English for Communication - Entry to Professional life

langl2601  2018-2019  Louvain-la-Neuve

English for Communication - Entry to Professional life
5 credits
30.0 h
Q1 and Q2
Teacher(s)
Brabant Stéphanie coordinator; Gouverneur Céline coordinator; 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 :

  1. reading comprehension
  2. listening comprehension
  3. oral expression
  4. 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
After Bachelor courses which were primarily based on building solid receptive and productive skills as well as general vocab, this course is based on project learning.
Through integrated skills teaching (reading comprehension, listening comprehension, written production, oral production, vocabulary, grammar, phonetics and pronunciation), the students' job is to design an online magazine in English. The level of this magazine should be upper-intermediate.
This magazine is the overarching project for the year and everything the students produce is a part of it. To do this, in groups of 4, they
  • Decide and work as a team on a magazine that they would like to create in English;
  • Learn how to write news or feature articles, opinion pieces and columns for a magazine;
  • Create and integrate a podcast in a magazine;
  • Create video content;
  • Cover a press conference;
  • Learn how to pitch a project in front of a jury.
In addition to the magazine project, a few tests on very specific language points that are particularly relevant to journalists also take place during the year.
Teaching methods
There are exercises to do, articles to read or videos to watch for each lesson. 
In-class lessons include group activities, research, document analysis, project-based learning, and skill development. A significant amount of time is therefore spent on thinking skills such as collaboration, design and problem solving. In other words, the course also aims at developing life skills to prepare students for their future career.
With that goal in mind, we have also set up a partnership with the Journalism program of DePaul University in Chicago.
Evaluation methods
Students have to hand in all parts of all the projects in order to pass the course in June.
  • The 5 mini-projects that are part of the bigger project: 60%
  • Language tests:10%
  • Final product and jury at the end of the year: 20%
  • Attendance and participation: 10%
Students are also evaluated on your level of involvement in the project throughout the year (meeting deadlines, being a proactive team member, etc).
Meeting deadlines is vital in journalism. As the deadlines for each project are announced well in advance, no late submissions are allowed.
Other information
  • Groups of maximum 20 students
Online resources
https://moodleucl.uclouvain.be/course/view.php?id=7799
Bibliography
  1. Syllabus LANGL2601 - EJL - Entry to Professional Life
  2. Groupe Facebook
  3. Plateforme Moodle
Faculty or entity
ILV


Programmes / formations proposant cette unité d'enseignement (UE)

Title of the programme
Sigle
Credits
Prerequisites
Aims
Master [120] in Communication

Master [120] in Journalism

Master [120] in Information and Communication Science and Technology

Master [120] in Information and Communication