Study Guide

Objective

The aim of the course is to activate and develop the students’ field-relevant English language and communication skills. The students will gain professional skills in various spoken and written communicative situations encountered in working life and society. In addition, they will learn to utilize tools and techniques to further develop their skills in authentic, field-specific contexts. More specifically, students will focus on developing their language and communication skills in.
Upon completing the course, the students should have acquired skills to communicate at level B2 according to European Framework of Reference for Languages, which states that at B2-level students should be able to produce clear, coherent and well-structured texts, present detailed descriptions related to one’s field of interest, express and exchange opinions using fluent language, follow complex arguments, and read longer articles and reports.

Content

- writing professional, field-specific texts
- presenting and discussing field-specific topics in a professional manner
- reading field-specific texts and utilizing the information in professional contexts
- learning and using key terminology of the field
- becoming professional, autonomous language users in working life

Materials

The course material is available in Its. Laptops or tablets are necessary to access the material during the course.

Exam schedules

No exams are organized during or after the course.

International connections

The course is based on the flipped classroom method; the students study the theoretical part independently with help of the provided material and the contact meetings are used for guidance and testing.

Student workload

The students will be tested on their skills with spoken and written assignments on the course topics: email message, summary, meeting, presentation. The assignments include self-evaluation.

Besides the assignments, the students are expected to prepare for the contact meetings with preparatory tasks.

Content scheduling

The course will run from 4 September to 15 December.

The course consists of contact meetings (28h) and individual/group work in Its (52h).

The course topics are professional emailing and reporting, meetings at work, and professional presentation. The topics will tie in the aspects of sustainability, digitalization and field-specific vocabulary.

The aim of the course is to activate and develop the students’ field-relevant English language and communication skills. The students gain professional skills in various spoken and written communicative situations encountered in working life and society.

Learning objectives:

Spoken communication

The student
- discusses field-related topics using related terminology
- uses the functional language of group discussions
- participates actively in discussions by commenting, asking and reacting
- expresses themselves in a spontaneous way
- presents a field-related topic in a structured way
- uses the functional language of presentations (signposting)
- expresses themselves in a clear and logical way
- expresses themselves in their own words

Written communication

The student
- follows the structure and language of professional email
- follows the structure and language of report writing
- considers the appropriate style for the situation
- expresses themselves in a clear and logical way
- writes in their own words using sources correctly

Further information

The channel of communication during the course is Its.

Evaluation scale

H-5

Assessment methods and criteria

The evaluation is assignment-based and no exams will be organized.

The course work consists of two sections:

A preparatory tasks (5)

- evaluation pass/fail
- the purpose of the tasks is to be introduced to new topics and the study material, as well as be prepared for the contact meetings
- prep tasks are part of the learning process and should demonstrate it
- a passed task must be entirely completed before a certain contact meeting, mentioned in the task instructions
- prep tasks affect the final evaluation positively or negatively

B assignments (4)

- evaluation 1-5 per assignment
- the average of individual assignment evaluations forms the final evaluation
- specific evaluation criteria is given in connection with the assignment instructions

NOTE!

- For full final evaluation complete ALL course work within the given deadlines.

- Assignments are completed in contact meetings only.

- Note that course work cannot be done again or replaced by other work, or an exam.

- With problems of completing course work, contact the teacher BEFORE the deadlines.

- Assignments are not accepted after 15 December 2023.