Practical English

ACADEMIC WRITING

The module develops students’ academic writing skills on C1 level and focuses on the skills required to write a BA thesis. Throughout the summer semester, paraphrasing, summarising, citing, and referencing will be practised in longer texts, with particular attention paid to the ability to work with academic sources and to document their use in accordance with the Department of English stylesheet.

Students will learn how to evaluate and revise their own work and that of their peers (peer-assessment and self-assessment) to improve language accuracy with regard to advanced grammar, lexis and academic register; they will work on texts individually and in groups to improve their clarity and coherence.

Content distribution (summer semester):

- An overview of rules and regulations, teaching and learning outcomes, content, methods and assessment criteria of the course

- Academic vocabulary, Latinate vs. colloquial lexis, emotional and personal expressions

- Hedging

- EAP style problems (academic vocabulary, hedging, stance, paraphrase

- Other common problems (punctuation/typography, use of linking words, editing problems: table of contents, tables, divisions, etc.)

GRAMMAR

During classes students will become acquainted will selected grammar issues and master their linguistic competence at C1 (+) level.

Content distribution (winter semester):

- Introduction - an overview of rules and regulations, teaching and learning outcomes, content, methods and assessment criteria

- Inversion and emphasis (2 hrs)

- Subordinate clauses (3 hrs)

- Reported speech (3 hrs)

Evaluation of progress:

-Tests and individual feedback (2 hrs)

Content distribution (summer semester):

- Gerund and infinitive (2 hrs)

- Verb patterns (3 hrs)

- Miscellaneous grammar tests at C1(+) level (2 hrs)

Evaluation of progress:

- Tests and individual feedback (3 hrs)

READING AND VOCABULARY

Content distribution (Summer semester)

- Introduction (presentation of learning outcomes, content of the course, evaluation methods and criteria, code of conduct) + selected article (current affairs)

- News and the Media

- The 21st century workplace

- Discussing arguments and theories

- Academic register – analysing results; summarizing and concluding

- Tests and individual feedback

SPEAKING/LAB

Content distribution (summer semester):

Work in this module of practical English skills is aimed at improving the students’ skills at delivering oral presentations to various target groups (profiled academic or professional audience). Consequently, the focus of the classes in the summer semester is on:

- preparing and delivering oral presentations

- discussing/presenting research

- exercising control over register/formality

In terms of content, the speaking/listening material will cover politics and International relations, education, health and the environment.

Students will be asked to discuss a list of questions on each topic area and use listenings from a variety of sources to assist them further in answering the set questions. During the listenings they will be asked to make Cornell notes and use these notes in class. Presentations will also be practised in Politics and International relations with students being asked to work with their groupings to come up political manifestos and then present them to the rest of the class for an argumentative discussion.

Assessment methods:

ACADEMIC WRITING (summer semester)

1) tests / tasks completed during online classes (50%) W1, U1, K2

2) homework (25%) U1, U2, K1

3) wriiten assignment in the summer semester - U2, U3, U4, W1 (25%)

GRAMMAR

- feedback on the student's active participation in classes recorded in an assessment log (30%) - U6, U7, U8, K3

- final test (summer semester) (70%) - W2, W3, K4

READING AND VOCABULARY

- Moodle home assignment and in-class participation (20%) K5, U9, U11

- in-class tests (winter semester) (30%) W4

- end-of-semester written test (summer semester) (50%) W4

SPEAKING/LAB

(Summer semester)

1) an oral presentation of one of the questions discussed during the semester and then answering follow-up questions related to the presentation. (50%) U14, U15

2) participation in class: continuous assessment (50%) W5, U14

Assessment criteria:

fail - 0-59%

satisfactory- 60 - 69 %

satisfactory plus- 70 - 75 %

good - 76 - 85 %

good plus- 86 - 90%

very good- 91 - 100%

Methods of assessment (winter and summer semesters):

The final PNJA grade is the average of the results of all four components of the module.

The final test/presentation in every Practical English module is administered to determine the extent to which students have met the assumed learning outcomes and it values 50% of the final grade.

The students are evaluated in accordance with the university regulations, and they must attend all course meetings.Each class absence has to be excused in the first week after the lesson missed. The final grade percentage will be reduced by 10% for every unexcused absence. Students who have failed the test are allowed one retake, which in case of the final test is administered in the retake examination session.