English : reading and listening comprehension of texts in Bioengineering

Teacher(s)

Coûteaux Ursule (compensates Meirlaen Sandrine); Diaz Charlotte (compensates Halleux Ariane); Dumont Amandine (compensates Toubeau Anne-Julie); Dumont Amandine; Halleux Ariane; Houdmont Dag (compensates Toubeau Anne-Julie); Lievens Laura (compensates Halleux Ariane); Meirlaen Sandrine (coordinator); Pertuit Mark Theodore; Peters Charlotte; Toubeau Anne-Julie (coordinator);

Language

English

Prerequisites

The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.

Main themes

The studied themes are connected with current environmental issues and general scientific topics such as water shortage, earth summits, renewable energy, deforestation, etc.

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	At the end of the course, the students should have developed the following skills: Reading comprehension Receptive skills necessary for writing their dissertation and other academic work. Students should be able to understand in detail both descriptive and argumentative texts concerning general scientific topics about bioengineering. Level B2-C1 of the « Common European Framework of References for Languages » Listening comprehension Receptive skills necessary for understanding television programmes (talks, lectures,') on scientific subjects oriented towards bioengineering.. Level B1-B2 of the « Common European Framework of References for Languages »

Content

• Reading comprehension: portfolio of articles and abstracts from the New Scientist, Scientific American, tetxbooks, ... etc
• Listening comprehension : set of authentic television programmes on scientific topics
• Phonetics and pronunciation exercises
• Introductory speaking skills : short oral presentations

Teaching methods

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information in this section is particularly likely to change.

• The teaching methods used will encourage the active and interactive participation of the students. The first step, which is crucial, is the preparation of reading activities which will be dealt with more fully in the following lesson: students receive precise instructions on how to work either individually or in groups, on a series of problems which will enable them to discover, for instance, certain lexical or grammatical aspects of texts. Afterwards, during the lesson, the students are expected to comment on the different problems they encountered, and the conclusions they came to.
• Systematic development of reading strategies.
• Discourse cohesion, recurrent grammatical structures and additional lexical and grammatical difficulties
• Listening comprehension : various language laboratory exercises to ensure a thorough understanding of the message.
• Short oral presentations in groups.

Evaluation methods

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information in this section is particularly likely to change.

• Exemption test, of the same level as the final exam, at the start of the academic year (10/20 exempts students from course and exam)
• Continuous assessment : vocabulary and linking word test during the course of the term and e-learning exercises on the 'Moodle' platform.
• Pronunciation test of frequent scientific and academic terms
• Short group presentations
• Active participation in class
• Written exam on reading and listening skills

Online resources

http://moodleucl.uclouvain.be/course/view.php?id=115

Bibliography

> Syllabus LANGL1882

Faculty or entity

ILV