Course detail
Practical English 5
FEKT-HPA5Acad. year: 2013/2014
The aim of the course is to strengthen academic language competences of students by mastering academically-oriented communicative receptive, productive and interactive activities of English language on the proficiency level C1 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Text analysis, listening, reproduction, language functions, difficult words and expressions,writing abstracts, summaries, presentation and communication skills are practised in the process of English language teaching and learning. The increasing of the grammatical and stylistic competence is an inseparable part of the course. The attention is focussed on revising grammatical categories widely used in scientific/technical writing (passive voice, nominalisation, complex sentences) and on matter-of-factness in the scientific prose style. The course helps students to find a job thus supporting their competitiveness in the labour market.
Language of instruction
Number of ECTS credits
Mode of study
Guarantor
Department
Learning outcomes of the course unit
The final exam verifies that a course graduate:
-Can give clearly developed presentations on subjects related to his/her professional field, can develop particular points and conclude appropriately.
-Can present his/her qualifications and experience.
-Can react on questions raised by members of the audience.
-Can verbalise numerical expressions and describe graphs, charts and trends.
Listening
The final exam verifies that a course graduate:
-Can understand lectures, talks and reports in his/her field of academic interest even when they are linguistically complex; can follow conversations between speakers.
-Uses listening strategies for gist and specific information.
Writing
The final exam verifies that a course graduate:
-Can write an abstract and summary of a technical text in an appropriate style s well as a letter of job application, curriculum vitae and e-mail messages.
Reading
The final exam verifies that a course graduate:
-Can understand long semi-technical texts oriented to electrical engineering and information technology and can summarise them orally.
-Can extract information, ideas and opinions from specialized texts from his/her own field.
-Can understand long instructions, for example for the use of a new piece of equipment, provided he has enough time to reread them.
-Can read any correspondence with occasional use of a dictionary.
Grammatical and stylistic competence
The final exam verifies that a course graduate:
-Is able to distinguish various writing styles.
-Is aware of difficult words and expressions in scientific/technical writing.
-Is aware of grammatical and stylistic categories widely used for obtaining formality and matter-of-factness in the scientific prose style.
Prerequisites
The subject knowledge required corresponds to the level C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. A student at this level:
Can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognise implicit meaning.
Can express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions.
Can use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes.
Can produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, showing controlled use of organisational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices.
Co-requisites
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
Assesment methods and criteria linked to learning outcomes
A semester test has a form of a written test assessed by max. 40 marks. To be able to pass an exam, a student has to obtain 50% at least, i.e. 20 marks.
An exam consists of:
• an oral part (presentation) assessed by max. 20 marks,
• a written part (reading comprehension) assessed by max. 20 marks and
• listening assessed by max. 20 marks.
A student has to obtain 50% at least out of each exam part in order to pass successfully the exam.
Course curriculum
2. Oral presentations: content, language, body language, visual aids, question time. Articles in technical English.
3. Language functions: comparing and contrasting; emphasising. Reading comprehension of semi-technical texts oriented to electrical engineering and information technology. Students' presentations. Listening.
4. Language functions: defining; describing a process. Reading comprehension of semi-technical texts. Students' individual presentations. Listening.
5. Numbers. Describing trends. Reading comprehension of semi-technical texts. Students' individual presentations. Listening .
6. Making notes for future reference. Revising grammatical and stylistic categories widely used in scientific/technical writing (passive voice, nominalisation, complex sentences, neutral and formal expressions etc.); matter-of-factness in the scientific prose style.
7. Academic vocabulary: key nouns; key verbs; key adjectives; key adverbs. Reading comprehension of semi-technical texts. Students' individual presentations. Listening.
8. Paragraph writing. Difficult words. Reading comprehension of semi-technical texts. Giving students' individual presentations. Listening comprehension.
9. Writing an abstract. Difficult words. Reading comprehension of semi-technical texts. Students' individual presentations. Listening.
10. Writing a summary. Difficult words. Reading comprehension of semi-technical texts. Students' individual presentations. Listening.
11. Employment: Writing a letter of job application. Writing academic curriculum vitae. Being interviewed. Students' individual presentations. Listening.
12. E-mail English. Reading comprehension of semi-technical texts. Students' individual presentations. Listening.
13. Semester test.
Work placements
Aims
Specification of controlled education, way of implementation and compensation for absences
Recommended optional programme components
Prerequisites and corequisites
Basic literature
Recommended reading
Classification of course in study plans