English for Academic Purposes

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

• 4. Quality education
• 8. Decend work and economic growth
• 16. Peace, justice and strong institutions

Objectives

In today's global context, access to information has reached a critical importance. It is estimated that 80% of information stored in electronic format is in the English language and around 50% of all scientific and academic publications are written in English. For this reason, this subject will work on the ability to extract, understand and produce information in the English language orally and in writing.

Students will have to:

• Acquire the habit of consulting written and oral documents in the English language as a source of information on topics related to social education.
• Acquire tools, techniques and strategies to be able to access information in written and oral documents in the English language.
• Acquire sufficient resources to be able to understand and interpret texts from the scientific, academic and professional fields.
• Develop strategies to express themselves in writing and orally in the English language.
• Develop their autonomy when synthesizing and summarizing information from oral and written texts.
• Know and use the appropriate grammatical structures and vocabulary for the academic context and the subject of social education.
• Develop skills for oral presentations in English.

Learning outcomes

• Ability to search for, consult and analyse written and oral English-language documents that deal with questions related to social education.
• Autonomy in synthesising and summarising information contained in oral and written texts.
• Acquisition of knowledge from a variety of sources of English-language information.
• Specific English-language vocabulary related to social education.
• Ability to communicate, orally and in writing, in English using strategies, grammatical structures and vocabulary that are appropriate to an academic context and to the content of social education.
• Ability to work in interdisciplinary teams that relate diverse kinds of knowledge and that value linguistic and cultural diversity.
• Ability to understand a variety of different kinds of oral and written messages in English.
• Ability to produce written documents in correct English.
• Ability to communicate clearly and accurately to a range of different audiences (both specialist and non-specialist) information about knowledge, methods, problems and solutions in the fields of social education and socioeducational action.

Competencies

General skills

• Appreciate diversity and multiculturalism.
• Be able to analyse and summarise.
• Be able to argue and make systemic connections between fields of knowledge.
• Be able to learn how to learn.
• Be able to search, compile, classify, analyse, summarise and communicate.
• Be able to speak and write in different languages.
• Be able to use information, and understand and analyse information from various sources.
• Be able to work as part of a team.
• Be able to work in an international environment and be a skilful communicator in a foreign language.
• Be able to work independently.
• Show concern for quality.

Specific skills

• Be able to conduct research and writing about the profession.

Core skills

• Use oral, written and audiovisual forms of communication, in one's own language and in foreign languages, with a high standard of use, form and content.

Content

1. Strategies for academic reading
   • Effective reading
   • Reading for an overview
   • Focused reading
2. Strategies for academic writing
   • Sentence structure, word order and connectors
   • Paragraph structure: thesis, development and conclusion
   • Text structure
   • Citations and paraphrasing
3. Strategies for oral presentations
   • Strategies for understanding academic oral presentations
   • The process of preparing an oral presentation
   • The language of oral presentations
   • Creating a webpage
4. Academic vocabulary
   • Effective use of dictionaries

Evaluation

The evaluation of the subject will be continuous, based on the personal work, the directed work, the partial tests, the oral presentation, and the participation in the classroom.

Process evaluation

• Personal work: preparation, presentation and correction of assignments (readings and written productions) in accordance with the agreed deadlines.
• Directed work: the preparatory work corresponding to the oral and written presentation in English of a topic related to social education.
• Participation: attend the sessions with the work prepared and participate in the discussions of the exercises in a productive way.

Evaluation of results

• 2 partial exams: tests to assess the assimilation of the content.
• 2 compulsory activities
• Class compulsory activities
• Group work: oral presentation in English of a topic related to social education and also delivered in written format. The oral presentation will be done in a group, although the grade is individual. The grade corresponding to the written work is group.

The final grade is calculated through the following components:

• 2 compulsory tests: 20% (may be retaken)
• Exam 1: 20% (may be retaken)
• Exam 2: 20% (may be retaken)
• Project: 20% (cannot be retaken)
• Class activities: 20% (cannot be retaken)

To pass the subject each of the evaluated elements must be passed separately.

The works presented must be unpublished and prepared by the student himself/herself. In the event of any doubt regarding the authorship of a written assignment, the teacher reserves the right to orally question the student to verify their understanding of the content

Resit of assessable elements

All parts must be passed separately with a minimum of 5 and only exams and compulsory activities can be retaken. Students can only retake 50% of the assessment of the course, according to the current Normativa acadèmica dels estudis de grau.

The resit of the exams and/or the written group work will be done during the resit week. Any activity or exam that is made up, will get a maximum mark of 5.

Resits are only for students who have failed the first assessment. You cannot resubmit already approved work, or resit exams, to get a better grade.

If one (or more) of the assessable elements is failed after the resit period, the entire subject must be repeated.

Methodology

To achieve the skills and objectives of the course it is essential to attend all class sessions regularly and with the material that will have been delivered for each session.

• Class sessions: teaching aimed at the whole group to transmit and work on the contents of the subject through written texts and audiovisual materials.
• Directed work: work in small groups in which the students, with the guidance of the teaching staff, will have to solve the doubts and difficulties that arise from the personal work. The sessions will also serve for the students to carry out research work on academic texts in the English language. During group work, the attendance of each of the group members is mandatory.
• Personal work: work that the students will have to invest in the preparation and implementation of the proposed activities - above all readings and related tasks, and development of their own lexical resources.
• Individual tutorials: sessions to monitor the learning process of each student. Throughout the semester, individual tutoring will take place at the request of the student or teacher.
• Work plan: it is the tool used to plan the work that the student must do for each of the subjects. It will be delivered at the beginning of the semester so that the student can organise personal work.

Bibliography

Key references

• (2014). Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English. Oxford.
• De Chazal, E. & Rogers, L. (2013). Oxford EAP. A course in English for Academic Purposes (Intermediate/B1+). Oxford.
• Murphy, R. (2005). English Grammar in Use. Cambridge.
• Philpot, S. & Curnick, L. (2011). Headway Academic Skills. Reading, Writing and Study Skills. Oxford.
• Swan, M. (2017). Practical English Usage. Oxford.

Further reading

Teachers will provide complementary bibliography and compulsory reading throughout the course via the Virtual Campus.