English for General Academic Purposes. Advanced Course - 1 – HSE University Course Catalogue – Higher School of Economics National Research University

2020/2021

Type: Optional course

Delivered by: School of Foreign Languages

When: 1, 2 module

Instructors: Григорова Наталья Сергеевна, Букина Анна Викторовна, Клементьева Екатерина Александровна, Колмакова Анжелика Владимировна, Дымова Елена Евгеньевна, Букина Анна Викторовна, Григорова Наталья Сергеевна, Evgenia Anikudimova, Valentina Byvalina, Anna Doshlygina, Anastasia Filonova, Anastasia Germanovich, Yulia Grevtseva, Inna Grigorian, Elena Petrovna Khoch, Anna Ivanovna Khotinskaya, Veronika Kondratova, Irina Igorevna Kovalyova, Elena Kryukova, Victoria Kuznetsova, Evgeniya Lubennikova, Natalia Mishustina, Anna Mnatsakanyan, Ekaterina Molchanova, Elena Borisovna Nikitina, Lidiya Pankina, Ksenia Pospelova, Natalya Putilina, Vera Alexandrovna Rudakovskaya, Ekaterina Alexandrovna Sobolyanova, Dmitry Tyulin, Anastasia Vlasenko, Anastasia Sergeyevna Vyrenkova, Anna Zhuravleva, Трибис Ксения Валентиновна, Утенкова Дарья Владимировна, Трибис Ксения Валентиновна

Language: English

ECTS credits: 3

Contact hours: 56

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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 The program is for the 1st year students. English for Academic Purposes is designed to develop foreign-language communicative and integrated and critical thinking skills that are based on &quot;Regulations for Interim and Ongoing Assessments of Students at National Research University Higher School of Economics and &quot;Concept of development of English-language communicative competence HSE students&quot;. Every student has slightly different needs, depending on their chosen discipline, cultural background and other factors. However, there are main skills, tasks, and academic language that are common to most disciplines and are relevant to the needs of most students preparing to study English at university level. The course is focused on core tasks relevant to all students, such as working out the main points of an academic text or lecture (such perspectives as education, communication, systems, and others). There are no blocking controls.

Learning Objectives

to improve student’s ability to read and understand journal articles, texts, lectures from different perspectives
to increase student’s comprehension of spoken English
to strengthen student’s speaking and writing skills in a range of different disciplines
to systematically and progressively develop students’ academic skills, language, and critical thinking
to provide material for the students to revise, consolidate and extend their command of English grammar and vocabulary
to develop the students’ reading skills to enable them to skim the text for main idea, to scan the text for specific information, to interpret the text for inferences, attitudes and styles, to deduce meanings from the context
to develop the students’ listening skills to enable them to understand and apply specific information from the input
to develop the students’ general capacity to a level that enables them to use English in their professional and academic environment granted that they are provided with the specific notions and vocabulary in the course of their studies

Expected Learning Outcomes

To develop skills of using basic listening techniques (predicting, understanding main ideas and details)
To develop skills of using basic reading techniques skimming and scanning (predicting, understanding main ideas, understanding details)
To develop understanding of articles, reports, straightforward and specialised texts concerned with contemporary problems at the threshold/vantage/effective operational proficiency level
To form understanding of text structure
Writing an academic e-mail
Dialogue on general, academic and professional topics. (active listening, questioning, responding to questions, emphasizing, discussion strategies)
To develop understanding of lectures and learning context
Monologue (informative/descriptive/argumentative/persuasive speech)
To improve understanding of dialogues and polylogues on both familiar and unfamiliar topics
Writing a summary of a text
To form skills of note-taking
Presentation (informative/descriptive/argumentative/persuasive speech)

Course Contents

Topic 1. Education
Studying and learning approaches. Preparation for academic study. Seminar discussions, expressing an opinion. Informative texts, skimming, reading for details. Planning an essay. Using dictionaries. Listening: understanding main ideas in a lecture. Speaking: asking and answering questions; preparing for and taking part in a seminar discussion; expresses an opinion. Reading: reading and understanding short informative texts; skimming the text for the main idea and reading for detail. Writing: understanding essay titles; generating ideas; creating a plan for writing. Vocabulary: working out the meaning of unknown words; using a monolingual dictionary. Grammar: most frequent sentence patterns.
Topic 2. Systems
Presenting graphic information in speaking and writing: diagrams, processes. Description and definition. Key reading strategies: skimming, scanning. Academic vocabulary. Relative clauses. Listening: recognizing key factual information in a lecture. Speaking: successfully presenting visual information. Writing: identifying the language and features of descriptions of visual information; writing a short description of visual information. Reading: predicting the purpose of a text; understanding key information and terms; key reading strategies (skimming, scanning). Vocabulary: academic vocabulary. Grammar: relative clauses.
Topic 3. Communication
The Internet, media. Recognizing and presenting supporting evidence: examples, definitions and explanations. Tutorial discussions. Writing topic sentences and adding supporting evidence. Writing a paragraph. Listening: understanding the main ideas in a lecture; analysing types of supporting evidence: examples, definitions, and explanations. Speaking: participating in a tutorial discussion. Reading: identifying the main ideas; identifying supporting evidence. Writing: analysing and writing topic sentences; adding supporting evidence using reasons and examples; writing a paragraph. Vocabulary: word families; adverbs to express stance; noun phrases.
Topic 4. Order
Classification. Signposting language. Writing a thesis statement and introduction. Active and passive voice. Listening: recognizing signposting language; taking notes using diagrams. Speaking: signposting language to refer to visual information; giving a short presentation. Reading: identifying the purpose and structure of a text; using classification to make notes. Writing: analysing an essay introduction; writing a thesis statement and an introduction. Vocabulary: noun and verb transformations. Grammar: active and passive voices.

Assessment Elements

Written assessment
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: 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: 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
Independent work assessment
Final assessment
The final written exam is conducted in Zoom. Students connect to the videoconference 10 minutes before the exam begins. 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

Oxford EAP. A course in English for academic purposes. Upper-Intermediate/B2 . Student's book (+ ..., Chazal, E., 2012

Recommended Additional Bibliography

Oxford grammar for EAP : english grammar and practice for academic purposes with answers, Paterson, K., 2013

Course Syllabus

English for General Academic Purposes. Advanced Course - 1