English
ItalianoNavigazione di Sezione:
Foreign Language 2019/2020
Programma di Foreign Language:
COURSE CONTENTS:
The course aims at:
- providing 1st year international students with the language skills, critical thinking and learning strategies required to attend a University degree held in English
- providing students with the basic vocabulary in the field of engineering, mathematics, physics and chemistry
- providing students with the basic knowledge in Academic English
- raise students' awareness on English as a Global Language and English as a Lingua Franca
- developing students' listening and reading skills.
The course will focus mainly on the following areas:
- Tense system; articles; phrasal verbs; modal verbs; conjunctions and linking words;register (formal, informal, neutral, colloquial).
- Specific vocabulary: maths; physics; chemistry; engineering; academic English; communications; statistics and social sciences.
A detailed description of the contents of each lesson will be published every week. Please make sure you access weekly the file section.
MATERIALS:
All materials will be provided during the lessons and uploaded on the course page.
EXAM:
The final exam will be a written exam of 60 minutes. There will be 4 exercises, 3 with closed answers and 1 with open answers. The exam will be structured as follows:
- Exercise 1: Reading comprehension, closed answers
- Exercise 2: Vocabulary, closed answerS
- Exercise 3: Writing, open answer. Candidates will be asked to discuss/comment the text in exercise 1. Word limit: 50-70 words.
- Exercise 4: Grammar and English in Use, error correction exercise.
The final mark will be either ‘Pass’ or ‘Fail’. To pass the exam, candidates must:
- achieve a minimum of 40% right answers in each exercise so as to guarantee a consistent development of language skills
- achieve a final score of 60%, corresponding to 18/30.
LESSON 1 - 26.09.2019
- Global English
- International English Accents
- 15 minutes entry assessment
- Course description and admin information
LESSON 2 - 03.10.2019
- AI - Artificial Intelligence
- Listening practice - Arnav Kapur 'How could AI become an extension of your mind'
- Vocabulary practice - definitions and synonyms
LESSON 3 - 10.10.2019
- AI - Human +Machine. How does AI impact our business environment
- Reading practice - Susan Fourtané 'Human+Machine Collaboratio: work in the age of Articificial Intelligence'
- Vocabulary - word building and paraphrasing
LESSON 4 - 17.10.2019
- Main and Supporting ideas
- Language for comparing - expressing similarities and differences
- A comparison essay - optional writing assignment. DEADLINE: Monday 21st October 2019
LESSON 5 - 24.10.2019
- Language review: verb tenses
- Multiple meaning
LESSON 6 - 31.10.2019
- Urbanization
- Review of summaries: main and supporting ideas
- Analyzing quotes
- Analyzing visual information
LESSON 7 - 07.11.2019
- Describing visual data
- Farming underground
LESSON 8 - 21.11.2019
- Tense revision - past simple and present perfect simple
- Introductory and concluding paragraphs
- Editing
- Optional writing assignment 2: a problem-solution essay. Deadline: Tuesday 26th November
LESSON 9 - 28.11.2019
- Infographics and visual data
- Arguments and counterarguments
- Linking words and expressions
LESSON 10 - 05.12.2019
- Adjective clauses
- Punctuation and spelling
- Error correction practice exercises
LESSON 11 - 12.12.2019
- An opinion essay
- Editing practice
- Emphasizing and softening
- Optional writing assignment 3: an opinion essay. Deadline: Tuesday 17th December
LESSON 12 - 19.12.2019
- Infographics
- Research in the sciences and in the social sciences
- Exam information
LESSON 13 - 09.01.2020
- Articles
- Numbers
- Trends
LESSON 14 - 16.01.2020
- Linking words to express reason, purpose and result
- Changing word order to add emphasis
