First Foreign Language II (English)
Code: 103763 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2502904 Hotel Management | FB | 2 |
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
Knowledge-related objectives
Students acquire linguistic knowledge and develop written and oral communication skills, so that at the end of this second 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.
Skills-related objectives
By the end of the four-year programme, students must be able to:
- Develop a degree of accuracy (grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary use, registration, etc.) and fluency (speed in production, ability to express ideas and develop discourse), both written and oral expression, equivalent to level C1.1 level UAB Idiomes.
- Develop strategies and skills to understand authentic written and oral texts.
- Develop strategies to continue learning outside the classroom.
- Develop the ability to function efficiently and confidently in both everyday and tourism related situations
- Use reference materials necessary for learning languages: dictionaries, textbooks or exercises, etc.
- Function orally in any situation related to the hospitality sector using appropriate language and a suitable register.
- Be able to apply for a job related to the hotel and catering sector in English (write CVs, cover letters and emails, fill in application forms, and communicate effectively during the interview in English).
- Know whether to take further language courses in order to maintain or improve their current level.
- Develop strategies and skills to be able to explain food and catering services to overseas diners both orally and in writing.
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
- Be able to self-evaluate knowledge acquired.
- Demonstrate the acquisition of theoretical and practical knowledge of first and second foreign languages in area related to hotel and catering companies.
- Develop a capacity for independent learning.
- Identify the correct grammatical for communication management existing between companies in a first and second foreign language.
- Identify the correct vocabulary for communication management existing between companies in a first and second foreign language.
- Manage and organise time.
- Manage communication techniques at all levels.
- Use a first and second foreign language in specific contexts and real situations.
- Use the idiomatic peculiarities required in the hotel and catering sector in a first and second foreign language.
- Work in teams.
Content
Language functions
1. Express oneself effectively, both orally and in writing on topics of general interest and hospitality.
2. Use and understand the specialised vocabulary of reception: reservations, payment, check-in and check-out.
3. Provide information on the availability of accommodation places describe facilities and guest supplies.
4. Answer the phone in English (transferring calls from one department to another of a hotel, providing information on rates and availability, reservations).
5. Write texts (letters, emails and fax) related to hospitality (confirmations, invitations, etc.).
6. Write a report or project on a hotel establishment and present it orally in English to an audience.
7. Update your CV and write a covering letter or email.
8. Write without making basic errors of text organisation, spelling and punctuation.
9. Make appropriate changes standard hotel letters and emails (templates).
10. Perform the typical language functions at this level:
a) Make and respond to requests in a suitable register.
b) Ask for and give advice.
c) Give opinions.
d) Respond appropriately to complaints (apologies).
e) Offer to do something.
f) Suggest solutions.
g) Explain activities or excursions.
h) Answer questions about attractions and giving directions.
i) Make predictions about future events.
j) Express certainty.
k) Express regret.
11. Understand the stylistic differences between formal, semi-formal and informal letters, e-mails and internal communications.
12. Speak about the environment.
13. Translate the content of menus both orally and in writing from Catalan and Spanish into English.
Grammatical contents
- Review and improvement of tenses (past, present and future).
- Comparative and superlative forms (basic and advanced).
- The future. Tenses and surprising uses of 'the simple' and 'future continuous'.
- An overall look at ‘ing forms’ and their uses.
- Modal verbs to express certainty.
- The difference between state and active verb forms.
- Revision and extension modal verbs to perform linguistic functions.
Lexical contents
Lexical contents are basically divided into the following fields: environment, hotel reception, airports, hotel chains, switchboard, maintenance and tourist attractions.
- Continuation of the first year section on numbers: money, prices, exchange rates, dimensions, percentages and accounts, payment. (using high numbers to talk about exchange rates, currencies and calculating and break down bills to customers, etc).
- Compound words (adjectives and nouns related to the hotel industry).
- Vocabulary and expressions in the financial sector (basics).
- The language of telephone conversations.
- Basic I.T. vocabulary.
- Prefixes with special emphasis on 'over-' and 'under-' in hotel vocabulary.
- Expressions and lexis for the solution of problems after check-in (breakdown, lack of services, misunderstanding).
- Culinary lexis and vocabulary for food service.
- Continuation of the learning block from the first year "non-sexist language in the hotel industry".
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Classes | 60 | 2.4 | 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Tutorials | 2.5 | 0.1 | 1 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Portfolio and Project | 81 | 3.24 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 |
Classrooom 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 | 2, 4, 5, 7, 9 |
| Portfolio | 20% | 0 | 0 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 |
| Project | 20% | 1 | 0.04 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 |
| Second semester test | 40% | 3 | 0.12 | 4, 5, 7, 9 |
Continuous assessment
1. Project. It is prepared during the course under the supervision of teachers and presented to the class.
2. Portfolio. It assess 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 havepassed continulous assessment are not allowed to sit the final exam in order to obtain a higher mark.
Levels are not officially certified.
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. and Cunningham, Gillie. (2013). Face2Face (Upper Intermediate Student Book Second Edition), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stott, Trish. Pohl, Alison. (2010). Highly Recommended 2 (Student Book), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Strutt, Peter. (2003). Inglés For International Tourism (Intermediate Students' Book), Harlow: Longman.
Wood, Neil. (2003). Tourism and Catering Workshop, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Harding, Keith. Henderson, Paul. (1992). High Season (English for the Hotel and Tourist Industry), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Eastwood, John. and Mackin, Ronald. (1984). A Basic English Grammar (Spanish Edition), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Note: it will be compulsory to purchase the first book on the list
Websites:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
http://wikitravel.org/en
www.thefreedictionary.com
http://diccionario.reverso.net/
www.tripadvisor.com
www.breakingnewsenglish.com
Software
There isn't any.
Language list
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (TE) Theory | 1 | English | annual | morning-mixed |