Advanced English for Biomedical Science 2

Duration

30h Pr, 10h AUTR

Number of credits

Lecturer

Christine Filot, Sébastien Schoenmaeckers, Andrea Tudino

Language(s) of instruction

English language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the second semester

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

The course Advanced English for Biomedical Science 2 is the fourth step of the English programme for students in biomedical sciences. It continues the development of the skills acquired in the preceding levels in understanding, synthesizing and analysing data connected to their field of expertise, both orally and in writing.
More precisely, this class focuses on students' ability to (1) understand specialized publications, (2) carry out research projects, (3) present a summary thereof with and to their peers, (4) interact and debate with their classmates about the keys issues presented.

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

The main learning outcomes for this class are (1) for students to develop their ability to research, analyse, synthetise and present information published in their field of expertise, (2) to help students interact with an audience/speakers adequately and effectively and (3) consolidate students' ability to read and decode efficiently the literature of their field.
To these ends, this class will enable students to:

• Strengthen their acquired skills in decoding academic publications in English.
• Consolidate their mastery of spoken English in the particular context of scientific communication (specific language structures and vocabulary).
• Work on the specificities of spoken English both in spontaneous and prepared productions, and in different language registers.
• Check and ascertain their pronunciation of both general and specific English terms used in their field.
• Certify their ability to effectively describe and refer to graphs using adequate terminology.
• Work on and use visual aids communicating effectively and unmistakably the intended message.
• Develop their paraphrasing skill of both written and spoken information.
• Adequately formulate questions to a speaker regarding the content presented.
• Practice fair and constructive criticism of their own work and their peers'.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

English for Biomedical Science (LANG4001-1) or equivalent.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

This class consists of 15 2-hour face-to-face sessions.
Students will be asked to carefully prepare all required activities ahead  of class to insure active participation.
These activities notably include sharing and discussing collected information, presenting orally the result of students' literature research, attending and actively taking part in oral presentations activities given by classmates and doctoral students. 

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

The course features 15 2-hour in-class sessions (once or twice a week) combined with online exercises posted on eCampus.

Recommended or required readings

The course book is available on the eCampus page of this class and at Intercopy (as from February 2018).
Online grammar modules are accessible via eCampus.

Assessment methods and criteria

Attendance is compulsory. Students must attend at least 70% of classes (i.e. 10 out of 15 classes) to be allowed to take the June exam. Students' overall grade will be calculated as follows:

• 3/20 Oral presentation (based on one or several research papers) in groups during the year.
• 5/20 Oral exam: presenting one or more articles with visual aids.
• 12/20 Written exam based on both reading and listening comprehension of unseen material in their field (MCQ, true/false with justification, open questions, grammar and vocabulary questions in context).

Work placement(s)

Organizational remarks

Contacts

Sébastien Schoenmaeckers, ISLV, sebastien.schoenmaeckers@ulg.ac.be(yasmine.badir@ulg.ac.be )
Andrea Tudino, ISLV, andrea.tudino@ulg.ac.be