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 B2 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 B2 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 B2 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.