Logo UAB

First Foreign Language IV (English)

Code: 103710 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2502904 Hotel Management OT 4

Contact

Name:
Roger Nicholson
Email:
roger.nicholson@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

There are no prerequisits.


Objectives and Contextualisation

Students acquire linguistic knowledge and develop written and oral communication skills, so that at the end of this fourth year they are able to:

1. Express themselves effectively, both orally and in writing, on issues of general interest and their specialization

2. Understand native speakers when they address them directly and be able to hold a conversation on issues of mutual interest.

3. Understand a conversation between native speakers and its most important points.

4. Understand written texts on various subjects and especially on issues related to the hospitality sector.

5. Know the components of a text (paragraphs, punctuation, deixis, connectors and anaphoric, cataphoric and exophoric reference).

6. Summarize texts, understanding the most significant points.

7. Understand and use different types of linguistic register.

8. Use English as the language in class.

 


Competences

  • Be able to self-evaluate knowledge acquired.
  • Communicate orally and in writing in a first, second and third foreign language in the areas of the hotel and catering industry and also in the different areas related to them.
  • Develop a capacity for independent learning.
  • Manage and organise time.
  • Manage communication techniques at all levels.
  • Manage techniques of internal and corporate communication in hotel and catering companies.
  • Work in teams.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Be able to self-evaluate knowledge acquired.
  2. Develop a capacity for independent learning.
  3. Identify the correct vocabulary and grammatical form to apply in the tourist sector in a first, second and third foreign language.
  4. Manage and organise time.
  5. Manage communication techniques at all levels.
  6. Produce discourses appropriate for different functions, means, activities and situations in the area of work.
  7. Use idiomatic peculiarities required in the tourist sector at intermediate and advanced level in a first, second and third foreign language.
  8. Use internet resources for tourism in a first, second and third foreign language.
  9. Work in teams.

Content

Language functions

1. Express oneself effectively both orally and in writing on topics of general interest and their specialization.

2. Write texts (letters, emails and faxes) related to hospitality (confirmations, invitations, responses to complaints, etc.).

3. Write a project on an innovative budget hotel chain, a well-known chef or the third-year internship and present it orally to an audience (part of the assessment).

4. Update and perfect CVs and covering emails and letters in English in order to apply for a real job or work placement in a hotel establishment overseas.

5. Write without making serious mistakes of text organisation, spelling and punctuation.

6. Make necessary changes to the typical model letters and emails used by hotels in the form of templates (improvement and continuation of third year work).

7. Discuss hospitality related issues.

8. Describe one’s education using appropriate language.

9. Make hypotheses about events and facts in the past. Express regret. Express obligation and absence of obligation in present and past. Express doubts.

10. Describe events and. Use circumlocution to offer opinions and to give examples.

11. Talk about quantities and trends without making excessive grammatical and lexical errors.

12. Express oneself without using gender exclusive language (especially hotel language and avoiding the use of "him" and "her" to refer to an unidentified third person).

13. Use phatic communication (small talk) to liven up meetings and gatherings.

14. Show empathy when helping people with problems: theft, illness, loss.

Grammatical content

  • Revision and extension of tenses (past, present and future indicative and progressive aspects).
  • Modal verbs to express opinions and hypothesise about past events (perfect infinitive).
  • Verbs + infinitive without 'to'or gerund.
  • Revision and extension of modal verbs (infinitive perfect - Should have, must have, might have, may have, can’t have, etc.).
  • The passive form (advanced aspects). When and why it is used.
  • Reported speech (advanced aspects).
  • Inversion structures.
  • Advanced quantifiers and the use of definite and indefinite articles.
  • The relationship between participles and adjectives.
  • Subject-verb agreement (advanced aspects of concordance).
  • Relative clauses with prepositions.
  • Gradable and non-gradable adjectives.
  • The future continuous and future perfect.
  • Use of auxiliar verbs to avoid repetition.

