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Regular version of the site
2022/2023

English for General Academic Purposes. Advanced Course - 1

Language: English
ECTS credits: 3
Contact hours: 48

Course Syllabus

Abstract

«English for Academic Purposes. Advanced–1» course is designed for first-year HSE undergraduates to foster their understanding and using specialized academic discourses for tertiary education and research at an advanced level. 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. Specifically, the course is targeted at building students’ core receptive and productive knowledge and skills belonging to the academic domain at B2+, which is expedient for annotating, extracting key information, paraphrasing, summarizing, integrating, and presenting coherent and cohesive oral (monologue; group discussion, presentation) and written texts (e-mail, summary). Essentially, the course comprises multiple texts and tasks employed in mainstream academic environments and practices. To successfully master the programme materials, the course provides for independent work on the online platform SMART LMS. There are no blocking controls.
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • The objectives of the course are: - to improve student’s ability to read and understand journal articles, texts, lectures from different perspectives; - to increase student’s comprehension of spoken English; - to strengthen student’s speaking and writing skills in a range of different disciplines; - to systematically and progressively develop students’ academic skills, language, and critical thinking; - to provide material for the students to revise, consolidate and extend their command of English grammar and vocabulary; - to develop the students’ reading skills to enable them to skim the text for main idea, to scan the text for specific information, to interpret the text for inferences, attitudes and styles, to deduce meanings from the context; - to develop the students’ listening skills to enable them to understand and apply specific information from the input; - to develop the students’ general capacity to a level that enables them to use English in their professional and academic environment granted that they are provided with the specific notions and vocabulary in the course of their studies
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • - to read authentic academic texts on different disciplines;
  • - to listen to different lectures for following structured note-taking tasks and completing exercises;
  • - to write paragraphs, emails and summaries;
  • - to speak (present, discuss) on different academic issues.
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • Unit 1. Education (advanced).
  • Unit 2. Bioethics
  • Unit 3. Business and Design.
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking Written Assessment (WA)
    The test can be retaken within 10 working days if the absence has been officially documented. SUMMARY ASSESSMENT CRITERIA (max 10 points) Recommended word count – 150 Task Response (max 3 points) 3 points – the student fully addresses all parts of the task: writes a summary which covers all the key points, clearly focuses on the main idea/problem of the text, includes crucial supporting information, all the main points are summarised; the main points are effectively paraphrased; the reader has been fully informed about the content and the purpose of the original source; 2 points – the student addresses all parts of the task although some parts may be more fully covered than others: the student writes a summary which covers most of the key points; little supporting information is provided; all the main points are summarised; the student presents relevant main ideas but some may be inadequately developed/unclear (the author’s ideas are partially reflected); sufficiently paraphrases the main points; 1 point – the student responds to the task only in a minimal way or the answer is tangential; the format may be inappropriate: the student writes a summary which covers very few key points; the supporting information is incomplete; a personal opinion is included; the main points are inadequately paraphrased; the student uses some words from the text to express the main idea; 0 points – the student does not adequately address any part of the task: there is no supporting information, and/or the author’s ideas are not reflected; the student repeats the word combinations from the text to express the ideas; a personal opinion is included; not all the main points are summarised. Coherence and Cohesion (max 2 points) 2 points – the student writes a clearly structured summary (an author, title, date, purpose and main points are mentioned) on a given text, uses a variety of linking devices which connect the ideas appropriately, uses paragraphing sufficiently; the ideas are logically organised; the student relays the information; 1 point – the student writes a poorly structured summary (one of the features is missing: an author, title, date, purpose), uses a limited number of linking devices, does not use paragraphing sufficiently; the ideas are not always logically organised; cohesive devices are inadequate and/or repetitive; the student analyses the information; 0 points – the student does not organise information and ideas logically (more than one of the features is missing / incorrectly used: an author, title, date, purpose and main points), fails to use linking devices appropriately or repeats them; cohesive devices do not indicate a logical relationship between the ideas. Lexical Resource and Register (max 2 points) 2 points – the student uses a wide range of vocabulary (the original expressions are paraphrased 80 - 100%) including some advanced lexical items, uses synonyms, changes the word class and the word order; there may be one inaccuracy in spelling, word formation or word choice; 1 point – the student uses a sufficient range of vocabulary (the original expressions are paraphrased 50 – 80 %), but may make 1 mistake in spelling, word formation or word choice; 0 points - the student only uses basic vocabulary, with very limited control of spelling, word formation or word choice, errors are numerous and impede understanding, and the original expressions are copied from the text (< 50%). Grammatical Range and Accuracy (max 2 points) 2 points – the student uses a wide range of grammar structures without mistakes; 1 point – the student uses a variety of grammar structures but may make 1 mistake; 0 points – the student uses basic grammar structures or a limited range of structures and/or makes more than 2 grammar mistakes, some of which impede understanding. Level/track specific criteria (max 1 point) 1 point – the student uses the active vocabulary specific to the topic;
  • non-blocking Oral Assessment (OA)
    MONOLOGUE ASSESSMENT CRITERIA (max 10 points), DISCUSSION IN A Q&A SESSION FORMAT ASSESSMENT CRITERIA (max 10 points)
  • non-blocking Student Independent Work Assessment/Online (IWA)
    Reading, Listening, tests (for online) Количество баллов Критерии оценки 10 баллов 100% 9 баллов 96-99% 8 баллов 90-95% 7 баллов 86-89% 6 баллов 80-85% 5 баллов 70-79% 4 балла 60-69% 3 балла 50-59% 2 балла 25-49% 1 балл 1%-24% 0 баллов 0%
  • non-blocking Final Assessment (FA)
    The interim exam lasts 70 minutes. The exam is a 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. Listening (L) and Writing (W) that weigh 50% and 50% respectively in the total mark for the exam: Listening (L): Listen to the text ONCE and complete the tasks. Max. 10 points. Writing (W): Read the text. Write a summary on the text you have read. A student should write a 150-word summary. Students have no more than 20 minutes to complete the Listening (L) part and 50 minutes to complete the Writing (W) part. Grading formula: L*0,5 + W*0,5 = 10 The actual scores for Listening are turned into percentages which are tuned into a final mark out of 10 points. Grading scale: 10 =100 - 96%, 9=95 - 91%, 8=90 - 86%, 7 = 85 - 78%, 6 =77 - 71%, 5= 70 - 61%, 4 = 60 - 51%, 3 = 50 - 36%, 2 = 35 - 21%, 1 = 20 - 1 %, 0 = 0%. Writing is assessed against the criteria. Period of FA: 10 days prior to the 2nd module’s session. The release of examination papers: during the session. Retaking exams: till the 15th of February 2023. Time limit: 70 minutes online/offline. The structure of the exam: 1. Listening (L): Listen to the text ONCE and complete the tasks. Max. 10 points. Students have no more than 20 minutes to complete the Listening (L) part. 2. Writing (W) Read the text. Write a summary on the text you have read. A student should write a 150-word summary. Students have 50 minutes to complete the Writing (W) part. Grading formula: L*0,5 + W*0,5 = 10.
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • 2022/2023 2nd module
    0.3 * Final Assessment (FA) + 0.2 * Oral Assessment (OA) + 0.25 * Written Assessment (WA) + 0.25 * Student Independent Work Assessment/Online (IWA)
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • Oxford grammar for EAP : english grammar and practice for academic purposes with answers, Paterson, K., 2013

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • Richard Hudson. (2003). English Grammar. Routledge.