Seminar on Advanced Oral and Written Expresssion in English
Code: 106290 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| English Studies | OB | 4 |
Contact
- Name:
- Jennifer Rose Ament
- Email:
- jenniferrose.ament@uab.cat
Teachers
- Jennifer Rose Ament
- Sonia Mas Alcolea
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 Writing and Reading for Aacademic Purposes I and II and Speaking and Listening for Academic Purposes I and II.
Objectives and Contextualisation
- Focus on the grammatical and linguistic structures that characterise formal and academic registers in oral and written English.
- Abilty to write, reference, quote and edit a variety of academic works and articles at an advanced level.
- Work on bibliographic research for the completion of academic work.
- Abilty to critically assess academic texts and later synthesize relevant information in written academic texts.
- Abilty to analyze and write a literature review, theoretical framework, critical review and an abstract.
- Speak fluently and with accurate and intelligible pronunciation.
- Critically evaluate and reflect on academic texts in group discussions.
- Make oral presentations in English effectively within an academic register (preparation and organization of content, creation of visual material, use of effective presentation techniques to get attention and clearly transmit complex and abstract concepts).
- 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
Oral Section:
- Academic, professional and conference style presentations
- Structure of academic oral presentations
- Synthesis of information: Relevance, information structure, delivery of content
- Critically assess and discuss academic articles in groups
- Text and visual elements of effective presentations
- Transmitting complex and abstract concepts clearly and concisely
- Audience engagement, interaction, asking and answering questions
- Tools and strategies to prepare for effective, impactful presentations
- Advanced speaking: pronunciation, intonation, fluency for presentations
- Advanced grammar and vocabulary for academic presentations
- Advanced grammar and vocabulary for academic writing
- Reading critically: beyond summarizing, transmitting relevant information and synthesizing sources with a purpose
- Researching and writing with a purpose (formulating research questions)
- Finding your voice: expressing stance in academic writing
- Writing abstract: structure, content, language
- Writing critical reviews: structure, content, language, critical thinking skills
- Writing a literature review: structure, content, language, critical thinking skills
- TFG: structure, content, language
- APA referencing, key words, data bases
- Publishing,editing and formatting academic texts
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Seminars | 50 | 2 | 10, 9, 1, 2, 5, 7, 8 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Tutorials | 25 | 1 | 10, 9, 2, 5, 7, 8, 11 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Individual and group assignments | 50 | 2 | 10, 9, 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academic oral presentation | 25% | 10 | 0.4 | 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 |
| In-class written tasks | 10% | 3 | 0.12 | 10, 9, 1, 2, 7, 8, 11 |
| Theoretical Framework and Literature Review | 25% | 12 | 0.48 | 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 |
Assessment for this course includes:
- Written in-class tasks 10%
- Theoretical framework and literature review 25%
- Academic oral presentation 25%
- Final Oral Exam 20%
- Final Written Exam 20%
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 Sumbitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 30% of the assessment items.
In order to pass the course it is mandatory to attend 80% of the classes, hand in all the continuous assessment assignments and get a 5 or higher on the oral presentation and the literature reivew/theoretical framework assignments.
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.
- The in-class writing tasks and final exams cannot be reassessed.
- The literature review/theoretical framework and oral presentation must be reassessed if students get below a 5.
- The maximum grade that can be obtained after a reassessment task is a 5.
Important note for exchange students:
An Erasmus or other exchange student who asks to change the date of an exam or any other assessment activity must present an official document from their home university justifying the request.
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.
Irregularities refer, for instance, to copying in an exam, copying from sources without indiacting authorship (plagiarism), or a misuse of AI such as presenting work as original that has been generated by an AI tool or programme. These evaluation activities will not be re-assessed.
This subject entirely prohibits the use of AI technologies in all of its activites. Any submitted work that contains content generated or modified using AI will be considered academic dishonesty; the corresponding grade will be awarded a zero, without the possibility to reassess. In cases of greater infringement, more serious action may be taken.
Bibliography
Burton, Graham. (2013). Presenting. Deliver presentations with confidence. London, UK: Collins.
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.
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 a global context. London: Routledge. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=6341682115486604553&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5
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
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (SEM) Seminars | 1 | English | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 2 | English | first semester | morning-mixed |