Advanced English language skills II

Teacher(s)

Dupont Maïté (compensates Gilquin Gaëtanelle); Gilquin Gaëtanelle;

Language

English

Prerequisites

Level B2 of the Common Europea Framework of Reference for Languages

The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.

Main themes

A wide range of written texts and multimedia documents are used as a prompt for receptive and productive activities in both speech and writing.
The focus is on vocabulary extension, grammatical accuracy and coherent argumentation.
Special attention is devoted to intercultural communication.
Lexical, grammatical and discursive differences between the target language and French are highlighted and practised through translation exercises.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	To acquire advanced productive and receptive skills in both speech and writing (B2+ level - Common European Framework of Reference for Languages). At the end of the course, the student will be able to: - follow extended speech even when it is not clearly structured and when relationships are only implied and not signalled explicitly; - understand standard spoken language, live or broadcast; - easily follow complex interactions between third parties in group discussion and debate, even on abstract, complex unfamiliar topics; - understand spoken language displaying light regional varieties; - easily summarize lectures, conferences and talks (even on specialized topics) presented by native speakers; - understand a wide range of journalistic, literary or domain-specific texts; - appreciate stylistic differences between texts (written or spoken); - discover the structure of discourse; - recognize stylistic devices typical of the target language and provide equivalents in his/her mother tongue; - identify the targeted readership of a text; - have a good command of a broad lexical repertoire allowing gaps to be readily overcome with circumlocutions and avoidance strategies; - have a good command of idiomatic expressions and colloquialisms; - make no significant vocabulary errors; - consistently maintain a high degree of grammatical accuracy; errors are rare; - be able to vary intonation and place sentence stress correctly in order to express finer shades of meaning; - use consistent and accurate layout, paragraphing, spelling and punctuation; - produce clear, smoothly flowing, well-structured speech, showing controlled use of organizational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices.

Content

• Vocabulary extension with particular focus on its appropriate use in context (collocations, register).
• Discursive and rhetorical techniques, typical of the target language.
• Lexical and structural properties of written and spoken discourse in the target language.
• Developing writing skills via the use of online tools.

Teaching methods

• Formal lectures focused on systematic vocabulary extension, grammatical accuracy and stylistic appropriateness as well as the quality of translation.
• Exercise sessions focused more particularly on oral production (phonetic and grammatical accuracy, lexical range and fluency).
• Self-study: writing skills Moodle module on the use of online resources.

Evaluation methods

A. Continuous assessment:
1. Portfolio of individual written assignments spread over the first and second term
2. Individual oral exercise
3. Active participation in class and in the exercise sessions
B. Exam 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 (10% of the final grade)
4. Listening comprehension (10% of the final grade)
5. Focus on forms (40% of the final grade)

• Journal'ease vocabulary (15% of the final grade): exemption test in January covering letters A to J (7.5% of the final grade) and exam covering letters A to J (for students who failed the exemption test in January) and letters K to Z (for all students)
• Translation French > English (10% of the final grade)
• Error detection/correction (10% of the final grade)
• Use of online resources (5% of the final grade): completing the entire writing skills Moodle module on the use of online resources

The final grade for the exam is the weighted means of the five main parts (oral production, written production, reading comprehension, listening comprehension, focus on forms). As we are aiming to train language specialists, particular attention is paid to language accuracy in each part of the course, including those that do not specifically focus on forms. Details on the specific weight of language accuracy are available in a document on the Moodle course platform.
In the case of resits (August/September exam session), students who did not get at least 10/20 for one of the five main parts of the exam and/or who were absent for one of these parts will have to retake that/those part(s).
WORDS OF CAUTION:

• Students who have not handed in all the written assignments of the portfolio on time and/or who have not done the individual oral exercise on the scheduled date will have marks deducted from the final grade (one mark per missing or late assignment/exercise).
  
• For the June exam session, some parts of the exam will be organized before the exam session. For these parts of the exam, no "catch-up" session will be organized.
  
• An absence for any part of the exam, be it justified or not, will result in an overall absence grade (A) for the whole exam.
  

Online resources

Moodle

Bibliography

• Andreyev, J. (2015) Journal'ease vocabulaire - Tous les mots qu'il vous faut pour lire aisément un journal anglais ou américain. 6e édition. Bréal. ISBN: 978-2-7495-3452-7.
  
• Andreyev, J. (2015) Journal'ease exercices - Tous les mots qu'il vous faut pour lire aisément un journal anglais ou américain. 6e édition. Bréal. ISBN: 978-2-7495-3453-4.
  

Teaching materials

• Notes de cours et Powerpoint sur Moodle
• Andreyev, J. (2015) Journal'ease vocabulaire - Tous les mots qu'il vous faut pour lire aisément un journal anglais ou américain. 6e édition. Bréal. ISBN: 978-2-7495-3452-7.

Faculty or entity

ELAL