakes; 2 - A variety of complex grammar structures is used. No more than 1 punctuation and/or 1-2 grammar mistakes are made; 1 - An attempt to use complex grammar structures is made and/or 3-4 grammar mistakes are made; 0 - Elementary grammar structures are used and/or more than 4 grammar mistakes are made. STRUCTURE: 3 - The text is logically organized. A wide range of transitions is used appropriately; 2 - The text is mostly logically organized and/or an adequate range of transitions is used; 1 - The text may have serious breaches in logic and/or transitions may be over- or underused; 0 - There is no sequence of ideas and/or transitions are used inappropriately or not used at all.
• Oral assessment
  Oral assessment includes a monologue on a given topic, answers to 2-3 questions and a presentation. The elements of oral assessment cannot be retaken
• Independent work assessment
  Independent work includes activities that students do at home, activities that students do in the classroom and online work. The elements of independent work cannot be retaken.
• Final assessment
  The final test is held in class within 10 days before the exam period. The final test includes one reading test, one listening test and one written work (summary). The test tasks can be of different types. The final written assessment is conducted on Zoom/MS Teams/other platforms. Students connect to the videoconference 10 minutes before the exam begins; the teacher sends a task, may create separate sessions and assign the participants of the meeting to these breakout rooms. During the exam, it is prohibited to: communicate (using social media, with people in the room), cheat, give the exam variant to others to have it done, listen to the audio file more than twice, pause the audio, use dictionaries, translators or other sources. During the exam, the student is allowed to: use blank sheets of paper for drafts, open the audios in other web-browsers or download the audio to the computer and open it there. A short-term communication failure during the Exam is considered to be a loss of a network connection for up to 5 minutes. A long-term communication failure during the Exam is the loss of a network connection for more than 5 minutes. It is not possible to complete the Exam in case of a long-term communication failure.

Interim Assessment

• Interim assessment (2 module)
  0.3 * Final assessment + 0.25 * Independent work assessment + 0.2 * Oral assessment + 0.25 * Written assessment

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• New language leader: intermediate : coursebook, Cotton, D., 2015

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Berry, R. (2018). English Grammar : A Resource Book for Students (Vol. 2nd edition). [Place of publication not identified]: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1753147
• Качалова, К.Н. Практическая грамматика английского языка с упражнениями и ключами : учебник / К. Н. Качалова, Е. Е. Израилевич. — Санкт-Петербург : КАРО, 2018. - 608 с. - ISBN 978-5-9925-0716-4. - Режим доступа: https://new.znanium.com/catalog/product/1047576