Certificate Pre-sessional English Course

You will develop your understanding of academic essay structure and the key characteristics of descriptive, compare and contrast, discussion and opinion essays. It will introduce you to the micro-skills required for the genres: brainstorming, planning, text organisation, paragraphing, editing and redrafting.

You study the differences between formal and informal writing styles; extend your academic vocabulary and develop your organisational and critical thinking skills.

The module features both self and peer review through a series of structured worksheets and will familiarise you with electronic submission of work, conducting basic research, understanding and avoiding plagiarism, using feedback to improve your writing, and learning basic citation and referencing skills. The language and skills studied, aim to begin to develop sustainability competencies, encouraging you to develop your ideas critically in relation to your own social and environmental responsibilities.

Academic Reading 1 covers intensive and extensive reading, text organisation and analysis of a variety of genres and topics centred around sustainability: academic, narrative, and journalistic texts. It covers the micro-skills of: note-taking, summarising, predicting content, skimming for main ideas, scanning for specific information, and vocabulary building.

The module encourages you to develop your critical thinking skills in order to evaluate and respond to reading texts to determine their purpose and possible opinions/biases of their content. The text topics and skills studied throughout this module aim to begin to develop sustainability competencies, encouraging you to develop your ideas critically in relation to your own social and environmental responsibilities.

Academic Listening and Speaking 1 aims to promote proficiency in your listening and speaking skills. The module focuses on introducing and developing core Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) competencies, such as collaboration and communication, active listening to lectures, preparing and delivering an academic presentation and participating in a seminar discussion. Exploration and practice of key pronunciation features are embedded into each of the sessions to help develop your accuracy and fluency in speaking and your communicative competence.

Grammar and Vocabulary Skills focuses on the development of academic literacy regarding grammar and vocabulary skills. This module acts as a cornerstone to the other three modules in the Pre-sessional English Level 1 course by introducing, reviewing, practising, consolidating, and extending grammar and vocabulary that you need to communicate effectively when writing and speaking in an academic context. There is also an emphasis on key academic study skills within the context of sustainability competencies, encouraging you to develop your ideas critically in relation to your own social and environmental responsibilities.

The module develops your ability to write in a variety of written genres at this level: cause/effect and situation/problem/solution essays and a short case study.

Practice is given in the micro-skills necessary for these tasks: brainstorming, planning, text organisation, editing and drafting. You will learn how to select academic sources and integrate them into written texts with the appropriate citation, and present your own research findings when writing the case study. Detailed work on paragraph structure, coherence and more formal academic English is integrated into the module content.

You will be encouraged to develop your critical thinking skills through evaluation and reflection of your own and other sources and in collaborative discussions with your peers. The language and skills you will study aim to focus on nurturing sustainability competencies, encouraging you to develop your ideas critically in relation to your own social and environmental responsibilities.

Academic Reading 2 aims to develop academic literacy regarding academic reading skills to enable you to progress to your next programme of study. This module will develop your reading strategies and understanding of different academic texts, and extend your academic language and vocabulary range.

The module focuses on the necessary micro-skills, including skimming, scanning, note-taking and summarising. In addition, it encourages you to develop your competencies in critical and creative thinking to reflect upon and evaluate the content of academic texts. The language and skills studied throughout this module aim to focus on nurturing sustainability competencies, encouraging you to develop your ideas critically in relation to your own social and environmental responsibilities.

Academic Listening and Speaking 2 aims to develop academic literacy regarding academic listening and speaking skills and introduce you to some of the UK HE academic conventions to enable you to progress to your next programme of study. The module encourages active listening and taking a very active role as a speaker.

You will listen to live lectures, as well as pre-recorded lectures and recordings, on a range of academic topics, and are expected to develop responses to these. You will also participate in discussions and give research presentations on topics relevant to your field of study. There is also an emphasis on speaking confidence in this module and this is brought about by a regular task called ‘selfie videos’.

The language and skills studied throughout this module aim to focus on building sustainability competencies, encouraging you to develop your ideas critically in relation to your own social and environmental responsibilities.

Develop the language and skills required to undertake a small-scale primary research project into an aspect of UK HE life. You will learn how to search for information using databases, make considered judgements about the use of sources and learn how to integrate ideas into your work.

Through learning about the research process, from questionnaire design to writing up the different sections, you will improve your knowledge and accuracy of a variety of written and spoken structures in order to appropriately and effectively use these on this module as well as on the other three level 2 modules.

You are expected to keep a guided learning journal throughout the research process which will encourage self-reflection on a range of aspects related to managing a research project.

The language and skills you will study aim to focus on building sustainability competencies, encouraging you to develop your ideas critically in relation to your own social and environmental responsibilities.

Develop your academic literacy in relation to academic writing skills in the context of compare and contrast essays and argument essays, helping you to progress to your undergraduate or postgraduate programmes.

You will focus on the necessary micro-skills, including brainstorming, planning, text organisation, editing and rewriting.

Throughout this module, you will also be encouraged to develop your critical and creative thinking competencies and your knowledge of the conventions connected with producing academic essays.

The language and skills you study aim to focus on building sustainability competencies, encouraging you to develop your ideas critically in relation to your own social and environmental responsibilities.

Develop proficiency in your reading skills to a level which will help you to progress to your undergraduate or postgraduate studies.

You will develop your comprehension and analysis of a range of academic genres, including journal articles, reports and critical reviews, and will extend your academic vocabulary base.

You will develop your critical thinking competencies by encouraging you to engage in reading critically.

You will cover micro-skills like: predicting content; surveying; skimming; scanning; academic vocabulary-building; paraphrasing; note-taking; summarising; referencing; evaluating.

The language and skills you study aim to focus on building sustainability competencies, encouraging you to develop your critically in relation to your own social and environmental responsibilities.

Develop your listening and speaking skills to help you understand the communicative purpose of your interlocutors, and then formulate and articulate considered responses with greater readiness within a variety of academic settings.

You will learn how to extract meaning from spoken discourse including lectures using a variety of listening techniques; exchange and develop knowledge and understanding via peer discussion and feedback; research and deliver an academic presentation, as well as work together with your peers to persuade an audience through advocating and defending a position within a seminar setting.

There is an emphasis on pronunciation throughout. The language and skills studied throughout this module aim to focus on building sustainability competencies, encouraging you to develop your ideas critically in relation to your own social and environmental responsibilities.

Undertake a small-scale secondary research project within your own academic subject. You will learn how to narrow a topic into a research question, search for information using the University Library and databases, and critically evaluate the use of sources in your work.

You will learn how to organise and write the different sections of a research report, as well as how to use appropriate citations to support your ideas.

You will also be encouraged to develop your critical and creative thinking competencies, and problem-solving skills, and reflect on and evaluate your own study skills, including organisation, time-keeping and autonomy.

The language and skills you study are embedded within the context of sustainability, encouraging you to develop your ideas critically in relation to your own social responsibilities.