English language : listening and speaking skills [ LGERM1121 ]

Prerequisites : LANGL1720
 

- Basic vocabulary: various lexical exercises, special attention is paid to word formation processes (compounding, derivation);
- Grammatical applications: consolidation of grammatical competence (morphological, syntactic and semantic aspects);
- Speaking and listening skills: exercises aim to improve students' oral skills (pronunciation, intonation, accentuation) as well as their communicative skills.

Language laboratory exercises are organized (30 hours - limited number of students per session).

Acquire a higher intermediate level of communicative competence in two skills: listening and speaking (both individual and interactive).

After completing the course the student will be able to :
- understand and take part in an unplanned conversation (e.g. with a native speaker) about an everyday topic or a topic dealt with in the media;
- take part in a discussion about a topic with which s/he is familiar: understand the arguments put forward, be able to summarize them and express a personal opinion;
 - have no difficulty in following factual information presented e.g. on the radio or on television; be able to summarize and/or present it.

The assessment of these skills will take place on different dates. Concerning the June exam session, the listening comprehension exam will take place during the last class of the year. The assessment of oral skills and of the linguistic code will both take place during the June session proper, but on different dates. Concerning the September session, all three parts of the exam will take place during the exam session proper, but also on different dates.
Students who are absent from one of the three parts of the exam will fail this course overall. No 'catch-up' session will be organized.
 

-15 hours of lecturing (all students are grouped together for this part of the course) during which the above-mentioned topics are presented mainly in audio orvideo form , commented upon and analysed. -15 hours of conversation tutorials (groups of maximum 20 students) on the topics covered in the lectures;  A variety of activities will be used to help develop language accuracy, the use of vocabulary presented in the course proper, as well as language fluency. Special attention will be given to phonetic accuracy and word/sentence stress. 
-20 hours of individual work, in particular: -Preparing the weekly listenings on Moodle; studying the vocabulary presented in the course proper and which mainly comes from the listening material; study the vocabulary set as self-study; revising the course notes and studying the material.

The topics covered mainly feature in the media and deal with society, politics, sports, culture (in a broad sense) or current affairs

Jones C., Bastow  T. and Jeffries A. (2010). New Inside Out Advanced. Student's book.
Gairns, R. & Redman, S. (2008) Oxford Word Skills (Advanced). Oxford University Press

Course Supervision/Course Holder : The coordination of the course is entrusted to one (or, if need be, two) academic member(s) of the GERM department. Tutorials will be given by (at least) one assistant, who will also take part in the formal assessment (in June and/or September).