Duration
80h Th
Number of credits
| Bachelor in economics and business management | 7 crédits |
Lecturer
Coordinator
Language(s) of instruction
French language
Organisation and examination
All year long, with partial in January
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
- Various subjects presented as "files", including vocabulary and different types of exercises in order to make the students familiar with the themes broached.
- Business vocabulary (upper-intermediate level) as well as some vocabulary units retrieved from "Le BLED" (general thematic vocabulary).
- Punctual grammar revisions.
- Listening comprehensions often based on actual radio podcasts (most of the time retrieved from the BBC News website) but also on video clips or conferences (such as TEDx)
- Oral skills: presenting a company or a news topic, holding a conversation and a debate, giving one's opinion, ...
- Writing exercises.
- Press file.
- Corpus to be prepared for June's exam.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
- To reach the B2 European level of language proficiency.
- In practice:
* oral abilities: the student will be able to express themselves fluently on business and/or economic topics as well as on more general topics thanks to the acquisition of common vocabulary (through the study of the 'Bled'; see "compulsory readings" hereunder)
* writing skills: notions of academic writing
* reading competences: the student will have to be able to understand an unseen text and summarize it, rephrase its information, comment it, and answer questions about its content
* listening competences: the student will have to be able to understand the information given in an unknown audio extract, recognize its main elements, and render the information as cleary as possible in their own words
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Implementation :
The course will train the student to work efficiently in an international and multidisciplinary team, among others in a leading position when confronted with a complex situation.
The course will train the student to analyze his managerial practice with a critical and ethical mind when confronted with a complex situation.
Adaptability :
The course will encourage students to be curious and to show a scientific precision of academic level in their studies as well as in their professional life.
The course will encourage students to be creative, self sufficient and full of entrepreneurial spirit in their studies as well as in their professional life.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
- B1 level.
- Lower intermediate English MUST be acquired at this level. Everyday vocabulary and structures must be acquired too as well as some knowledge of business vocabulary.
- Obtaining the credits allocated to the course of English Level 1
- Obtaining at least 44 credits from the 1st block (Bachelor programme in Management Sciences)
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
- Various reading and exercise files based on business-related topids.
- Learning of texts vocabulary as well as derived vocabulary.
- Listening comprehensions from the Market Leader and from the BBC World Service and other sources.
- Group presentations in class of a company and newspaper articles, followed by a debate on the topic chosen by the students that will be assessed as continuous evaluation, on the part of the presenting students as well as this of those you will take part in the debate.
- Rephrasing.
- Training in writing leading to marked essays/commentaries.
- Preparation of a press file including articles chosen by the students themselves in a corpus of texts provided by the teachers, which will function as the basis for the oral exam in June.
- During the first semester, bimonthly conversation classes (discussions on different topics, case studies etc.) in smaller groupes. WARNING: participation is evaluated.
- During the second semester: presentations/debates.WARNING: participation is evaluated.
Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning)
Essentially in class. However, students will also be given different kinds of homework, such as:
* personal preparation and study of vocabulary
* exercises (texts, video clips, audio extracts, ...) to do or finish at home
* preparation in-class conversations and presentations
* personal preparation of different documents ("corpus") that are deemed as part of the stuff to study for the written exams
Recommended or required readings
A part of the notes will be synthetized in the shape of a syllabus that will be available at the 'Centrale des Cours'. The rest will be provided gradually on the school platform Lol@ (course code: LANG1953-1). However, it is highly desirable to come to class in order to take some personal notes regarding the content of the course which may be useful for answering the content questions in the exam.
Here are the books needed to be able to follow the course:
Compulsory:
CROSS, B., PERRIN, I., SUSSEL, A. Le Bled: anglais vocabulaire (Hachette éducation: Paris, 2014).
Recommended:
MURPHY R., English Grammar in Use, 3rd edition (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2004).
Dictionary ROBERT & COLLINS
"Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English" or "The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English"
"The Oxford Dictionary of Business English for Learners of English", Oxford University
Assessment methods and criteria
FIRST SESSION
The calculation of the final mark rests on the whole year's workload, that is divided as follows:
1. Written skills (60%):
a) Bled tests : 10% (average of this year's three tests)
1. test bled #1 - recap (week starting on 8th October): units 1 à 28 + 80 + 84
2. test bled #2 (week starting on 10th December): units 29 à 40
3. test bled #3 (week starting on 29th April): units 41 à 52
b) January's exam (25%) :
* "grammar/vocabulary"
* "listening comprehension (unseen)"
* "reading comprehension (unseen)"
* "writing exercise"
c) June's exam (20%) :
* "grammar/vocabulary"
* "listening comprehension (unseen)"
* "corpus" (to prepare individually before the exam)
d) conference commentary (5%): the second semester's conference will be followed by a writing exercise (commentary)
2. Oral part (40%) :
a) presentation #1 (Belgian company) : 7,5%
b) presentation #2 (press article + debate) : 7,5%
c) continuous evaluation Q1: during conversation classes (2,5%)
d) continuous evaluation Q2: during presentations/debates (2,5%)
e) oral exam: 20% (based on a press file: students have to choose at least 12 credits in a text portfolio put together by the teachers)
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SECOND SESSION
The calculation of the final mark rests on August's exam, that is divided as follows :
1. Written skills (60%) :
Written exam (which covers the stuff of both written exams, January + June) :
* "grammar/vocabulary"
* "reading comprehension (unseen)"
* "writing exercise"
* "listening comprehension (unseen)"
* "corpus" (which will be the same as during the year)
As mentioned above, in second session, the totality of the stuff of both written exams (January AND June) will have to be studied and presented, regardless of the passed/failed parts during the written exams.
2. Oral exam (40%) :
Oral exam: based on the same press file as in June: students choose at least 12 credits in a portfolio compiled by the teachers (students are free to use the ones they selected in June, or to choose new ones).
WARNING: If one of these two parts (written part/oral part) is passed in June (at least a full 10/20), the related mark will be maintained in the calculation of August's mark (except if the students wish to re-sit the concerned part, in which case the mark obtained in August will automatically replaced June's, be it better or worse).
Work placement(s)
Organizational remarks
IMPORTANT
Here are the rules that will be applied to this course:
1. We give repeating students 'dispenses' for different parts of the year, namely:
- presentation #1 (Belgian company)
- presentation #2 (press article + debate)
- Bled tests (whole 'dispense' if the three tests' average is above 10/20, partial 'dispense' is the average is below 10/20)
- the essay
- the oral exam
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2. 'absorbing failure' : if students get less than 9/20 (NOT rounded up!) for one of the items mentioned hereunder, you will be obliged to resit the failed part(s) in August. The concerned parts are:
a) the oral exam
and/or
b) the written exams' average (January + June, 50% each).
If the result obtained in August for the oral exam and/or the written exams (average) still doesn't reach 9/20 (not rounded-up-, students will not obtain the credits of this course.
WARNING (reminder): as mentioned above, in second session, for the written part (January/June), the totality of the stuff of both January's and June's exams will have to be re-sat, regardless of the passed/failed parts at the exams.
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3. Students will not be granted the credits for this course if you do not reach a full 10/20 at the end of the year.
A "full 10" = we will not round any mark between 9 and 9,99 up to 10, but down to 9. This rule will be applied in two cases :
- for your final mark in June
- in September, should you have to re-take your exam in August.
Contacts
- Ms Nguyen: xg.nguyen@uliege.be
- Mr Solheid : jonathan.solheid@uliege.be
- Ms Warroquiers: pwarroquiers@uliege.be
Office 207 (N1)