English (Level A)

Duration

45h Th

Number of credits

Lecturer

ISLV, Nathalie Schraepen

Coordinator

N...

Language(s) of instruction

English language

Organisation and examination

All year long, with partial in January

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

Oral and written activities based on texts and audio and/or video recordings dealing with psychology. Students will be required to participate actively in class, which implies that they must have prepared some assignments before coming to class.
The main language skills will be practised through discussing psychology-related topics. Here is the detail of the CEFRL levels of the course : listening (B1/B2), reading (B1/B2), speaking (B1/B2), lecturing (B1/B2), writing (B1/B2). However, only reading comprehension skills (as well as as vocabulary and grammar, which are necessary for reading comprehension) will be evaluated in the final exam.

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

As this is a B1/B2-level course, at the end of the year, we would expect our students to be able to:

• understand the main points of a speech or conversation or of radio or television programmes on current events, or topics of personal or professional interest, as long as the language is clear and standard.

• understand articles about contemporary problems in which the writers adopt particular viewpoints as well as the description of events, feelings and wishes.

• communicate with a degree of fluency on topics that are familiar or of personal or professional interest and present and defend their point of view.

• write simple and clear connected text on topics that are familiar or of personal or professional interest, describe experiences and events, explain the advantages and disadvantages of various options and give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

This course is not a beginners' course. It is an intermediate-level English course that corresponds to Council of Europe level B1/B2. Therefore the level required for this course is a good basic knowledge of English grammar and vocabulary (equivalent to the A2-B1 level of the CEFR).
This course can be complemented by an evening class or an @lter course. For more information go to www.islv.ulg.ac.be.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

This class uses a dynamic, interactive and efficient approach to learning English for psychology and is based on psychology-related texts (ISLV Level-A coursebook) and an English grammar book (GAB ISLV). In class a variety of activities enable the presentation, assimilation and practice of the language material from the books, such as powerpoint presentations, role-plays based on case studies, debates and listening comprehension exercises.

Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning)

Weekly 1.5-hour class in groups of about 25 students.
Thorough preparation of the given assignments is key to students' progress. Here is an overview of the different tasks students will need to perform:
1° Focus on some grammar points that were introduced in the first-year refresher course and introduction of new elements. A few grammar tests will be organised to assess students' assimilation of the grammar rules.
2° Communicative teaching/learning entails interacting a lot. This means that students are expected to participate actively in in-class discussions. And this is only possible if students prepare classes by doing some homework.

Recommended or required readings

• Level-A English Course in BLOC 1 (advanced level) and BLOC 2 FPLSE (ISLV), available online on ecampus and at Intercopy (Sart Tilman) from September 14th, 2017

• Level-A Readings File (ISLV) (Readings file for the level-A written exam in BLOC 1 and BLOC 2 FAPSE), available at Intercopy from September 14th, 2017

• MURPHY, R. English Grammar in Use (intermediate), 4th edition with answers, Cambridge University Press

Assessment methods and criteria

1° Attendance and active participation are extremely important. The written skills developed and practised in class will be marked out of 1 (bonus mark) in the written exam in June & August and this mark will be added to the final mark out of 20.
Moreover, the speaking, listening and reading comprehension and vocabulary exercises and the regular in-class grammar tests corrected in class as well as the other online exercises will prepare the students for the grammar, vocabulary and reading comprehension exercises included in the written exam.
2° Written exam (20 marks + 1 bonus mark)

• January exam* (4 marks) = exercises on the vocabulary and grammar studied in the first term.
• June/August exam (16 marks) = reading comprehension exercises based on an unseen text and on the texts from the readings file +  exercises on the grammar & vocabulary studied in the second term.

Work placement(s)

Organizational remarks

IMPORTANT!!! All 1st "BLOC" students, including non-exempted repeating students, will have to take a placement test which will be organised on Monday, October 2nd, 2017 from 6pm to 8pm in "amphi 500" (B7a) in Sart Tilman. This test will include writing, vocabulary, grammar and reading comprehension exercises. The students who obtain the highest marks will be allowed to take the level-A class in 1st "BLOC". The other students will take the remedial class LANG0040-1.
N.B.: Students who have never studied English or have an official certificate attesting that they have reached the European level B1 or B2 in English (e.g. TOEFL or FCE) should still come (with their certificate if they have one) and write their name and student ID on a SMART answer sheet on the day of the test.

Contacts

BAC1 Level A:
Ms N. Schraepen, ISLV, English Teacher and Coordinator for English Courses at the Faculty of Psychology and Education, N.Schraepen@ulg.ac.be

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