Multimedia Communication Skills

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

• 5. Gender equality
• 11. Sustainable cities and communities
• 16. Peace, justice and strong institutions

Objectives

Multimedia Communication Skills is a course that introduces you to the technical and academic language and skills that you need to study specific subjects in English in the area of multimedia during your degree.

The main aim of the course is to familiarise you with dealing with basic technical communication at university level. To do this you will:

• improve your reading, speaking, writing and listening skills in English in a technical context
• build up your knowledge of technical language in English
• demonstrate learner autonomy by maximising use of learning resources and producing quality work
• analyse and reflect on the relationship between science and technology, gender, culture and society

Learning outcomes

This course has 6 learning outcomes (RAs):

• RA1. Understands and analyses specialised academic texts looking for general and specific information.
• RA2. Understands everyday English use at university as well as general idea of technical discourse.
• RA3. Gains competence in writing more effectively and precisely.
• RA4. Participates with a certain confidence and coherence in discussions and debates in class or in small groups.
• RA5. Prepares and gives technical presentations.
• RA6. Understands technical vocabulary and grammatical rules and applies them to some extent in context.

Competencies

General skills

• Desire to take part in lifelong learning, innovate, create value and acquire new knowledge.

Specific skills

• Work in a multilingual, multidisciplinary environment, making oral presentations and writing reports in English in the field of engineering in general and in the multimedia sector in particular.

Basic skills

• Students can communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialists and non-specialists.

Core skills

• Become the protagonist of one's own learning process in order to achieve personal and professional growth and acquire all-round training for living and learning in a context of respect for linguistic, social, cultural, gender and economic diversity.
• 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

Multimedia Communication Skills will focus on topics related to web pages, video games and mobile applications and include:

• Speaking (presentations, discussions and debates)
• Listening (everyday and technical conversations, monologues set in a professional context)
• Writing (essays, technical reports, emails)
• Reading (short technical documents and articles)
• Language points (grammar and technical terminology)
• Project work (COIL - Collaborative Online International Learning)
• Reflect on social, cultural, economic and gender diversity in the field of science and technology

Evaluation

Course assessment is a mixture of formative and summative assessment. The final mark of the subject (NF) is the weighted average of the marks of the following items.

Component 1. Theory and Skills

• Test 1 (20% of NF): Writing, grammar and vocabulary, listening; RA2, RA3, RA6
  • Individual assessment. May be retaken
• Test 2 (25% of NF): Writing, grammar and vocabulary, listening; RA2, RA3, RA6
  • Individual assessment. May be retaken
• Test 3 (10% of NF): Speaking; RA2, RA4
  • Individual assessment

Component 2. Practicals

• Speaking (15% of NF): Presentation, discussion, debate; RA5
  • Individual and group assessment
• Project work (15% of NF); RA1, RA2, RA3, RA4, RA5, RA6
  • Individual, group and peer assessment
• Class participation (5% of NF); RA4
  • Individual and self-assessment

Component 3. Reports and Exercises

• Reading comprehension (10% of NF); RA1
  • Individual assessment

* Absence from classwork results in the following: 25% penalisation of group mark for justified absence and 50% for unjustified absence.

The final course mark will be obtained from summing the average scores of the different assessed activities.

Other criteria

• Attendance to practicals is compulsory.
• Unjustified absence from three or more practical activities will lead to a Fail grade.
• Justified absence from more than 50% of practicals will result in a mark of zero for the Practicals component.
• In general, assessment is in person.
• Students may retake activities, if applicable, in the reassessment period.

Methodology

The methodology used includes communicative activities, authentic materials in English, individual work, group work and whole class participation. Class sessions require attendance and active participation in English to maximise learning outcomes (RAs). Reading tasks are assigned using the flipped classroom method with students reading texts at home followed by guided discussion and evaluation in class. You have between 50-60 contact hours during the semester. Classes are 4 hours a week with 90 hours of autonomous self-study, project work, reading course material and preparing for assessed activities.

Bibliography

Key references

• Mann, Malcolm & Taylore-Knowles, Steve (2008). Destination B2: Grammar & Vocabulary with Answer Key. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/40792840/Destination_B2_Grammar_and_Vocabulary_with_Answer_key
• Murphy, Raymond (2019). English Grammar in Use: Fifth Edition. Retrieved from https://can-ada.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/english-grammar-in-use-intermediate.pdf

Further reading

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