Academic English 1

obligatory courses

Course description

The course is designed to enable students to be exposed to and systematize the specialist knowledge of Academic English as a variety in profesisional academic context. Students become conversant with relevant literature as well as practice selected academic writing thinking and skills to become fully equipped to later engage in intensive reading and reporting on a study undertaken during their specialized courses.

Content

Paragraph and longer text organization: cohesion and coherence, developing ideas into paragraphs, appropriate use of formal style, punctuation, sentence variety and complexity giving examples, evaluating texts and summarizing

Vocabulary and grammatical structures typical of academic register: variety of texts related to current academic debates, precise uses of terminology in various disciplines, presenting structures requiring correction, completion or transformation according to a given model; a selection of exercises focusing on a particular stylistic issue.

Reading list

A.1. used in class

Selected relevant monographs, readers, journal articles, online materials within Academic English. Academic writing coursebooks, APA/MLA style manuals,

Adams-Tukiendorf, M., & Rydzak, D. (2003). Developing writing skills: A manual for EFL students. Opole: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Opolskiego.

Bailey, S. (2003). Academic writing: practical guide for students. New York: Routledge Falmer.

A.2. used for self-study

Selected relevant monographs, readers, journal articles, online materials

Knowledge

Students:

1. have a proficiency in English at B1 level, know grammatical, lexical and stylistic rules of correct uses of English, as well as of various registers to be used appropriately in academicl contexts (k-W-1)

2. know of the main methods of analysis and interpretation of uses of specialized language(k-W-1)

3. know the formal properties and application of various genres and conventional practices in academic communication(k-W-1, k-W-7)

Skills

Students can:

4. write a coherent paragraph/essay in English, using various techniques of exposition, a range of sources and a sufficient number of arguments/perspectives/ details to underpin the thesis statement (k-U-6)

Social competences

Students:

5. fluently speak and competently write in English (at B1 level) (k-K-1)

6. cooperate with others in a team, assuming various roles(k-K-2)

7. are well-organized and reliable as regards assignments (k-K-5)

Methods of instruction/ forms of classroom activity

1. in-class activities, lecture with multimodal presentation, group discussion, analysis, writing activities, individual reports on assigned reading,

2. individual consultations,

3.self-study

Checking attendance and participation in classroom activities (1,5, 6)

Reporting/presenting on one’s reading and research (1,5,7)

Written credit work: continuous assessment (2,3,4)

Presentation involving various academic writing and presenting skills (3,4,6)