2024/2025
English for General Academic Purposes. Advanced Course - 2
ID 801838
Type:
Optional course
Delivered by:
School of Foreign Languages
When:
3, 4 module
Open to:
students of all HSE University campuses
Instructors:
Тавровская Александра Федоровна,
Valentina Byvalina,
Daria Chikhacheva,
Natalia V. Katasonova,
Maxim Kviatkovskii,
Natalia Mishustina,
Elena Yurievna Mostacheva,
Tatyana Nurgaleeva,
Irina Pelevina,
Marina Sildimirova,
Dzhuna Dzhumberievna Tsurtsumia,
Гладкова Александра Федоровна
Language:
English
ECTS credits:
5
Course Syllabus
Abstract
In compliance with "The Concept of Development of Foreign Language Communicative Competence of HSE University Undergraduate, Specialist and Graduate Students" and "Regulations for Interim and Ongoing Assessments of Students at National Research University Higher School of Economics", «English for Academic Purposes. Advanced –2» course is designed to gradually build university freshmen’s understanding and using mainstream academic discourse for their study and research. Comprising authentic content with rigorous integration of core skills, the course engages students with real world academic contexts. Thus, students are expected to develop English-language communicative, integrated, critical, and creative thinking competences while exploring ‘Money and Commerce’; ‘Earth Science’; ‘Medieval Culture’; ‘Materials Engineering’ subject areas. Specifically, students will enhance their essential receptive and productive knowledge and skills at an advanced level, that is annotating, extracting key information, paraphrasing, summarizing, integrating, and producing coherent and cohesive oral (monologue; group discussion, presentation) and written texts (e-mail, summary). To be admitted to the course, students must have at least 60 points on the entry test. To encourage intensive language and skills practice and acquisition, the course embraces independent work on the online platform SMART LMS as well as autonomous learning while completing creative assignments. Throughout the course various methods of assessment are used: Classroom Written Assessment (reading, listening, grammar and vocabulary tests, and written papers), Classroom Oral Assessment, Home Assignment (activities that students do at home and in class), and Final Assessment. There are no blocking controls. The final grade consists of the following elements: 0,1 – Attendance, 0,1 – English Grammar and Vocabulary Test, 0,1 – Home Assignment , 0,2 – Written Assessment, 0,2 – Oral Assessment, 0,3- Final Assessment. The use of artificial intelligence in the preparation of academic papers is prohibited.
Learning Objectives
- The course focuses on enhancing essential analytical and language skills to deal with basic reading, listening, writing, and speaking assignments in English for academic purposes at an advanced level, which would meet students’ multidisciplinary academic needs. While catering to different learning styles, the course fosters intercultural communication and digital literacy competences, as well as autonomous learning and team building skills. To achieve these goals, students are expected to: • further enhance their knowledge of key academic concepts and phenomena and contemporary trends in scientific expertise as well as develop academic competences; • gain awareness of key issues pertaining to the topics of “Money and commerce”, “Earth science”, “Medieval culture”, and “Materials engineering"; • to acquire appropriate reading, writing, listening, speaking strategies and foster academic language faculty for extracting and analyzing necessary information and producing relevant oral and written responses, 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
- A student distinguishes academic writing style from other forms of writing as well as defines key principles of academic text organization and structures.
- A student uses key academic vocabulary and functional grammar at B2+/ C1 level.
- A student employs a range of text organizations within an extended authentic written or oral text.
- A student utilizes active reading and listening strategies to suit academic text type and reader/ listener purpose or task at B2+/ C1 .
- A student identifies the main idea, text organization, and relevant detailed information in an authentic English print text (research papers, publications on professional, business and educational online resources) and an audio text (lectures, expert talks, presentations, polylogues (B2+/ C1)) as well as interprets texts for inferences, attitudes and styles and deduces meanings from the context, while distinguishing facts from opinions.
- A student produces coherent and cohesive written texts, such as “Discuss both views and express your opinion” essays and “Discuss advantages and disadvantages” essays.
- A student evaluates and develops an argument on the topics of advanced contemporary debate within the scope of the given Programme.
- A student produces an argumentative monologue, delivers presentations as well as engages 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.
- A student contributes to team projects requiring collaborative writing and redrafting as well as other forms of online collaboration, following and relaying instructions with precision in order to reach the goal.
Course Contents
- Unit 1. Money and Commerce
- Unit 2. Earth Science. Factors influencing the climate of a planet. Impact of geological eras on the planet biodiversity. Space exploration. The Anthropocene controversy. Extended Discourse. Organizational Structures
- Unit 3. Medieval culture. Reading Fluency. Discussing food, art, literature, religion, and architecture. Impact of spice trade on globalization beginning in the late 15th century. How narratives influence cultures, modern poetry, and songwriting.
- Unit 4. Materials engineering. Research Articles. Academic discussions. The scope of polymer applications. Soft robotics.
Assessment Elements
- Final Assessment (FA)Описание: The final test includes one reading test and one written work (an essay). Time limit: 70 minutes. The release of examination papers: during the session. Grading formula: R* 0.4 + W*0.6 = 10.
- Oral Assessment (OA)Oral Assessment includes minimum 1 monologue, 1 Q&A discussion
- Written Assessment (WA)Описание: Written assessment includes: • 1 reading test, • 1 listening test, • 3 vocabulary and grammar tests • 1 essay.
- Independent Work Assessment (IWA)Описание: Written Assessment includes minimum 1 listening test. minimum 1 reading test, minimum 1 essay Описание: Independent work includes activities that students do at home, activities that students do in the classroom and online work. The elements of independent work cannot be retaken. Критерии оценивания: 100-96% of fully completed tasks at home/in the classroom/online work = 10; 95-91% of fully completed tasks at home/in the classroom/online work = 9; 90-86% of fully completed tasks at home/in the classroom/online work = 8; 85-78% of fully completed tasks at home/in the classroom/online work = 7; 77-71% of fully completed tasks at home/in the classroom/online work = 6; 70-61% of fully completed tasks at home/in the classroom/online work = 5; 60-51% of fully completed tasks at home/in the classroom /online work = 4; 50-36% of fully completed tasks at home/in the classroom/online work = 3; 35-21% of fully completed tasks at home/in the classroom/online work = 2; 20-1% of fully completed tasks at home/in the classroom/online work = 1, 0% of fully completed tasks at home/in the classroom/online work = 0. A fully completed task means that an assigned task meets the deadline and all the requirements.
Interim Assessment
- 2024/2025 4th module0.25 * Written Assessment (WA) + 0.3 * Final Assessment (FA) + 0.2 * Oral Assessment (OA) + 0.25 * Independent Work Assessment (IWA)
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- Academic Skills through Cases in American Studies, edited by N. Anthony Brown, 143 p., Talalakina, E. V., Yakusheva, I. V., 2011
- Academic Vocabulary for Social Sciences = Академическая лексика социальных дисциплин [Электронный ресурс] : учебное пособие / Нац. ис-след. ун-т «Высшая школа экономики». — 2-е изд. (эл.) - 978-5-7598-1486-3 - Короткина И. Б. - 2018 - Москва: ВШЭ - https://ibooks.ru/products/382702 - 382702 - iBOOKS
- Academic writing for graduate students : essential tasks and skills, Swales, J. M., 2012
- Yucuis, N. (2016). Basics of Academic Writing ; A guide for navigating the perils of mechanics, punctuation, grammar, and style. United States, North America: Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.29CD07C0