Module Catalogue 2024/25

Pre Requisite Comment

IELTS 5.5 (or equivalent) with minimum 5.0 in all four skills (writing, reading, speaking and listening)

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

This module is designed to help international students develop competence in and awareness of
academic English in order to successfully start an undergraduate degree programme in the UK. It is
specifically designed for students starting the module at an intermediate English language level
(approximately IELTS 5.5, CEFR B2). This enhanced 40 credit module is designed to provide students with extensive practice and development time. The module’s specific aims are:
•       To develop skills and knowledge in academic writing to meet the expectations of the undergraduate academic community at UK HEIs
•       To develop strategies for reading academic texts in English in order to exploit key text content for further study purposes including written work, seminar discussion and oral seminar presentation
•       To introduce note-taking skills and to extend this into summarising of key ideas from written and oral texts
•       To develop an awareness of how secondary sources are to be integrated into student writing so that recognition and respect of source origins are demonstrated and plagiarism is avoided
•       To raise awareness of academic lecture structure and the strategies required in order to follow and understand lecture content, lecturer behaviour, and lecturer discourse choices
•       To develop spoken English skills for social and academic spoken interactional contexts, such as seminar discussions, oral presentations, 1-1 tutorials, group work discussions, and informal conversations.
•       To further extend knowledge and awareness of English grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation features so that academic and socio/cultural assimilation can easily occur

Outline Of Syllabus

Developing grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and style with regard to academic English.
Use and understand spoken English in academic and social contexts
Reading techniques for academic study.
How to read challenging academic texts.
The structure and function of academic writing.
Writing English clearly and appropriately using an adequate range of sentence structures and vocabulary.
Plan, write and review academic assignments.
Use citation and referencing appropriately.
Organise ideas and arguments in a clear and logical manner.
Summarising, paraphrasing and using dictionaries.
Writing clearly and concisely under timed conditions.
Revise, edit and proof-read written work.
Understanding graphs and diagram.
Explain diagrammatic information (spoken and written).
Raise student awareness of the variety of writing genre appropriate to their subject pathway: Business, Humanities and Architecture , descriptive, evaluative, discursive and argumentative text patterns.
Listening to and understanding the structure of lectures.
Taking effective notes (in lectures and from written sources).
Summarise oral discussions and reading texts.
Prepare and deliver oral presentations on academic topics.
Understand lectures as a teaching method.
Participate successfully in seminars and discussions about academic topics.

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

At the end of this module the learner will:
- Be aware of the need to critically assess source materials
- Understand the advantages of the process approach to writing in academic contexts
- Have a raised awareness of the linguistic and textual features of academic texts
- Understand the conventions required and constraints within written academic English
- Have an understanding of citation and referencing skills appropriate for undergraduate study
- Be aware of the features of academic spoken discourse –e.g. lectures, tutorial discussions, seminar discussions
- Understand that there are levels of formality in spoken English
- Be aware of the expectations of tutors in terms of participation in seminars
- Understand the structure and use of academic textbooks and reference materials
- Understand how different reading strategies match different reading purposes
- Be able to self-analyse their productive skills in English and develop a self-study plan as appropriate
- Understand grammar and vocabulary language systems to be able to take part in the written and spoken study environment at a UK university at undergraduate level

Intended Skill Outcomes

At the end of the module the learner will be able to:
- Understand spoken English in an academic and social-academic environment so that key information and supporting points are clear
- Understand written English in academic material related to the particular subject discipline of the learner so that key information and supporting points are clear
- Use the appropriate reading strategy for a range of particular study purposes
- Extract key information and supporting detail from written and aural texts, and record this in an appropriate note form
- Write English in an appropriate style subject to the academic or social purpose of the written text
- Write English with accurate grammar and vocabulary so that intended messages are communicated clearly to the reader in timed and extended situations
- Write English with an appropriate structure and organisation in order to address specific academic assignment or examination tasks
- Accurately use citation and referencing conventions in writing when referring to secondary reading sources
- To effectively use a process approach to academic writing
- To plan, draft and submit a variety of written assignments specific to the subject pathway:
Humanities, Business and Architecture – written essays, research-based projects, reflective written tasks
Physical Sciences and Biological and Biomedical sciences – written laboratory reports, written essays, and software documentation.
- Use a range of academic study materials to effectively support English language comprehension and production e.g. paper and on-line dictionaries and thesauri, on-line vocabulary guidance, on-line and paper grammar support resources etc
-To plan, prepare and deliver oral presentations with appropriate structure, language signposting features and accurate and intelligible spoken English
-To effectively take part in spoken academic situations such as seminars, tutorials and group meetings

