English for Academic Purposes

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

• 4. Quality education
• 7. Affordable and clean energy

Objectives

The suject of  English for Academic Purposes aims to provide students with essential skills for academic success.

The key objectives are:

• Develop academic reading and writing skills: Enhance the ability to read and comprehend complex academic texts, and master the conventions of academic writing, including structure, style, and referencing.
• Improve listening and oral communication skills: Develop effective listening strategies for understanding lectures and presentations, and gain confidence in delivering oral presentations and engaging in academic discussions.
• Develop research and information literacy: Learn to locate, evaluate, and use academic sources responsibly, while understanding the principles of academic integrity and practicing proper citation and referencing techniques.
• Introduce to autonomous learning Strategies and Methods: Encourage self-reflection on individual learning strategies and progress in English learning, while also evaluating the effectiveness of different teaching methodologies and pedagogical approaches.

These objectives are designed to provide a comprehensive foundation for students to effectively use English in academic contexts and enhance their overall academic performance, together with general knowledge of English as a foreign language.

Learning outcomes

• Correctly understands academic texts in English at a B1 level. (LO3, LO8)
• Prepares and organises and makes oral productions in the English language at level B1. (LO1)
• Creates short texts at the B1 level in the English language. (LO2)
• Understands oral messages at level B1 and written messages of different typologies in the complete form expressed in their own languages and in English. (LO7, LO8)
• Correctly selects the information from the consulted sources. (LO5)
• Communicates knowledge, methodology, ideas, problems, and solutions in the field of education in a clear and precise manner to all types of audiences (specialised or not). (LO6)
• Develops teaching and learning strategies in multicultural and multilingual contexts. (LO4)
• Uses oral language (verbal and non-verbal) appropriately in personal and professional interactions in English. (LO7)

Competencies

General skills

• Show interest in up-to-date professional knowledge and lifelong learning.

Specific skills

• Promote the development of global communicative competence in multilingual contexts by using different strategies and linguistic and literary resources.

Basic skills

• Students have developed the learning skills necessary to undertake further studies with a high degree of independent learning.

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
   1. Effective reading
   2. Reading for an overview
   3. Focused reading
2. Strategies for academic writing
   1. Sentence structure, word order and connectors
   2. Paragraph structure: thesis, development and conclusion
   3. Text structure
   4. Citations and paraphrasing
3. Strategies for oral presentations
   1. Strategies for understanding academic oral presentations
   2. The process of preparing an oral presentation
   3. The language of oral presentations and deates
   4. Creating a webpage with essential information about pedagogical values and approaches
4. Academic vocabulary
   1. Effective use of dictionaries
   2. Use the definition in order to explain complex ideas

Evaluation

The subject will be continually assessed, with evaluation of personal work, cooperative work, exams, oral presentations and class activities.

Evaluation of results

• 2 exams: tests aimed at evaluating the assimilation of the course contents.
• Group work: a school webpage presented both orally and in writing. The presentation will be done by the whole group but individual marks will be awarded.
• Compulsory activities.

The final mark is calculated in the following way:

• Exam 1: 20% (may be re-sit)
• Exam 2: 20% (may be re-sit)
• Project: 20% (cannot be re-sit)
• Compulsory activities: 20% (may be re-sit)
• Class activities: 20% (cannot be re-sit)

All work presented must be unpublished and produced by the students themselves.

All parts must be passed separately with a minimum of 5 and only exams and compulsory activities can be re-sit.

Students can only re-sit 50% of the total assessment of the course, according to the current Normativa acadèmica dels estudis de grau.

Methodology

In order to acquire the required competences and achieve the aims of the course, students will be expected to attend all classes and to have done all the work requested.

• Whole group sessions: taught classes that introduce and work the contents of the subject using written texts and audiovisual materials.
• Directed work: half-group sessions in which the students, guided by the teachers, will work to resolve any doubts or difficulties arising out of their personal work. These sessions will also be used for students to carry out their research work using English-language academic texts. In the group work sessions, the attendance of all group members is compulsory.
• Personal and cooperative work: the students will have to undertake individual and group activities.

Bibliography

Bibliography

• (2014). Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English. Oxford University Press.
• De Chazal, E. & Rogers, L. (2013). Oxford EAP. A course in English for Academic Purposes: Intermediate/B1+. Oxford University Press.
• Murphy, R. (2005). English Grammar in Use. Cambridge University Press.
• Philpot, S. & Curnick, L. (2011). Headway. Academic Skills: Reading, Writing and Study Skills. Oxford University Press.
• Swan, M. (2017). Practical English Usage (4 ed.). Oxford University Press.

Reading

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