2023/2024
English for General Academic Purposes. Proficiency Course – 2
Category 'Best Course for Career Development'
Category 'Best Course for Broadening Horizons and Diversity of Knowledge and Skills'
Type:
Optional course
Delivered by:
School of Foreign Languages
When:
3, 4 module
Open to:
students of one campus
Language:
English
ECTS credits:
5
Contact hours:
80
Course Syllabus
Abstract
"English for General Academic Purposes. Proficiency Course – 2" for the 1st year students is designed to develop foreign-language communicative and integrated and critical thinking skills. The course is based on "Regulations for Interim and Ongoing Assessments of Students at National Research University Higher School of Economics" and "Concept of Development of English-language Communicative Competence of HSE Students". This course is suitable for university students with different academic needs and aims as the academic skills, tasks, and language of this course are common to most disciplines and are relevant to the needs of most students. The course is focused on mastering the core tasks relevant to all tertiary level students, i.e. working out the main points of academic texts, lectures as well as giving talks and participating in debates on the most actual topics: sociology, economics, biology, humanities and environmental engineering. “English for Academic Purposes” is suitable for students from any academic discipline and does not require any special subject knowledge. The course supports both classroom and independent learning. Students should have a B2 level.The students should get not less then 70 points as a result of the Entrance Test to join the course.The course has no blocking assessment.
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 students to revise, consolidate and extend their command of English grammar and vocabulary;
- - to develop students’ reading skills to enable them to skim texts for the main idea, to scan texts for specific information, to interpret texts for inferences, attitudes and styles, to deduce meanings from the context;
- - to develop students’ listening skills to enable them to understand and apply specific information from the input;
- - to develop students’ general capacity to a level that enables them to use English in their professional and academic.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- - to listen to the text using different strategies of understanding the information;
- - to read with a large degree of independence, adapting style and speed of reading to different texts and purposes, and using appropriate sources of information;
- - to express oneself fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions;
- - to interact flawlessly and efficiently with another speaker in a dialogue;
- - to know and use advanced vocabulary from the topics of sociology, economics, biology, humanities and environmental engineering;
- - to produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, showing controlled use of organizational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices;
- - to make presentations;
- - to use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes.
- - to write an essay (opinion, discussion);
Course Contents
- Unit 1. Sociology (the human experience).
- Unit 2. Economics (money and commerce).
- Unit 3. Biology (the science of nature).
- Unit 4. Humanities (arts and letters).
- Unit 5. Environmental engineering (structural science).
Assessment Elements
- Written Assessment (WA) 0.25Written Assessment icludes written tasks completed in class (reading and listening tests, summaries, essays).
- Oral Assessment (OA) 0.2Oral assessment includes a monologue on a given topic, a presentation and a discussion.
- Independent Work Assessment (IWA) 0.25Independent work assessment includes work during the seminars, homework, online work.
- Final Assessment (FA) 0.3"The final exam is held in class within 10 days before the exam period. The release of examination papers: during the session. The exam consists of 2 parts: reading (40%) and writing (60%) respectively in the total mark for the exam. 0 points in case of cheating. Retaking exams: till the 15th of October 2024. Time limit: 70 minutes. Tasks complexity: В2 / C1. Grading formula: R*0,4 +W*0,6 = 10.
Interim Assessment
- 2023/2024 4th module0.3 * Final Assessment (FA) 0.3 + 0.25 * Independent Work Assessment (IWA) 0.25 + 0.2 * Oral Assessment (OA) 0.2 + 0.25 * Written Assessment (WA) 0.25
Bibliography
Recommended Core 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
- University success: oral communication : advanced, Cavage, C., 2018
- University success: writing : advanced, Norloff, C., 2018
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Oxford grammar for EAP : english grammar and practice for academic purposes with answers, Paterson, K., 2013
- University success; reading; transition level, Zwier, L., 2017