Self-study

studia drugiego stopnia

English Philology

semestr 3

studia stacjonarne

profil akademicki

języki obce
obowiązkowe

Realizowany w sali

a passing grade in Academic Language Skills: Reading, writing and speaking 3

a passing grade in Academic Language Skills: Listening and structures 3

ECTS points in relation to student’s duties

total number of ECTS: 3

3 ECTS: 90 hrs of preparation to the exam (self-study)

Course description

The Self-study C2-level examination is a competence exam serving the purpose of controlling the students’ general language competence, without concentrating on the knowledge of the material analysed within any particular course.

Course objectives

The aim of the examination is to test whether the student’s language proficiency satisfies the C2-Level requirements with reference to:

- understanding heard and read texts,

- summarising information from spoken and written sources,

- reconstructing arguments in a coherent presentation,

- expressing her-/himself spontaneously, with fluency and precision,

- differentiating between subtle shades of meanings in elaborate situations.

The exam consists of three parts:

a) Integrated test to control the student’s language proficiency in:

a1) listening comprehension (maximum score = 20 percent of the test score),

a2) reading comprehension (maximum score = 20 percent of the test score), a3) the use of English (maximum score = 20 percent of the test score),

b) Writing – a short essay (approximately two pages of A4 format) focusing on a discussion of a chosen research problem emerging from their Academic major. The student’s task is to justify why a chosen problem seems to be important and interesting. This part of the exam serves the purpose of checking the student’s ability to apply the appropriate academic style in a written text (maximum score = 20 percent of the test score).

c) Oral exam – this part aims at checking the student’s knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, pronunciation, academic discourse markers, and the ability to conduct interactive communication within the fields analysed in Academic Language Skills: Reading, writing and speaking classes. The questions are related to the student’s MA profile (maximum score = 20 percent of the test score).

The evaluation guidelines for the exam follow those issued by the Council of Europe in The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR). While evaluating the student’s accomplishment in exam tasks, special attention is paid to the way of handling academic features of discourse such as: the use of impersonal forms, formal field terminology, the lack of emotional load and the presence of objective distance, an appropriate handling of formal information in arguments, and – finally – the student’s social participation in a discussion (i.e. turn-taking, respecting other conversers’ views, dealing with communication problems, the use of extra-linguistic communication).

Reading list:

Brown, K. (2007). Academic encounters: Life in society: Reading, study skills, writing. Cambridge: University Press.

Cumming, A. (Ed.). (2006). Goals for academic writing. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Espeseth, M. (2006). Academic listening encounters: Listening, note taking, discussion: Human behavior. Cambridge: University Press.

Flowerdew, J. (Ed.). (2002). Academic discourse. Harlow: Longman.

MacPherson, R. (2006). English for academic purposes. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.

McCarthy, M. (2009). Academic vocabulary in use. Cambridge: University Press.

Osuchowska, D. (2009). The rudiments of academic writing. Rzeszów: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego.

Sanabira, K. (2007). Academic listening encounters: Life in society: Listening, note taking, discussion. Cambridge: University Press.

Learning outcomes acc to PRK 2019

Knowledge

The student knows and understands:

1. the role of English as a cognitive means and a tool used for studying with its language subtlety and indirect expressions (k_W03/P7S_WG)

2. the rules of academic discourse in English, including characteristics of various types of academic texts such as a paraphrase, summary, definition, comparison, synthesis, critique, argument, discourse, and polemic (k_W06/ P7S_WG)

3. know grammatical, lexical and stylistic rules of C2-Level academic English (k_W06/ 7S_WG)

Skills

The students can

4. read and create advanced English language texts in the field of English philology at C2 level (k_U04/P7S_UK)

5. speak English at C2 level, with particular emphasis on academic discourse, taking part in the specialist communication and conducting a formal debate (k_U05/P7S_UK)

Social competences

The students are ready to

6. prioritize the implementation of various tasks related to studying and approaching a self-study C2 exam (k_K01/P7S_KK)

Forms of evaluation of learning outcomes

Written and oral exam in English at C2 level - 100% of the final grade (outcomes 1,2,3,4,5,6)

The accomplishment of all exam tasks is represented by a sum of percentage points scored in individual tasks. Final marks are granted according to the following framework:

total score: 0 – 59% - mark: 2,0

total score: 60 – 68% - mark: 3,0

total score: 69 – 76% - mark: 3,5

total score: 77 – 84% - mark: 4,0

total score: 85 – 92% - mark: 4,5

total score: 93 – 100% - mark: 5,0