Course detail

English Upper-Intermediate 1

FAST-VYA010Acad. year: 2026/2027

Grammar: question formation, auxiliary verbs, comparative phrases, present perfect (simple and continuous), adjective order, narrative tenses.
Vocabulary: personal questions, health, illness and treatment, clothes and fashion, travelling, weather, feelings, adjectives, my university/faculty/campus, my study programme, e-mail communication with professors
Reading: civil engineering / architecture course at a university abroad
Writing: comparing your studies in the Czech Republic and an architecture /civil engineering study programme abroad

The content of the course is aimed at students who would benefit from studying and practicing English at B1+ level (Upper-Intermediate level) with a native speaker, i.e. students who: wish to study abroad (e.g. with the Erasmus+ programme) or work abroad; want to prepare for the VYA013 B2 level language exam (useful for Erasmus+); already speak English at a good Intermediate level and would like to improve; already speak English at Upper Intermediate level and would like to practice their English so as not to forget what they learned in previous years.

 

Language of instruction

Czech, English

Number of ECTS credits

2

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Department

Institute of Social Sciences (SPV)

Offered to foreign students

Of all faculties

Entry knowledge

This subject follows on from the level of the Cambridge PET exams, i.e. B1 (Intermediate) according to the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) for languages. 

 

Rules for evaluation and completion of the course

Extent and forms are specified by the guarantor and updated for every academic year.

Aims

Students will extend their language skills, vocabulary and grammar knowledge towards the B2 level of the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) for languages. 

 

Study aids

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

LATHAM-KOENIG, Christina a Clive OXENDEN. English File: Upper-Intermediate. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, [2014]. ISBN 978-0-19-455864-8. (EN)
TURLAND, Roger. VYA010 English Upper-Intermediate 1, FAST BUT Ústav společenských věd, Brno, 2026. (Availability: Faculty Moodle) (EN)

Recommended reading

Not applicable.

Classification of course in study plans

  • Programme BPC-VP Bachelor's 1 year of study, winter semester, elective

  • Programme BPC-SIS Bachelor's

    specialization SI , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective

  • Programme BKC-SIS Bachelor's 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    2 year of study, winter semester, elective

  • Programme BPC-SIS Bachelor's

    specialization E , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    specialization K , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    specialization M , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    specialization S , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    specialization V , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective

Type of course unit

 

Exercise

26 hours, compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

Syllabus

  • Week 1: Introducing yourself; indirect questions for politeness
  • Week 2: My university and faculty, my study programme; talking about the semester, timetables and the exam period; getting around a campus
  • Week 3: Accidents and illnesses, first aid; present perfect simple for news, experience and achievements
  • Week 4: Clothes vocabulary and related idioms; present perfect simple and continuous
  • Week 5: Youth subcultures and clothes; adjective word order
  • Week 6: Air travel; adjectives as nouns in the context of stereotypes concerning nationalities and groups of people
  • Week 7: Narrative tenses, including past perfect simple and continuous
  • Week 8: Studying abroad; comparing study programmes and student life here and at a foreign university; my favourite course / the university where I would like to go on Erasmus
  • Week 9: The weather; predicting the future with the future continuous and future perfect
  • Week 10: Taking risks; feelings; real conditionals and time clauses
  • Week 11: The Erasmus+ application process; successful formal email communication with teachers
  • Week 12: Survival in dangerous situations; unreal, theoretical conditionals
  • Week 13: Revision and credit test