Module LANG0222: PRINCIPLES OF ACADEMIC LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

Department: Language Centre

LANG0222: PRINCIPLES OF ACADEMIC LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

Prerequisites

• IELTS score of 4.5 or equivalent.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• The module aims to enable students to develop their linguistic accuracy and range within the context of academic and academic-related language tasks. The module also aims to provide an introductory experience of, and training in use of academic, and academic related language to prepare students for later, more advanced academic language modules on the programme, which are required for entry into university academic programmes. The module also aims to broaden students' general academic literacy.

Content

• The content of the programme is structured in terms of reading, writing, listening and speaking skills supplemented by a study skills programme, sessions on pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary and IELTS training. Skills content at an introductory level deals with:
• Reading: Reading and understanding short academic, academic-related texts and other appropriate texts, through the use of a range of reading skills including gist reading and reading for specific information, understanding titles, contents pages, vocabulary and grammatical development, identifying points of view and arguments, causes and effects and responding to these. Students will be introduced to critical reading. Students will encounter and practise reading for a specific purpose.
• Writing: Writing short essays (including problem-solution, hypothetical-real, general-specific) and other short texts. Writing responses to texts including low-level analysis and interpretations. Expressing personal opinions, reporting the ideas of others (in short texts), study of reporting verbs and their meanings, writing effective paragraphs, understanding thesis statements and topic sentences. Writing descriptions of graphical information. Understanding writing purpose and the writer's audience.
• Speaking: Stating personal opinions, skills and language for presentation, talking about personal experience, describing processes and procedures, objects, graphical information, supporting verbal arguments with evidence.
• Listening: Listening to short talks (including excerpts from lectures), conversational listening including a focus on the elements of social conversational discourse.
• Pronunciation: Focusing on producing effective conversational English in terms of relevant pronunciation features.
• Grammar and Vocabulary: Focusing on the use of core grammatical structures and vocabulary relevant to academic English (sessions look at for example, forming complex sentences, present perfect forms, word forms).
• Study Skills: Planning a study timetable, understanding and evaluating learning and language learning strategies, reflecting on personal performance, developing examination skills.

Learning Outcomes

• On completion of this module, students will have linguistic capacity equivalent to a minimum of IELTS 5.0.
• Students will have developed their knowledge about:
• processes and strategies for reading and writing
• nature and characteristics of academic discourse including understanding of the requirements for generation of coherent and critical argument, discoursal/genre structures and patterns of academic texts and academic vocabulary
• elements of writing processes (e.g. planning/revising)
• the nature of tasks which need to be fulfilled on UK academic programmes
• students will have started to develop an understanding of the standard of performance required on academic programmes
• the culture of academic life in the UK
• academic approaches to establishing truth

• Students will be better able to:
• write pre-academic essays and short academic texts
• read short academic texts and segments of high level general texts with a reasonable level of comprehension
• engage in discursive discourse relating to points of argument
• give a short introductory talk with the purpose of description, explanation and persuasion
• listen effectively to short talks of samples of lecture material

• Students will also develop key skills including the ability to:
• quickly identify relevant and irrelevant information in a text
• assess the quality of sources of information
• plan effectively for learning
• take responsibility for their own work and learning
• plan and complete assignments within a given time frame
• develop their own language learning strategies
• produce effective language within time constrained conditions

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Teaching relating to the development of grammatical, discoursal and lexical knowledge, language and study skills is delivered within the context of these seminars. Teaching is delivered within a task context, enabling learning to be practical, focused and effective. Within the context of relevant tasks, students will encounter reading and listening texts, and model or partial model academic texts to help develop writing skills.
• Regular feedback from teachers will facilitate the development of written and spoken accuracy as well as general language skills.
• Through practice of relevant tasks, students will develop, practise and integrate their linguistic knowledge.
• Peer correction will be used to enable students to reflect on their learning and performance.
• Tutorial sessions will be used to reflect on and monitor students' language learning progress, to identify areas of specific need and to discuss strategies for achieving progress.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Written assignments, language tasks and mid-term test.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University