Module LANG0191: WRITTEN DISCOURSE FOR ACADEMIC STUDY

Department: English Language Centre

LANG0191: WRITTEN DISCOURSE FOR ACADEMIC STUDY

Prerequisites

• None

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• To enable non-native English speaking students to develop their English language reading and writing abilities so that they are able to gain entry to academic courses at English medium universities
• To enable non-native English speaking students to develop their reading and writing abilities so that they will be able to perform at an acceptable standard on undergraduate and postgraduate courses at English medium universities

Content

• written activities will focus on the following tasks and the language and/or skills needed to realise them: planning writing, establishing a viewpoint, writing introductions and conclusions, structuring writing, writing about cause/effect relationships, writing reference lists and bibliographies, using in text citation, providing justification, using reference devices, using quotes and quotation, reporting the ideas of others, editing texts, producing effective paragraphs, producing progressive argument, writing with cohesion, reporting numerical, statistical and graphical data, writing critically, exemplifying ideas, describing sequences of activities and events, comparing and contrasting data and ideas, writing persuasively, writing definitions, stating agreement and disagreement, describing processes and mechanisms, describing change, giving recommendations, describing problems, providing solutions with rationale, writing abstracts and summaries, writing about logical relationships between ideas, report writing
• reading activities will focus on developing the following abilities: understanding and interpreting graphical information, reading comprehension, reading selectively, reading for detail, reading for main ideas, skim reading, identifying bias, identifying viewpoints, attitudes and inferring opinions, identifying arguments and evidence, comparing texts, indentifying cause and effect relationships, identifying sources of information, reading contents pages and reference lists, reading critically, notetaking from texts (including the use of varying formats), identifying the certainty of a writer, recognising writer purpose, recognising genre characteristics, locating and evaluating texts, recognising text types, identifying problems, solutions, examples

Learning Outcomes

• On completion of the course students should have developed a knowledge of:
• the characteristics and style of academic writing
• of the different constituent genre of academic writing
• mechanisms for structuring written discourse
• the core academic vocabulary
• the language and forms required for the range of academic language functions including expressing viewpoints, evaluation, criticism, quotation and citation
• effective reading strategies

• on completion of the course, students should be able to demonstrate the following abilities at a standard that will enable entry to university academic programmes:
• writing short academic essays
• reading a range of academic and other texts and selecting appropriate short answers to a range of comprehension questions
• writing essays of a type encountered in university examinations under time pressure
• writing academic texts of short and moderate length expressing a personal view using information from single or multiple sources
• reading and comprehending a range of academic and other texts, making appropriate notes to support assignment writing

• distinguishing fact and opinion
• identifying author content
• transformation of knowledge
• information synthesis
• reporting and evaluating texts
• interpreting and reporting statistical and experimental data

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

• relevant tasks, skills and language will be encountered and practised in seminar sessions
• relevant tasks, skills and language will be practised through out of class assignments
• independent learning will be facilitated through out of class assignments
• tutorials will be used to help focus and individualise learning and monitor progress
• continuous Assessment: students will receive ongoing feedback on written performance through regular written assignments, written teacher feedback and through tutorials
• feedback on reading skills will be provided through feedback on comprehension and notetaking reading activities
• Summative Assessment: writing of short pre-academic essays assessed in a timed examination
• use of sources in academic writing will be assessed as part of the written examination
• reading will be assessed through a timed discrete test examination and/or through a notetaking assessment activity

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Students will receive ongoing feedback on written performance through regular written assignments, written teacher feedback and through tutorials. Feedback on reading skills will be provided through the medium of reading comprehension tests and through feedback on comprehension and notetaking reading activities.

■ 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