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Fast Track Foundation Academic English Skills

Module description

You are required to be able to converse and write in English at or above upper-intermediate (B2) level before starting the Fast Track programme. This module focuses on helping you develop the essential academic English skills to successfully complete assignments, both on this programme and subsequent university courses. These skills include self-directed learning and research skills along with academic writing, presentation, and seminar skills, following academic conventions and avoiding academic misconduct issues, such as plagiarism. Themes covered in this module will be linked to the CGI module topics so you will be able to focus on honing your academic English skills. The module is non-condonable and compulsory.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The module aims to develop the necessary skills to function competently in the context of UK higher education and help you become more autonomous in your approach to learning. You will develop your time-management skills by working to deadlines and keeping up with tasks. You will be encouraged to use feedback and your own reflective observations to evaluate your performance in formative tasks in terms of academic integrity and competence. These reflections are designed to help you to make informed decisions about how to improve outcomes in future assignments.

Useful employment-related strategies including critical thinking, independent research, and careful preparation, will be practised by following the stages of researching, note-taking, planning, and redrafting your final writing assignment, along with tasks designed to build confidence when participating in an academic seminar and presenting in a formal setting.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

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

• 1. Deliver information effectively through presentations in an appropriate academic style.
• 2. Write well-structured academic essays integrating and synthesising information from multiple sources.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

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

• 3. Demonstrate ability to prepare and participate actively and appropriately in academic seminar discussions.
• 4. Demonstrate understanding of academic conventions to avoid plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct.

ILO: Personal and key skills

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

• 5. Undertake independent research to identify, select, and critically evaluate information and ideas from a variety of sources.
• 6. Demonstrate ability to use appropriate register, a variety of sentence structures and precise vocabulary in spoken and written communication.

Syllabus plan

Skills integrated and developed throughout the module:

• Research skills: finding appropriate sources of information online or from the University of Exeter Library.
• Critically evaluate written texts to identify the purpose of the author(s) and judge the reliability of the information.
• Skills and strategies to identify structure, genre, main ideas, and pertinent information in written texts.
• Develop understanding of academic style and register in written and spoken English.
• Improve paragraph and essay structure to produce coherent and cohesive texts.
• Process writing tasks: analysing written task titles, planning through brainstorming and writing an outline, writing a 1^st draft, attending a 1st draft writing tutorial and redrafting the essay using feedback comments.
• Preparing notes from source texts to use in written tasks, presentations, or for appropriate participation in a seminar discussion.
• Paraphrasing skills: using notes to paraphrase and summarise audio and written texts.
• Referencing skills: avoiding plagiarism by using in-text citation for quotations, paraphrases and summaries of source texts, and to create an accurate reference list using APA style referencing.
• Identifying the structure and purpose of audio texts.
• Listening for main ideas and details, note-taking and referencing of audio texts.
• Seminar skills: taking turns, building on the contribution of others, using evidence to support contributions, acknowledging sources, and responding appropriately to conflicting views on an issue.
• Presentation skills: producing effective presentation slides, including in-slide citations, oral citations, and an accurate reference list slide to acknowledge the sources of information.
• Techniques to engage the audience: delivering information effectively and persuasively using body language and voice, and responding to questions appropriately.
• Reading and listening critically to information and opinions from a variety of sources.
• Using feedback from tutors and peers by reflecting critically on performance in formative tasks to improve skills and techniques.

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

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral- if you miss an assessment for reasons judged legitimate by the Mitigation Committee, the applicable assessment will normally be deferred. See ‘Details of reassessment’ for the form that assessment usually takes. When deferral occurs, there is ordinarily no change to the overall weighting of that assessment.

Referral- if you have failed the module overall (i.e., a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to re-do each assessment you have failed (i.e., the ones with a score of 0-39%). Marks awarded in the referred assessment(s) will not be capped at 40%. If the overall module grade including the referred assessments is 40% or more, a module mark of 40% will be awarded.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Basic reading:

• Bailey, S. (2018). Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students. Routledge

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

Web-based and electronic resources:

• Bell. D. (2014). Passport to Academic Presentations. Garnet. https://passport.garneteducation.com/?page_id=35
• Cite them right (library resource) https://www-citethemrightonline-com.uoelibrary.idm.oclc.org/
• ELE – Faculty to provide hyperlink to appropriate pages

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

Other resources:

• Cottrell, S. (2013). The Study Skills Handbook (4th ed.). Palgrave Macmillan
• Godfrey, J. (2013). How to use your reading in your essays. 3^rd edn. Palgrave
• Sowton, C. (2012). 50 Steps to improve your academic writing. Garnet
• Vicary, A. (2014). Grammar for Writing. Garnet.

Key words search

English, foundation, Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, essay, presentation, seminar.