English productive and receptive skills

Teacher(s)

De Cock Sylvie; Dumont Amandine (compensates Gilquin Gaëtanelle); Gilquin Gaëtanelle (coordinator);

Language

English

Main themes

• Speaking and listening exercises to improve students' aural and oral communicative skills
• Writing and reading exercises. Starting from authentic and varied texts, the course offers both an initiation to reading techniques (extensive and intensive reading, skimming, scanning, etc.) and an opportunity to produce different text types (summary, translation, commentary, analysis, etc.).

As the course is taught to students specializing in languages, special attention will be devoted to language accuracy, complexity and fluency.

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	Acquire an upper intermediate level of communicative competence in the following skills: listening, speaking (with or without interaction), reading and writing. 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; follow factual information presented e.g. on the radio or on television; summarize and/or present it; accurately understand non-technical authentic written texts; summarize, comment and present the information contained in the documents seen in class; produce clear and structured written documents of a relatively informal character (personal letters, e-mails, notes, etc.).

Content

• Listening exercises
• Pronunciation exercises
• Conversation activities (e.g. role plays, games, presentations followed by discussions)
• Introduction to effective reading techniques
• Reading for Meaning
• Introduction to different types of writing (with a focus on the argumentative essay) and their respective linguistic specificities 
• Writing of different types of writing (email, paragraph, argumentative essay, etc.) through, among others, a portfolio of texts

Teaching methods

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information in this section is particularly likely to change.

A combination of whole group teaching and more practical sessions. The lectures and practical sessions are taught face to face (or online via Teams or using dual-mode teaching if face-to-face teaching is not possible because of a health crisis for example).

Evaluation methods

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information in this section is particularly likely to change.

(1) Continuous assessment

1. Active participation in class and in the exercise sessions
2. Portfolio of individual written assignments spread over the term

(2) The exam for the course is made up of five main parts:

1. Oral production (with and without interaction): 20% of the final grade
2. Written production: 20% of the final grade
3. Reading comprehension: 15% of the final grade
4. Listening comprehension: 20% of the final grade
5. Focus on forms/accuracy (vocabulary and error detection/correction): 25% of the final grade

Students who get a grade lower than 8/20 for one of the five main parts of the exam (listening comprehension, reading comprehension, written production, oral production, and focus on forms/accuracy) will fail the course overall (7/20 or less if the mean is lower).
During the resits (September session), students shall be required to retake only the parts for which they failed to achieve a passing score (10/20).
WORDS OF CAUTION:
- For the June exam session, the different parts of the exam will be organized on different dates (before and during the session). No "catch-up" session will be organized for the parts of the exam organized before the exam session.
- Students who have not handed in all the written assignments of the portfolio on time will have marks deducted from the "written production" part of the final grade (one mark per missing or late assignment).

Online resources

Moodle

Bibliography

Gairns, R. & Redman, S. (2008). Oxford Word Skills (Advanced). Oxford University Press.

Teaching materials

• Gairns, R. & Redman, S. (2008). Oxford Word Skills (Advanced). Oxford University Press.
• Course notes, slides, documents available on Moodle

Faculty or entity

ELAL