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Collaborative and interactive learning are central to the teaching and learning methodology adopted in this module. This is best developed through small group learning and pair work. Collaborative learning facilitates the development of reading strategies such as guessing unknown vocabulary from context and helps to improve students' understanding of the writing process as well as their planning, revising, editing and proof-reading skills. These skills are best developed through peer and tutor feedback on drafts. Activities which exploit the strong link between reading and writing are also important. These activities usually involve the combination of teaching and learning methods outlined above. Note-taking and summary writing tasks are examples of these activities, as is text analysis, which is used to help students understand the organisational and stylistic features of academic writing as well as the conventions governing the use of sources. Finally, the development of reading and writing skills is not possible without self-study. Extensive reading is necessary to improve reading skills and general language proficiency and to increase knowledge and understanding of textual and organisational features of written texts. Regular writing practice in the form of homework tasks ensures that the skills learnt are consolidated. Students are exposed to audio and video extracts of a wide variety of discourse types from a range of sources e.g. lectures, news reports, everyday conversations, discussions etc. The use of small group work and pair work maximises speaking time in class and ensures personalised feedback on specific listening and speaking problems. Students are required to prepare for and actively participate in seminar simulations, tutorial discussions and open debates on a variety of academic and social topics. Workshop sessions and peer feedback classes are well suited to developing oral presentation skills.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Semester 1 assessment is formative and results are used by the tutors and students’ to measure student ability and progress on the module. This will provide the opportunity to identify areas where the students need to focus on improving before taking the summative assessments in semester 2, which will determine their success on the overall programme and their university place. The aim of the assessment is to test the four skills taught and to provide constructive feedback to ensure the students transition into an academic environment more successfully.

Assessing all four language skills by final test and coursework in semester 2 makes it possible to test the full range of skills taught. Skills that are not easily assessed by means of a timed test (e.g. citation skills) are tested through the written coursework. The reading test is designed to assess the full range of skills taught. The nature of the listening test demonstrates the students’ ability to process, understand and infer information from an extract of prepared spoken discourse. The speaking test demonstrates the students’ ability to interact with others in the context of a given topic and situation, thus assessing a range of spoken skills and listen and respond, interrupt effectively, synthesise information from others etc. There is a separate oral presentation to formally assess the key skills of researching, synthesising, and presenting information. Overall, the combination of summative coursework and exams will provide a balanced assessment of students’ language competence (including the ability to perform under timed conditions).

The focus is on assessing students’ language competence and preparedness for undergraduate study.

Students are assessed in the four language skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking. The assessment is designed to measure both general language/communication skills and study skills for academic work in a UK higher education environment. The rationale for this approach is given below:

1       This approach to assessment is consistent with the programme's overall aim of developing the language, communication and study skills of international students to a level that will enable them to undertake a degree programme at Newcastle or other UK universities.

2       The assessment addresses the specific learning outcomes outlined in the Programme Specification.

3       The overall mark (the average of the marks for the four individual skills) is directly linked to a specific band in the statements of competence provided by the INTO Newcastle University Centre. This enables students, receiving schools and sponsors to interpret the grades easily and accurately.

4       The marks for the individual skills enable course leaders and tutors to make appropriate recommendations for further tuition or self-study in specific language skill areas. It is possible, for example, that a student who has satisfactorily completed the INTO International Foundation Programme may require In-Sessional support in one particular skill (e.g. writing).

5       This approach to assessment is consistent with that of other INTO Newcastle University Centre programmes (e.g. Pre-Sessional, In-Sessional, English for Undergraduate Study and English for Postgraduate study), which also use skills-based assessment and a common English Language Proficiency Scale when awarding marks. This ensures a smooth transition from one course to another and gives a clear indication of progress over time. It also ensures that reporting mechanisms are standardised across programmes and that the information contained in entry standard and progress reports is easily interpreted by academic schools and sponsors.

General Notes

Original Handbook text: