Professional English II
Code: 102761 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Computer Engineering | OT | 4 |
Contact
- Name:
- Lluïsa Schlesier Corrales
- Email:
- lluisa.schlesier@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
Students should have preferably already done Professional English I, in the first semester. To register for this subject, the minimum level is Upper-Intermediate B2. All classes are taught in English.
Objectives and Contextualisation
The emphasis of the subject is on the oral skills. At the end of the course, students should be able to:
- Express themselves orally, defend and communicate ideas and concepts in public
- Give simple and more complex presentations
- Synthesise audiovisual information
- Understand oral texts of different types
- Acquire technical vocabulary
- Express ideas in writing
- Work in order to acquire advanced linguistic structures, such as collocations and idioms.
- Search for information about grammatical questions, vocabulary and class-content related topics
Competences
- Communication.
Learning Outcomes
- Use English as the language of communication and professional relations .
Content
- Defending ideas in public. Taking part in class debates and discussions.
- Preparing oral presentations to be presented in public.
- Expressing judgments, giving one’s point of view.
- Reading and understanding technical and general texts.
- Summarising and synthesising information.
- Acquiring specific vocabulary.
- Correcting language errors.
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Communicative and group activities guided by the teacher in order to develop all the related competences. | 40 | 1.6 | 1 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Students will have to develop certain activities supervised by the teacher, which will aid in the development of critical thinking and the capacity to synthesise. | 10 | 0.4 | 1 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Exercises done individually or in small groups, outside of the classroom. | 75 | 3 | 1 |
Directed activities (30%): The teacher presents the basic concepts and techniques related to this subject. There will be two sessions per week, each one of a duration of two hours. Great emphasis will be placed on communicative activities, as well as on group work. Active participation in class will be highly appreciated by the teacher. Class attendance is compulsory to pass this subject.
Autonomous activities (30%): These types of activities comprise self-study using the book Guided Error Correction, as well as the preparation of two individual oral presentations that are part of the subject’s assessment. Any doubts are solved in class.
Supervised group activities (10%): Some activities have been designed for students to work with their classmates in a cooperative way. Group work is, thus, one of the objectives of this course.
Evaluation activities (30%): These are the different tests which the students will have to take individually and in group in order to show that they have acquired the desired level. The evaluation activities will test the guided, the autonomous, and the supervised activities.
Other skills:
Apart from focusing on English as a language of communication and for professional purposes, in this subject we also work and evaluate the following points:
- Thinking habits: Students will be encouraged to develop critical thinking and broaden their communicativeabilities by taking part in debates and sharing their opinions on different topics. This is practiced in class debates and assessed in the ‘Class participation and homework’ category, which is worth a 10% of the final mark.
- Personal work habits: Students are encouraged to work autonomously and taught autonomous learning strategies, which are assessed as part of the ‘3 oral presentations’ category and are worth a 30% of the final mark.
- Group work: Emphasis is put on cooperative work, especially when it comes to the group presentation, worth a 15% of the final mark.
- Communication: This is perhaps the most important aspect of this subject and its goal is to help students learn to express their knowledge, results and skills orally, both in professional and non-professional contexts; as well as to help them learn to use IT in communication and sharing of ideas, and to use English as a language for communication and work purposes. In class, this is practiced with the analysis of material, such as videos, websites, articles, books, news, audio, etc. and the development of both individual and group presentations. Final assessment consists of several tests, both oral and written, which together are worth a 90% of the final mark.
- Ethics and professionalism: One of the goals this subject has is to inspire students to respect diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations, in addition to contribute to social wellbeing and sustainable growth. In class, these themes are particularly relevant when it comes to “Class participation and homework”, which is worth a 10% of the final mark.
- Personal attitude: Emphasis is put on the fact that students show a proactive and dynamic attitude when it comes to the development of their career, their personal growth and their personal education. Especially through the topics dealt with in class, the subject attempts to help students expand their curiosity, their creativity and their self-improvement. This is addressed in debates that originate from videos, websites, articles, books and news that fall into the category “Class participation and homework”, worth a 10% of the final mark.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class participation and homework | 10% | 3 | 0.12 | 1 |
| Final exam | 15% | 3 | 0.12 | 1 |
| 3 oral presentations (one technical, one non-technical and one group presentation) | 45% | 15 | 0.6 | 1 |
| 4 error correction exercises based on the Guided Error Correction Books, Level B2 + C1- book1 | 30% | 4 | 0.16 | 1 |
a) Continuous assessment: procedure and programmed activities.
Students' performance in this subject will be assessed by continuous assessment. The assessment is based on the following activities:
- 4 error correction exercises, based on the books Guided Error Correction B2 and Guided Error Correction C1 – Book 1, 30% of the final mark.
- 3 oral presentations (an individual presentation about a technical topic, an individual presentation about a non-technical topic and a group presentation about a free topic), 45% of the final mark.
- Class participation (individual and in group) and homework, 10% of the final mark.
- 1 final exam based on the content of the lessons, 15% of the final mark.
The final mark for the subject will be calculated according to the information in the section called ‘assessment activities.’
The minimum mark to pass this subject is 5. Attendance is compulsory to pass this subject.
b) Schedule for evaluation activities.
The exam dates, the dates of delivery of any activities, the reassessment dates of any exam, as well as the exam revision dates will be established in class and will be published on the ‘Campus Virtual,’ but may be subject to changes in programming if necessary.
c) Reassessment procedure.
4 error correction exercises and final exam:
Students may retake these exams if they obtained a minimum mark of a 3.5 or above. The maximum mark given to a reassessment exam will be a 5.
d) Procedure for reviewing submitted work:
For every assessed activity, a place, date and time for revision will be indicated, during which students will be able to revise each activity with the lecturer. In this context, students might voice complaints about their mark, which will be taken into consideration by the lecturer responsible for the subject. If students fail to be present at the appointment, the revision will not take place at a later time.
e) Grades.
Special distinction. Students with an average mark of 9.00 or above will be the only ones eligible for a special distinction (outstanding performance). Since the number of distinctions cannot be above 5% of the number of registrations per subject, they will only be given to students who obtained the highest marks.
If students miss 10% of classes and do not deliver any of the compulsory papers throughout the course, their mark will be ‘not assessable’ (NA). Only on exceptional occasions (justifying the reasons of absence or lack of fulfilment of deadlines) will a student be able to retake any activity after the specified assessment dates.
f) Copying, plagiarism, use of AI…
- Without affecting any other disciplinary measures and according to the current academic regulations, if students commit any of the following irregularities, they will be given a zero for the activity concerned, which may affect the resulting mark in the general assessment. If students copy or allow other students to copy their work or any assessable activity, this will immediately imply the failing of that activity, with a zero. Thus, it will not be possible to pass the subject, if one of the requirements is to pass the activity, and no retake of the subject will be possible during the same academic year.
These irregularities include, among others:
- The total or partial copy of any assessment activity
- Allowing others to copy
- Presenting a group work activity not entirely done by the members of the group (this is applicable to all the participants, not only to those who have not done their work)
- Presenting material as genuine, when done by a third party. This includes translations, adaptations and any work that has not been carried out entirely by the student;
- Having access to communication devices (such as mobile phones, smartwatches, pens with cameras, etc.) during theoretical and/or practical assessment activities (exams);
- Speaking to classmates during theoretical and/or practical assessment activities (exams);
- Copying or trying to do so during any theoretical and/or practical assessment activities (exams);
- Using (or trying to use) written documentation related to the subject during any assessment activity, without explicit permission to do so.
If a student has incurred any of the above-mentioned irregularities, the numeric mark of their academic record will be the lowest value between 3.0 and half of the average weight of their marks (thus, passing the subject by compensation will not be possible). In future editions of this subject, students who have committed irregularities in an assessment activity will not be allowed to validate any of the assessment activities he/she’s taken part in.
To sum up: copying, allowing to do so, plagiarising (or trying to do so) in any of the assessment activities is equivalent to a FAIL, which is not compensable. The subject will, therefore, not be validated in future courses.
- Restricted use of AI:
In this subject, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is allowed exclusively for academic support tasks, such as bibliographical research, finding information or creating images and/or videos, but NEVER to produce texts that appear in any of the work to be handed in. Students will have to show clearly which parts have been generated by AI, specifywhich tools they have used, and include a critical reflection on how these tools have affected the process and the final result of the task. Non-transparency about the use of AI in homework and classwork will be regarded as a lack of academic honesty and may result in a partial or total penalisation in the mark of the task, or greater sanctions in severe cases.
g) Assessment for students who repeat the subject.
Students who have enrolled in the subject for the second time will have to do all the activities required in the course.
h) Single assessment.
Single assessment is not contemplated for this subject.
Bibliography
Throughout the course, students will need to use the following books:
- Kennedy-Scanlon, Michael, Pladevall, Elisabet, Cebrián, Juli (2012). Guided Error Correction: Exercises for Spanish-speaking Students of English. Level B2. Bellaterra: Servei de Publicacions UAB.
- Kennedy-Scanlon, Michael, Cebrián, Juli, Bradbury, John (2009). Guided Error Correction: Exercises for Spanish-speaking Students of English. Level C1-Book1. Bellaterra: Servei de Publicacions. UAB. (This book is also available online)
Recommended bibliography
Hewings, M. (2022). Advanced Grammar in Use : a Self-study Reference and Practice Book for Advanced Learners of English : With Answers (Fourth edition). Cambridge University Press.
Software
This subject does not require any special programmes, but it is recommended that students bring their own laptop or tablet to class, as most activities will be done virtually.
Lessons are mainly supported by PowerPoint slides.
All the content given in class (such as slides or exercises), information relevant for the course and communication with students will be uploaded to 'Campus Virtual' (Moodle). Likewise, students might be asked to upload certain homework to Campus Virtual.
Groups and Languages
Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 410 | English | second semester | morning-mixed |