English in real world contexts: pathways to complexity, accuracy and fluency

Teacher(s)

Dagneaux Estelle; De Cock Sylvie; Denis Philippe; Dupont Maïté; Gilquin Gaëtanelle; Grommersch Claudine; Henriet Marielle;

Language

English

Prerequisites

Students have reached a B1+ level in English (receptive and productive skills) 

Main themes

1. Topics connected with everyday life, student life, current affairs and societal issues (e.g. the environment, ethics, the digital world), based on students’ own experience and knowledge   
2. Culture and traditions of the countries where the target language is used in light of their own experience and knowledge 
3. Future projects, experience and opinion/feeling sharing 

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
The focus is on communication, accuracy (e.g. pronunciation and grammar), fluency and lexical and grammatical complexity.  This course unit aims to help students to acquire an upper intermediate (B2) level of communicative competence in the following skills: listening comprehension, speaking (with and without interaction), reading comprehension and writing.
1	Understand and take an active part in a conversation/discussion on a wide range of topics (cf. Main themes); they understand the arguments put forward and are able to summarize them and express a personal opinion and feeling;
2	Easily follow factual information presented, e.g., in various audio-visual productions in a standard variety; they can summarize and/or present it
3	Accurately understand non-technical authentic written texts; they are able to summarize, comment and present the information contained in the documents;
4	Produce clear and well-structured written texts (emails, paragraphs, argumentative essays, etc.);
5	Use language correctly (with good grammatical and lexical control), precisely and effectively to process a wide range of topics (cf. Main themes), and showing clear relationships between ideas;
6	Communicate spontaneously with a high degree of fluency without having to restrict and/or simplify what they want to say;
7	Adapt their spoken and written productions according to the context and the interlocutors. .
This learning unit contributes to the development and command of the following skills and learning outcomes of the ELAL programmes  : 1.6, 2.1, 3.5, 3.6, 4.3, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.6, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4

Content

The skills and knowledge targeted in the learning outcomes will be worked on in an integrated way through a series of varied exercises and activities based on authentic written texts and audio-visual productions: practising reading techniques, exploring various text types and their respective linguistic characteristics, drafting different text types, engaging in listening comprehension, pronunciation and conversation activities. 

Teaching methods

Term 1: tutoring sessions in groups of about 20 students 
Term 2: interactive lectures; exercise sessions as well as conversation and pronunciation classes in smaller groups     
Students are required to do preparation work before coming to the lectures and the tutoring/exercise sessions so they can take an active part in the various in-class activities.  
Self-study: 

• Gairns, R. & Redman, S. (2020) Oxford Word Skills. Intermediate (second edition). Oxford University Press. 
• Gairns, R. & Redman, S. (2020) Oxford Word Skills. Upper-intermediate - Advanced Vocabulary (second edition). Oxford University Press. 
• Flowchase 
• Activities on Moodle  

The lectures and exercise sessions are given face to face (or online via Teams or using dual mode teaching if face to face teaching is not possible in case of a health crisis for example). 

Evaluation methods

Continuous assessment (presence, active participation, tests, assignments, portfolio of texts, notebook of free writing, Moodle activities): 10% of the final mark for the course   
January session: written exam (partial exam) 
Reading comprehension, listening comprehension, focus on forms/accuracy (vocabulary and error correction/detection): 15% of the final mark for the course 
Students who are absent for or fail the partial exam have to (re)take it in June.  
June session: 
Oral exam: 

• Pronunciation and conversation: 15% of the final mark for the course  

Written exam: 

• Listening comprehension: 15% of the final mark for the course  
• Reading comprehension: 15% of the final mark for the course 
• Focus on forms/accuracy (vocabulary and error detection/correction): 15% of the final mark for the course 
• Written production: 15% of the final mark for the course 
• + Contents of January partial exam (if the student was absent for or failed the January exam): 15% of the final mark for the course  

Successful completion of the five main parts of the exam (oral production, written production, reading comprehension, listening comprehension, focus on forms/accuracy) is essential to demonstrate the skills and knowledge defined in the learning outcomes for the teaching unit. Students who get a grade lower than 8/20 for at least one of these five parts will therefore fail this course overall (7/20 or less if the mean is lower).  
As we are aiming to train language specialists, particular attention is paid to language accuracy in each part of the evaluation. For the same reason, the use of generative artificial intelligence is not allowed for any parts of the evaluation. Their use by the student will be considered as cheating. 
Words of caution: 

• For the June exam session, the different parts of the exam will be organized on different dates (both before and during the session). No "catch-up" session will be organized.
• An absence for any part(s) of the exam, be it justified or not, will result in an overall absence grade (A) for the whole exam. The parts of the exam not taken in June (or in May) can only be done during the August/September session. 

August/September session: 

• Students who have to resit the June exam (during the August/September session) only need to redo the exam parts for which they did not get 10/20 and the parts for which they were absent. 
• Same type of evaluation as in May/June but, as the continuous assessment part is no longer taken into account, the weighting of the different parts is revised as follows: 
  • January partial: 15% 
  • Oral production: 20% 
  • Listening comprehension: 15% 
  • Reading comprehension: 15% 
  • Written production: 20% 
  • Focus on forms/accuracy: 15% 

Online resources

Moodle

Bibliography

Gairns, R. & Redman, S. (2020) Oxford Word Skills. Intermediate (second edition). Oxford University Press. 
Gairns, R. & Redman, S. (2020) Oxford Word Skills. Upper-intermediate - Advanced Vocabulary (second edition). Oxford University Press. 

Faculty or entity

> ELAL