Advanced English

Duration

30h Th

Number of credits

Lecturer

Marie Herbillon

Language(s) of instruction

English language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

The course is based on a 'close reading' approach to a recent English text, namely Bill Bryson's Mother Tongue: The Story of the English Language (Penguin, 2009), and to a series of articles excerpted from newspapers or magazines and written in a complex language.

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

A deeper look at how morpho-syntactic and semantic 'rules' are exemplified in running text; an effort at improving the lexical competence of non-native speakers of English.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

Very good command of the English language.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

The (thematically varied) texts the students are requested to prepare at home are then analysed and commented upon in class.
After several introductory sessions, each group of 2 to 3 students must make an oral presentation (approximately 30 minutes) aiming at applying the methodology developed in class (identification of lexical, morphological, syntactic and stylistic specificities, etc.) to Bill Bryson's text.

Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)

Yellow code: face-to-face learning

Organisational adjustments related to the current health context

Orange code: face-to-face learning
                    Assessment:
                  - oral in-class presentation: 20% of the final mark
                  - written exam (80% of the final mark, short open questions) based on a text that has not been discussed collectively but deals with issues covered in class (and requires the use of the analytical methodology applied throughout the semester). The final exam may also include questions (translation of excerpts, analysis of specific linguistic problems) on texts examined in class.
  Red code: distance learning
                Assessment:
              - oral e-presentation: 20% of the final mark
              - written exam (80% of the final mark, short open questions) based on a text that has not been discussed collectively but deals with issues covered in class (and requires the use of the analytical methodology applied throughout the semester). The final exam may also include questions (translation of excerpts, analysis of specific linguistic problems) on texts examined in class.
 
UPDATE (10 December 2020) regarding the January exam session:
face-to-face written exam

Recommended or required readings

A selection of recent articles (addressing a range of topics and offering a variety of linguistic difficulties) are emailed to the students, posted online or handed out in class.

The students are also invited to get a copy of Bill Bryson's Mother Tongue.

Assessment methods and criteria

Below you will find information on the evaluation methods planned for in-person and remote exams as well as those planned for hybrid sessions. Depending on how the health crisis evolves, the chosen method will be communicated to you no later than one month before the start of the exam session.

Any session :

- In-person

written exam ( open-ended questions ) AND oral exam

- Remote

written exam ( open-ended questions )

- If evaluation in "hybrid"

preferred in-person


Additional information:

Yellow code:
The oral presentation will account for 20% of the final mark.
Written and oral exams at the end of the course (80% of the final mark): the written exam will be based on a text that has not been discussed collectively but deals with issues covered in class (and requires the use of the analytical methodology applied throughout the semester). The final exam may also include questions (translation of excerpts, analysis of specific linguistic problems) on texts examined in class.

Work placement(s)

Organizational remarks

This course is taught in English (Thursday 2-4pm, Q1).

Contacts

Marie Herbillon, chargée de cours
Marie.Herbillon@uliege.be

Département de Langues modernes: linguistique, littérature et traduction Rue de Pitteurs 20 (L3 building, ground floor)

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