English - Advanced Productive Skills [ LGERM1326 ]

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LFLTR1720, LGERM1121 or LGERM1122

Focus on language use (vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation) through oral and written productions. The stress will be laid on the production of efficient spoken and/or written discourse. Special attention will be devoted to discourse and interaction strategies in speech, and to cohesion and coherence in writing

By the end of the course, the students will have become advanced, independent users in both speaking and writing (B2 level according to the European Framework of Reference for Languages).

Oral productions : the student will be able to

• give clear, detailed descriptions and presentations on a wide range of subjects related to his/her field of interest, expanding and supporting ideas with subsidiary points and relevant examples
• depart spontaneously from a prepared text and follow up interesting points raised by members of the audience, often showing remarkable fluency and ease of expression.
• use the language fluently, accurately and effectively on a wide range of general, vocational or leisure topics, clearly marking the relationships between ideas
• communicate spontaneously with good grammatical control without much sign of having to restrict what he/she wants to say, adopting a level of formality appropriate to the circumstances

Written productions : the student will be able to

• write clear, detailed texts on a variety of subjects related to his/her field of interest, synthesizing and evaluating information and arguments from a number of sources
• write clear, detailed descriptions of real or imaginary events and experiences, marking the relationship between ideas in clear connected text, and following established conventions of the genre concerned
• relate information, express opinions and adapt to other people's opinions through writing

The student will

• use a good range of vocabulary for matters connected to his/her field and to more general topics
• vary formulation to avoid frequent repetition
• have a relatively high degree of grammatical control
• have a clear, natural, pronunciation and intonation
• use accurate spelling

Formal assessment at the end of the academic year:

• pronunciation exam (25% of the final mark)
• Conversation exam (15% of the final mark)
• written exam  (vocabulary and writing skills) (40% of the final mark)

Continuous assessment:

• active participation in the conversation classes and short presentations followed by debates during the academic year (10% of the final mark)
• written assignments: two individual assignments (1 per term) (10% of the final mark)

Students who have to resit the exam (September session), need to redo the exam parts for which they did not get 12/20 in June  (the pronunciation exam, the conversation exam and / or the written exam).  The students keep the marks they obtained for the continuous assessment.

• Formal lectures (whole group) focused on vocabulary extension, grammatical accuracy and stylistic appropriateness;
• Exercise sessions (in smaller groups) focused more particularly on oral production : phonetic and grammatical accuracy, lexical range and fluency
• Self-study: Gairns, R. & Redman, S. (2008) Oxford Word Skills (Advanced).  Oxford: Oxford University Press. (with CD-ROM).

The topics discussed are both concrete and abstract and of a rather complex nature, including technical discussions in the student's field of specialisation

-Course notes on Moodle (e-learning)
-Gairns, R. & Redman, S. (2008) Oxford Word Skills (Advanced).  Oxford: Oxford University Press. (with CD-ROM).
-Hewings M. (2007) English Pronunciation in Use ' Advanced. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Where possible, the course deals with some of the topics discussed in the receptive skills course (LGERM1322) to make it possible for the students to exploit the topics in the four skills.