Lexical content

  • Advanced hospitality vocabulary (company policies, accommodation, facilities, equipment and furniture, hotel departments and their organisational structure, staffing charts, etc.)
  • Connectors: because of, owing to, moreover, besides, etc.
  • Continuation of tourism lexis.
  • Employment and personnel management (avoidance of gender exclusive policies in recruitment).
  • Gender inclusive vocabulary.
  • Business and entrepreneurship.
  • Describing the weather.
  • Health and safety.
  • Vocabulary and expressions French language in hospitality.
  • Describing trends for presentations.
  • Common abbreviations and acronyms.
  • Oenology, wine and its relationship with gastonomy (wine/food pairing).
  • The relationship between phrasal verbs and compound words.
  • Collocations with do and make.
  • Tangible and intangible heritage.
  • Event management.

 


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Classes 60 2.4 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Tutorials 2.5 0.1 1
Type: Autonomous      
Portfolio and Project 81 3.24 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Classroom language: English

A modified version of the communicative approach is used: small groups performing communicative tasks, with a balance between learning grammatical structures and linguistic functions while paying equal attention to the four language skills but without forgetting the peculiarities of a language course designed for hotel management students.

Classroom activities include debates, reading articles on the hospitality sector and of general interest, grammar exercises and vocabulary, listening comprehension exercises, reading concordance sheets (data-driven learning), writing assignments, cooperative learning, work in closed pairs, discovery learning and role playing. Prior to each class, participants should consult the Virtual Campus ("Notícies" followed by "Links" o "Materials")  for reading material about the hospitality sector or general issues with a view to contributing to debate in class.

 

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
First semester test 20% 2.5 0.1 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9
Portfolio 20% 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Project 20% 1 0.04 1, 2, 4, 5
Second semester test 40% 3 0.12 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Continuous assessment

1. Project. It is prepared during the course under the supervision of teachers and presented to the class.

2. Portfolio. It assesses the four language skills. Activities may be done at home or in class.

Examples of such activities are listed below:

Written assignments

Short reading activities

Short tests

Self-assessment forms

Finding information

Document production

The days scheduled by the school for mid-term exams may be used to carry out dossier work; for example short reading or listening tests.

3. First semester test. A mid-term exam is held during the periods scheduled by the school for exams, one of which will be a written test (two tasks) while the other one will be a listening test. The format should be similar to the final exam.

4. Second semester test

A minimum class attendance of 80% is required to be able to participate in continuous assessment.

Final exam

Students who have not passed the continuous assessment are entitled to take a final exam that tests the four language skills. In order to pass the exam, and therefore the course itself, a minimum mark of 50% must be obtained in each skill (each part of the exam) and a minimum 60% overall.

Single-assessment option  

 

The single assessment option to pass the course is based on the completion of a final exam, which assesses the four language skills. This exam is held on the same day as the final exam.

 

To pass the final exam, and therefore the course itself, the following is required:

a minimum mark of 50% must be obtained in each skill (each part of the exam).

An overall average grade of 60% is required.

 

 

Reassessment for the single-assessment option

 

When students are evaluated by means of single assessment, the examination will be the same as that of the rest of the students: that is, in order to be eligible for the reassessment exam, it is necessary to obtain at least a final mark of 3.5 in the single assessment.

 

Changing the exam date

Students who cannot take the exam on the set dates due to health, work (trips or other similar obligations) or on compassionate grounds may ask their teacher for a change of date, supplying any necessary documents, and giving notice of at least seven calendar days except in extreme cases such as accidents. If the request is accepted, the exams must still be taken within the period set by the School of Tourism and Hotel Management.

Other features of assessment

Students who have passed continuous assessment are not allowed to sit the final exam in order to obtain a higher mark. 

The grade for the subject will be NOT EVALUABLE when the student attends less than half of the assessment activities and/or does not attend the final exam.

 

 

 


Bibliography

Books:

Redston, Chris. i Cunningham, Gillie. (2011) Face2face (Advanced Student’s Book New Edition), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Stott, Trish. i Pohl, Alison. (2010) HighlyRecommended 2 (Student’s Book), Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Harding, Keith. i Henderson, Paul. (1992) High Season (English for the Hotel and Tourist Industry), Oxford: Oxford University Press.

McCarthy, Michael. i O’Dell, Felicity. (2002) English Vocabulary in Use (Advanced), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Websites:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/

www.thefreedictionary.com

www.caterer.com

http://diccionario.reverso.net/

http://www.webcorp.org.uk/

 


Software

There isn't any.


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(TE) Theory 1 English second semester morning-mixed