Description

Pre-Sessional English 6

Description - summary of the module content

Module description

You will take this six-week course if you have applied for an Exeter university undergraduate or postgraduate programme and need to strengthen your academic language and study skills before you start. This course is primarily aimed at developing your general academic language skills, with a focus on reading, writing, speaking and listening, in addition to improving grammar and vocabulary. Students will need to demonstrate a good level of competency in each of the four sub-skills prior to starting this course. Specific entry requirements will be dependent on the level of English required for progression to the university.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to develop students’ academic English language and study skills to enable them to function effectively in their academic programmes. Specifically, it aims to:

• Improve students’ English language to the level required for entry to their chosen undergraduate or postgraduate programme at the University of Exeter.
• Equip students with the study skills and strategies necessary for success in their University of Exeter studies.
• Develop students’ awareness of UK higher education academic culture, context and expectations, and to support their transition to this study environment.
• Develop students’ ability to work autonomously, setting realistic goals and monitoring their own learning.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Apply appropriate listening skills and strategies to comprehend and extract relevant information from academic listening sources
• 2. Apply appropriate reading skills and strategies to critically read and extract relevant information from academic texts
• 3. Identify, select and evaluate information, ideas and arguments from a variety of academic sources
• 4. Produce clear, well-organised academic writing that synthesises information and arguments from multiple sources
• 5. Deliver a clear, well-organised academic presentation appropriate to audience and context
• 6. Understand and use appropriate grammar, vocabulary and style in oral and written academic communication

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Apply skills and strategies to avoid plagiarism, collusion and fabrication of data
• 8. Critically reflect on performance in academic tasks and learning processes and identify relevant learning goals
• 9. Demonstrate an appropriate level of criticality when expressing ideas and opinions in oral and written communication

Syllabus plan

Syllabus plan

Reading and writing

• The writing process (e.g. analysing a title, generating ideas, planning, drafting and editing)
• Linguistic knowledge of academic texts (e.g. grammar and sentence structure; vocabulary and academic style; text genre, structure and purpose)
• Reading strategies and comprehension skills (e.g. navigating texts, getting the gist, identifying key points and supporting details, deducing meaning from context)
• Paraphrasing, summarising and synthesising from sources
• Intensive and extensive reading through a variety of text types
• Turning reading into writing (e.g. using ideas from readings in producing writing)
• Understanding and applying criticality in reading and writing

Speaking and listening

• Listening strategies and comprehension skills (e.g. identifying main ideas, deducing meaning from context, understanding structure and signposts)
• Participating in seminar discussions (e.g. using appropriate functional language, responding to others, preparing for a seminar)
• Presentation skills (e.g. structuring a presentation, signpost language, using voice and visual aids)
• Language: accuracy, appropriacy, fluency, aspects of pronunciation and intelligibility
• Understanding and applying criticality in speaking and listening 
• Using ideas from lectures and other listening sources in producing academic writing and speaking

Transferable academic and study skills

• Note-taking (e.g. using abbreviations, mind-mapping, Cornell system)
• Referencing
• Academic reflection (e.g. learning journal, setting SMART goals)
• Library skills (e.g. finding and evaluating sources)
• Time-management

Learning and teaching

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Assessment

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Re-assessment

Resources

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Campbell. C. (2012) Vocabulary: Study book. Reading: Garnet Publishing. 9781782608318 (eBook 317812)
• Vicary, A. (2012) Grammar for Writing: Study book. Reading: Garnet Publishing. 9781782608301 (eBook 317800)

Module has an active ELE page

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

Additional in-house resources provided to students in the form of worksheets and booklets.

Key words search

Pre-sessional, Academic English