Foregrounding the productive skills, "English: Speaking and Writing" is a suite of three courses enabling learners from different academic backgrounds to gain accuracy, range, confidence and fluency in written and spoken English, primarily for study purposes.
Drawing on a broad spectrum of academically oriented source material, "Speaking and Writing II" aims to engage your interest in a variety of contexts which will allow you to hone your productive skills. During the course you will work in pairs and groups, discussing source material, analysing and practising targeted language features, thereby enabling you to produce a succession of short texts. Following on from "Speaking and Writing I", this course builds on the previous course by extending the range and complexity of the areas addressed, including among others: identifying and applying academic formality; expressing points of view; describing change; situating and outlining a process; comparing and contrasting; exploring cause and effect relationships; describing data; weighing the sides of an argument; reporting what others say; defining and classifying; making a presentation.
The course gives you the opportunity to:
- compose a series of essays and other task-focused written assignments which allow you to bring general, as well as your own research perspectives into play,
- participate in pair and group discussions which encourage you to reflect on your own and others' research experience,
- practise your pronunciation,
- improve your language control,
- learn and use academic vocabulary,
- exercise scope in your grammatical and lexical choices,
- develop aspects of coherence and cohesion: paragraphing, punctuation, linking,
- prepare and give a short presentation to your peers.
Prospective participants are advised to contact the Language Center for consultation about suitable intensive courses during the semester break that will prepare them for this course. Participants needing more grammar training can also attend the course in English: Advanced Grammar and Vocabulary during the semester.
<b>Should the progression of the pandemic allow it, classes will again be offered on site.</b>