English for Communication - Entry to Professional life

Teacher(s)

Brabant Stéphanie coordinator; Deneumoustier Aurélie; Gouverneur Céline coordinator; Halleux Ariane (compensates Deneumoustier Aurélie); Henin Véronique;

Language

English

Prerequisites

The student should have followed an interactive course corresponding to the B2 level of the « Common European Framework » (Council of Europe) - LANGL 2433- or a course of a similar level.

Main themes

Students will be asked to take part in various activities allowing them to develop their communicative skills (mainly oral skills) in the following situations:

• Job interview  (including a CV and a letter of application)
• Organising and covering an event (including invitations, programmes, surveys, questionnaires, video and audio documents ..)
• Presenting a project, surveys etc ..
• Writing articles on specific subjects related to their field of studies
• Preparing, presenting and coveringa press conference (as well as writing the questions)
• Participating in a meeting, workshop, news bulletin '
• Using electronic mail
   

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	The main objective of the course is the development of skills that will enable the students in the communication business (public relations, journalism,¿) to function in the daily situations of their future professional activities.  By the end of the course, the student should have reached the B2 level of the « Common European Framework » (Council of Europe) for the following skills : reading comprehension listening comprehension oral expression written expression

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

Content

Reading skills: B2 level of the 'Common European Framework' (Council of Europe)

• By the end of the course, the students should be able to read - with a large degree of independence - articles (from newspapers, magazines, internet and other sources) and reports (press kits ') concerning contemporary issues.

Listening skills: B2 level of the 'Common European Framework' (Council of Europe)

• Students should be able to understand conferences and extended speeches and follow complex argumentation.
• Students should be able to exploit the main points of a document in a conversation
• Students should be able to follow argumentation in an animated conversation between different interlocutors within the main socio-professional contexts.

Oral skills : B2 level of the 'Common European Framework' (Council of Europe)

• Students should be able to present a complex topic in a clear and methodical way with only occasional reference to their notes.
• Students should be able to communicate spontaneously and fluently to a degree that allows for normal interaction with a native-speaker interlocutor.
• Students should be able to communicate fluently and effectively in conversations on both social  and professional levels.
• Student should be able to express, articulate and defend their opinions and should be able to react to and interact with their interlocutors in conversations on both social and professional levels.

Written skills: B2 level of the 'Common European Framework' (Council of Europe)
By the end of the course, the students should be able

• to write a press article
• to write an e-mail message properly
• to write a motivation letter and a CV
• to write a text about a relevant topic in their field of studies
• to write documents (invitations, programmes, surveys, questionnaires about organising and covering an event)

Code

• Enabling students to adequately master language functions, grammatical structures (simple and complex), vocabulary (general and specific), pronunciation and intonation in order to allow for fluent and spontaneous communication.

Culture

• Making students aware of the (inter-)cultural differences as expressed by different interlocutors of the English language (native and non-native speakers).

Teaching methods

Before each class activity, the teacher places a range of tools (communication techniques, useful expressions, general and specialised vocabulary, grammatical reminders) and resources (written documents, audiovisual aids, web sites ') at the students' disposal. Most of them are mentioned in the syllabus and enable the students to interact in communication situations in so far as they have been prepared beforehand. Feedback activities are also planned.
Students are given detailed instructions before each activity. Texts and videos are used as inputs to the oral discussion.

Evaluation methods

Students are assessed on their preparation and participation in the various activities and more particularly on a talk (in class), a press conference, a job interview, a radio programme, when organising and covering an event and on the articles they will write.

Other information

• Groups of maximum 20 students
• Each teacher has at least one office hour when he / she can meet his / her students and can always be contacted via e-mail.

Online resources

http://moodleucl.uclouvain.be/course/view.php?id=77

Bibliography

1. Syllabus: English for Communication / Entry to Professional Life
2. Site Internet (e-learning) comprenant des documents pédagogiques et des références de sites pour leurs diverses activités

Faculty or entity

ILV