UCL - English : reading and listening comprehension of texts in Bioengineering

[ANGL1882]

[30h] 2 credits

This course is taught in the 1st semester.

Teacher(s): Isabelle Druant, Annick Sonck(coord.)

Language: English

Level: First

Aims
Main themes
Content and teaching methods
Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Aims

A reading and listening comprehension course aimed at equipping students with the receptive skills necessary for writing their dissertation and other academic work.
Reading comprehension : reading and understanding scientific texts (biology, chemistry, environmental science, ...). B2 - C1 level of " the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages ".
Listening comprehension : understanding television programmes (talks, lectures) on scientific subjects (renewable energy, climatology, ). B1 - B2 level of the "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages ".

Main themes

The students will be able to apply a range of reading techniques in order to approach the texts in a systematic and efficient manner. Students should be able to understand in detail both descriptive and argumentative texts concerning general topics as well as texts and videos oriented towards their fields of study.
As regards grammar, the major themes will be the verb system and the various verbal forms, modal verbs, nominal phrases and conversion (e.g. 'up': N,V, Adv, Adj, Prep).
Students will be able to understand the vocabulary necessary to read the texts in the different BAC2 courses, as well as the vocabulary of certain important categories such as link words and deceptive cognates.

Content and teaching methods

The main themes dealt with in the texts and videos are closely related to Bac 2 courses of the students' major (environmental science, chemistry, bioengineering)
The teaching methods used will encourage the active and interactive participation of the students. The first step, which is crucial, is the preparation of activities which will be dealt with more fully in the following lesson: students receive precise instructions on how to work either individually or in groups, on a series of problems which will enable them to discover, for instance, certain lexical or grammatical aspects of texts. Afterwards, during the lesson, the students are expected to comment on the different problems they encountered, and the conclusions they came to.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Pre-requisites:
The B1 level of "the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages ".

Assessment:
The examination will test whether the objectives concerning reading and listening comprehension, including vocabulary and grammar, have been achieved.
The level of the examination and the exemption test at the beginning of the year correspond to Level B2-C1 (reading and listening comprehension) of the Common European language reference framework' of the Council of Europe standards.

Teaching aids:
- course notes, on sale at the ILV, with CAA (self-tuition centre) access card
- exercises handed out in class
- CD with the soundtrack of the listening comprehension material.
- the CAA and multi-media room at the ILV
- teacher reception hours