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Academic English for Humanities and Social Sciences

Module description

The purpose of this module is to develop your confidence, knowledge and skill in using English for University study. There are 2 components: Skills for Academic Writing and Skills for Academic Speaking. Each component has a range of assessments to ensure that your English skills enable you to perform effectively on a higher education programme in your discipline. The module also ensures that you have a good understanding of academic referencing conventions and know how to avoid plagiarism.  

The module grade will determine whether you have me the English requirement of your University of Exeter offer, therefore the module is compulsory and non-condonable.       

Module aims - intentions of the module

1. To provide students with the English language skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing) for undertaking academic study in their discipline.   
2. To enable students to develop academically and personally in an English-medium learning environment.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

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

• 1. Control a core of general academic vocabulary
• 2. Express yourself with a degree of fluency and accuracy that enables effective spoken and written communication in an academic setting
• 3. Analyse the content of questions and establish the focus required to answer them
• 4. Present information and written text in a structured way that engages the audience or reader and facilitates understanding
• 5. Select and use source material relevant to your study purpose
• 6. Use in-text citation and reference lists according to the academic conventions

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

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

• 7. Use spoken and written English language flexibly within your subject area
• 8. Respond to spoken or written texts of different types

ILO: Personal and key skills

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

• 9. Evaluate your performance in the light of feedback and tutorials on formative and summative assessment tasks
• 10. Work co-operatively and effectively in groups

Syllabus plan

Skills for Academic Speaking

• Skills and strategies for listening: comprehension skills and using linguistic knowledge to understand text structure and purpose
• Listening and note-taking in a variety of contexts including lectures
• Giving presentations: producing effective slides, engaging the audience, delivering information effectively and persuasively
• Participating in seminars: turn-taking, using evidence to support contributions, building on the contributions of others, and responding to feedback
• Communication skills: accuracy, register, fluency and intelligibility

Skills for Academic Writing

• Skills and strategies for reading: comprehension skills and using linguistic knowledge to understand text structure and purpose 
• Academic language: sentence structure, register and vocabulary
• The writing process: analysing writing task titles, brainstorming ideas, planning, drafting, redrafting and responding to feedback
• Genres of writing and organisational patterns: e.g. comparison, problem-solution, argument
• Using sources: note-taking, summarising, paraphrasing, quotation
• Research skills: finding and selecting sources and using University of Exeter library resources
• Referencing: in-text citation, writing a reference list, avoiding plagiarism, using Turnitin and adhering to academic conventions  

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-sit failed assessment(s). Your performance in this assessment(s) will count towards your final module grade along with completed assessments. A grade of 40% will be awarded if the combined assessments are passed.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Bailey, S, 2011. Academic Writing A Handbook for International Students, Routledge, Abingdon

De Chazal, E. & S. McCarter, 2012. Oxford EAP A course in English for Academic Purposes, Oxford University Press, Oxford

Key words search

English, Foundation, Listening, Reading, Speaking, Writing