2023/2024

Английский язык для специальных целей. Урбанистика - 2

Статус: Факультатив

Кто читает: Школа иностранных языков

Когда читается: 3, 4 модуль

Охват аудитории: для своего кампуса

Преподаватели: Пелевина Ирина Анатольевна

Язык: английский

Кредиты: 5

Контактные часы: 80

Course Syllabus

Abstract

“English for Specific Purposes. Urban Studies –2” is designed for first-year undergraduates studying Urban Planning at National Research University “Higher School of Economics” to address their English language needs for study and future career. In compliance with “Concept of Development of English-language Communicative Competence of HSE Students” and “Regulations for Interim and Ongoing Assessments of Students at National Research University Higher School of Economics”, the course aims at developing English-language communicative, integrated, critical and creative thinking competences, which is consistent with multidisciplinary nature of urban studies, and required by multiple stakeholders. Specifically, the course is targeted at building core receptive and productive knowledge and skills belonging to the professional and academic domains at B2+/C1 level and mastering key professional and business terminology and functional grammar for urban studies. Importantly, the course embraces authentic audio-visual and printed study materials on crucial city issues, while considering the city phenomenon from scientific, historic, societal, technological, environmental, and spatial perspectives. To provide for more sophisticated cognitive environment, theoretical materials are complemented with city case studies, group problem-solving discussions and debates, integrated reading and listening-to-writing assignments (essays, reviews, proposals), and designing project presentations. To facilitate knowledge acquisition, the course implies independent/ peer group work on the SMART LMS online platform. Apart from traditional and alternative forms of control, the course is supplemented with gamification online tools. Overall, «English for Specific Purposes. Urban Studies–2» would contribute to first-year students’ academic success and research at HSE, while accommodating their professional needs and learning styles.

Learning Objectives

• The course focuses on developing English language competences and essential higher order thinking skills that undergraduate students pursuing their career in urban planning would apply to successfully reach their academic and professional purposes. While accommodating to different learning styles, the course fosters autonomous learning, team building and digital literary competences. To achieve these goals, students need to • further enhance their knowledge of key urban planning concepts and phenomena and contemporary trends in English as well as develop academic competences; • develop skills of locating, organizing, analyzing, evaluating and integrating the necessary sources and ideas to fulfill their academic and professional tasks; • gain awareness of different writing genres as well as assignment types pertaining to their academic and professional scope of activity (comparison and contrast; describing processes; cause and effect; narration; description); • examine and apply differing strategies to reading, listening, writing and speaking assignments depending on the target audience/ interlocutor; purpose; topic and organization requirements; • foster their individual style of learning as well as soft skills while contributing to collaborative problem-solving activities as a team member.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• • Students confidently demonstrate understanding of urban planning expertise and critiques.
• • Students apply key professional terminology, academic and business vocabulary and functional grammar pertaining to urban planning domain at B2+/ C1 level.
• • Students effectively read authentic English print texts (research papers; publications on professional, business and educational online resources) and process audio texts (lectures; expert talks; presentations, polylogues (B2+/ C1)) for the main idea, text organization, and detailed information as well as interpret texts for inferences, attitudes and styles and deduce meanings from the context, while distinguishing facts from opinions.
• • Students produce coherent and cohesive written texts, such as “Discuss both views and express your opinion” essays; “Discuss advantages and disadvantages” essays; integrated reading and listening-into-writing reviews; graph description (map; process); reports, meeting specific requirements in terms of organization, grammatical forms and sub-technical language.
• • Students confidently deliver presentations as well as engage in problem-solving discussions and group debates, addressing such question types as the advantages and disadvantages discussion; the for and against discussion; the problems and possible solutions discussion; the cause-and-effect discussion, and meeting specific requirements in terms of organization, grammatical forms and sub-technical language.

Course Contents

• City as an intelligent ecosystem of the community of citizens and businesses.
• How cities respond to profound global change, innovations and crises.
• City scope across the world.

Assessment Elements

• Written Assessment
  Written assessment includes: minimum 1 reading test, minimum 1 listening test, minimum 2 vocabulary and grammar tests, minimum 4 written works (report + 2 essays + map description (optional)).
• Oral Assessment Assignments
  Oral assessment includes an argumentative talk on a given topic, a final project presentation, team proposal, team mini-presentation, team debate and a discussion.
• Final Assessment
  The interim exam lasts 70 minutes. The exam is written paper-and-pen test and is aimed at checking whether the student can demonstrate the acquisition of the learning objectives set. The exam consists of two parts, i.e. Reading and Writing that weigh 40% and 60% respectively in the total mark for the exam. The actual scores for Reading are turned into percentages which are tuned into a final mark out of 10 points. Writing is assessed against criteria. Period of FA: 10 days prior to the fourth module’s session. The release of examination papers: during the session.
• Independent work
  Independent work includes activities that students do at home, in the classroom and online. The elements of independent work cannot be retaken.

Interim Assessment

• 2023/2024 4th module
  0.3 * Final Assessment + 0.25 * Independent work + 0.2 * Oral Assessment Assignments + 0.25 * Written Assessment

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Academic Writing Skills 3, Student's Book, 140 p., Chin, P., Reid, S., Wray, S., Yamazaki, Y., 2014
• Business English handbook. Advanced, Emmerson, P., 2007
• Essential Business Grammar & Practice, Duckworth, M., 2006
• Handbook of urban education, , 2014
• Key concepts in urban studies, Gottdiener, M., 2006
• Oxford grammar for EAP : english grammar and practice for academic purposes with answers, Paterson, K., 2013
• Study writing. A course in writing skills for academic purposes, Hamp-Lyons, L., 2013
• The new urban sociology, Gottdiener, M., 2019
• The Oxford dictionary of architecture, Curl, J. S., 2016

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• 50 steps to improving your academic writing : study book, Sowton, C., 2012
• Business vocabulary builder. The words & phrases you need to succeed. Intermediate to upper-inter..., Emmerson, P., 2009