Seminar on Advanced Oral and Written Expresssion in English
Code: 106290 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2504212 English Studies | OB | 4 |
Contact
- Name:
- Sonia Oliver Del Olmo
- Email:
- sonia.oliver@uab.cat
Teachers
- Julio Miguel Cebrian Puyuelo
- Jennifer Rose Ament
- Elisabet Pladevall Ballester
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
The students' level of English should be C2 (proficiency) of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. With a C2 level, the student can understand with little effort everything s/he reads or listens to; S/he can summarise information from different sources, reconstruct facts and arguments and present them in a coherent way; s/he can communicate fluently and with precision, being aware of subtle nuances even in complex situations.
Students are required to have successfully completed WRAP I and II and SLAP I and II.
Objectives and Contextualisation
- Focus on the grammatical and linguistic structures that characterise formal and academic registers in oral and written English.
- Work on writing, referencing, quoting and editing techniques of articles of an advanced level.
- Work on bibliographic research for the completion of academic work.
- Analyze and write a literature review, theoretical framework and an abstract on an academic topic.
- Speak fluently and with accurate and intelligible pronunciation at the segmental and suprasegmental levels.
- Make oral presentations in English effectively within an academic register (preparation and organization of content, creation of visual material, use of effective oral expression techniques, handling anxiety).
- Consolidate the already acquired instrumental and academic knowledge for the preparation of the TFG (Final Degree Project) and its oral presentation.
Competences
- Act with ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and duties, diversity and democratic values.
- Apply scientific ethical principles to information processing.
- Demonstrate skills to work autonomously and in teams to fulfil the planned objectives.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
- Understand and produce written and spoken academic texts in English at advanced higher-proficient-user level (C2).
- Understand and produce written and spoken academic texts in English at an advanced proficient-user level (C1).
- Use digital tools and specific documentary sources for the collection and organisation of information.
- Use written and spoken English for academic and professional purposes, related to the study of linguistics, the philosophy of language, history, English culture and literature.
Learning Outcomes
- Express oneself fluently, correctly, appropriately and effectively, both orally and in writing, in an academic environment.
- Express oneself in English orally and in writing in a formal register and using the appropriate terminology in relation to the characterisation of academic discourse.
- Incorporate ideas and concepts from published sources into work, citing and referencing appropriately.
- Locate specialised and academic information and select this according to its relevance.
- Modulate written and oral discourse in order to express oneself respectfully and ethically in a context of academic interaction.
- Plan work effectively, individually or in groups, in order to fulfil the planned objectives.
- Produce academic written and oral speeches at advanced higher-proficient-user level (C2) and adapting them to the conventions of the different genders.
- Produce written and oral academic discourses with a fluency and accuracy appropriate to proficient-user level (C1) and higher-proficient-user level (C2) and adapting these to the conventions of distinct genres.
- Understand written and oral academic discourse in the field of human and social sciences at higher-proficient-user level (C2).
- Understand written and oral academic discourse in the field of humanities and social sciences at proficient-user level (C1) and higher-proficient-user level (C2).
- Use appropriate metalanguage to describe the knowledge acquired in relation to the subject.
Content
- Review of key concepts in writing and presenting academic papers.
- Bibliographic search.
- Review of citation and bibliography styles (APA and MLA).
- TFG: structure, topics, generation of ideas.
- The theoretical framework, literature review and abstract.
- Fluency and appropriateness in oral communication and reading aloud (rhythm, stress, and appropriate intonation patterns).
- Effective oral expression techniques.
- Academic oral presentations: content, visual aids, responses.
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Seminars | 50 | 2 | 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Tutorials | 25 | 1 | 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Individual and group assignments | 50 | 2 | 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 |
The methodology for this course includes the following activities:
- Practical written and oral production tasks in the classroom.
- Individual and group written and oral production tasks and projects.
- Tutorials.
- Specialized readings.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract | 10% | 2.5 | 0.1 | 2, 5, 7, 8 |
| Academic oral presentation | 30% | 8 | 0.32 | 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 |
| In-class oral and written tasks | 10% | 2.5 | 0.1 | 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 |
| Pronunciation and oral expression test | 15% | 3 | 0.12 | 1, 2, 5, 7, 8 |
| Theoretical Framework and Literature Review | 35% | 9 | 0.36 | 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 |
Assessment for this course includes:
- Written and oral in-class tasks 10%
- Theoretical framework and literature review 35%
- Academic abstract 10%
- Oral expression and pronunciation test 15%
- Academic oral presentation 30%
On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place.
This subject/module does not incorporate single assessment.
Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 30% of the assessment items.
In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject. These include the use of AI and plagiarism.
All assessment items are mandatory, as well as 80% of the tasks done in class. If less than 80% of the in-class tasks are submitted, the grade for these tasks will be 0 (10%).
To pass the subject, the academic oral presentation and the theoretical framework and literature review must be passed, and the final average grade of the course must be 5 or higher. The minimum grade to be averaged is 4, with the exception of the academic oral presentation and the theoretical framework and literature review, which must have a minimum of 5.
The students' level of English (C2) will be taken into account in the marking of all assessment items.
REASSESSMENT
- To be elligible for reassessment, students must have a course average grade of 3.5/10.
- Oral and written in-class tasks cannot be reassessed.
- The academic oral presentation and the theoretical framework and literature review must be reassessed if students get a grade below 5, as well as the pronunciation and oral expression test and the summary if they get less than a 4.
- The maximum grade that can be obtained after reassessment is a Pass.
- In the event of a student committing any irreguarity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be awarded a zero for this activity, regardless of any diciplinary process that may take place. In the event that several irregularities in assessment activities of the same course, the student will be given a zero for the course.
- Irregularities refer to, for instance, copying in an exam, copying from sources without indicating authorship (plagiarism), or a misuse of AI such as presenting work as origninal when it has been generated by an AI tool or programme. These evaluation activities cannot be reassessed.
Bibliography
Burton, Graham. (2013). Presenting. Deliver presentations with confidence. London, UK: Collins.
Estebas, Eva. (2009, or later editions). Teach yourself English pronunciation: An interactive course for Spanish speakers. Netbiblos/UNED.
Derwing, Tracey M. & Munro, Murray J. (2015) Pronunciation Fundamentals. Evidence-based perspetives for L2 teaching and research. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Gee, James .Paul. (2004). An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203005675
Grussendorf, Marion. (2007). English for Presentations. O.U.P.
Hewings, Martin. (2007). English Pronunciation in Use. Advanced. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hyland, Ken. (2011). Academic discourse. In Continuum companion to discourse analysis. Hyland, Ken. and Paltridge, Brian. (eds). 171-184
Lillis, Theresa, & Curry, Mary Jane. (2010). Academic writing in global context. London: Routledge. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=6341682115486604553&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5
Miller, Sue F. (2000). Targeting pronunciation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Nunan, David & Choi, Julie. (2023). Clarity and coherence in academic writing. Routledge.
Oshima, Alice & Hogue, Ann. (2007). Introduction to academic writing. New York: Pearson/Longman.
Parvaskevas, Cornelia & Rosen-Knill, Deborah. (2024). Guidebook to academic writing: Communicating across the disciplines. Routledge.
Swales, John. M., & Feak, Christine. B. (1994). Academic writing for graduate students. University of Michigan Press.
Sword, Helen. (2012). Stylish academic writing. London: Harvard University Press.
Wallwork, Adrian. (2016) English for Presentations at International Conferences. Springer.
Software
Not applicable
Language list
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (SEM) Seminars | 1 | English | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 2 | English | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 3 | English | first semester | morning-mixed |