Foregrounding the productive skills, English: Speaking and Writing is a set of two courses welcoming learners from different academic backgrounds who are looking for the opportunity to gain a greater range of expression, accuracy, confidence, and natural-sounding authenticity in spoken and written English, primarily for study purposes.
Drawing on a broad spectrum of source material, both general and academic, and touching on a varied selection of topics and text types, Speaking and Writing I sets out to engage your interest in a series of contexts designed to hone your grasp of the productive skills. Through weekly discussions with your peers, in pairs, groups, and as a class, you have the chance to bring your everyday experience and academic know-how to bear on a series of different themes. You are encouraged to take your opinions and your research perspectives as jumping-off points for an outlined writing assignment. By submitting three such assignments for feedback and correction you have the possibility to build a short body of written work.
Alongside exercising the productive skills, Speaking and Writing I also provides regular windows to enrich your vocabulary and realise greater control of selected areas of grammar. The language features targeted include: expressing opinions; recognising and using formal and informal register; exploring cause-and-effect relationships; weighing the sides of an argument; narrating events; defining terms; outlining a process; comparing and contrasting; applying quantifying expressions; making a presentation.
In brief, English: Speaking and Writing I offers you the chance to:
- participate in pair, group, and class discussions that encourage you to share your everyday and scientific experience;
- put together a short body of written assignments that allow you to bring general and research perspectives into play;
- perfect collocating language and ready-to-use phrases to promote natural-sounding English;
- practise your pronunciation, intonation, and pausing;
- improve your language control;
- develop aspects of coherence and cohesion like punctuation, paragraphing and linking;
- prepare and give a short presentation to your peers.
Participants needing more grammar training can also attend the course English B1-B2 during the semester.