A Fast Track to Professional English (3 cr)

Objectives (course unit)

Students
-can communicate within multi-professional work communities in their own special field
-understand and can make use of texts related to their own professional field
-can develop language skills of their own professional field utilizing a variety of learning tools
-understand the significance of communication as part of professional skills
-can instruct various clients/patients/colleagues in field-specific situations

Content (course unit)

Key terminology and communication of one’s own professional field
Field-specific texts
Different registers

Prerequisites (course unit)

Upper secondary school courses (A-level) or an equivalent level (health care and other fields)
Working English for Engineers or equivalent skills (engineering)

Location and time

12.9.2022-23.10.2022 (Group 1)
24.10.-4.12.2022 (Group 2)

Independent and collaborative studying on tuniMoodle platform.

Exam schedules

Instead of an exam, various weekly assignments (written and oral)

Assessment methods and criteria

Assessment:
3 credits:
Podcast assignment (pass/fail)
Essay 1-5 (40%)
Research Report assignment (pass/fail)
Oral presentation (video) 1-5 (40%)
Other activities (collaborative, informal) (20%)
Learning diary Pass

5 credits:
Podcast assignment (pass/fail)
Essay 1-5
Research Report assignment (pass/fail)
Oral presentation (video) 1-5
Other activities (collaborative, informal)
Learning diary Pass
Video chat with a student colleague & reporting it 1-5

Assessment scale

0-5

Teaching methods

For whom?
For an engineering / a health care student who wants to study at an accelerated pace to complete his/her studies and who has the ability to study English of one’s special field both independently and with students from different professional fields.

Prerequisites:
Upper secondary school courses (A-level) or an equivalent level (health care and other fields)
Working English for Engineers* or equivalent skills (engineering)

Learning materials

Material on Moodle

Content scheduling

The course lasts six weeks.

International connections

Also for exchange students

Assessment criteria - fail (0) (Not in use, Look at the Assessment criteria above)

The student
-fails to meet the specified criteria in one or more of the compulsory assignments.
-fails to meet the given deadlines.

Assessment criteria - satisfactory (1-2) (Not in use, Look at the Assessment criteria above)

The student
-can interact in a simple way provided the other person is prepared to repeat or rephrase things at a slower rate of speech and help formulate what is being said.
-can write memos, reports, summaries and other texts related to his/her field such as manuals.
-can understand texts in his/her field with some help e.g. dictionaries.
-can follow standard speech in everyday conversation provided he/she can ask for repetition.
-pronounces mostly comprehensibly.
-can express him/herself with somewhat clarity.
-uses basic grammatical structures
-has sufficient vocabulary to express him/herself so that essential message is understandable.
-can find and understand relevant information in texts on familiar matters.

Assessment criteria - good (3-4) (Not in use, Look at the Assessment criteria above)

The student
-can give a presentation fairly effectively and fluently.
-can write memos, reports, summaries and other texts connected to his field such as instructions and manuals.
-can understand texts on subjects related to his/her field.
-can discuss and interact with some confidence.
-can understand interlocutors who use different accents if the topic is familiar.
-pronunciation is fairly intelligible even if a foreign accent is somewhat evident and occasional mispronunciations occur.
-can express him/herself fairly clearly and precisely in writing.
-shows a relatively high degree of grammatical control. If he/she makes mistakes he/she can correct him/herself if mistakes have led to misunderstanding.
-can understand the main ideas of complex texts on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.

Assessment criteria - excellent (5) (Not in use, Look at the Assessment criteria above)

The student
-can give an effective and fluent presentation.
-can write clear, well-structured memos, reports, summaries as well as other texts on subjects related to his/her field such as instructions and manuals.
-can understand in detail texts related to his/her own area of specialty.
-can discuss fluently and spontaneously.
-can understand relatively effortlessly people who use different accents.
-has acquired a clear, natural pronunciation and intonation.
-can express him/herself with clarity and precision in writing.
-has a good grammatical control and accuracy. Occasional slips or non-systematic errors and minor flaws in sentence structure may still occur.
-has a good command of a broad lexical repertoire.
-can understand in detail a wide range of lengthy, complex texts.