English Language Stage 7

Learning Outcomes

Cognitive Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• use language creatively and precisely for a range of purposes and audiences.
• engage in analytical and evaluative thinking
• develop problem-solving skills.
• organise and present ideas within the framework of a structured and reasoned argument
• reflect critically and make judgements in the light of evidence and argument.
• engage with and interpret layers of meaning within texts and other cultural products.
• extract and synthesise key information from written and spoken sources

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Speaking: production At this stage, all your speaking skills are subsumed under the learning outcomes described under Interaction above.
• Writing - Write convincingly in a variety of styles and registers and select the appropriate style for the purpose. - Write fluent and accurate texts where errors and infelicities are unobtrusive and do not compromise the effectiveness of the writing.
• Knowledge and understanding of the target language and culture - Understand less obvious cultural references where knowledge is assumed rather than provided. - Have a thorough, in-depth knowledge of several aspects of the TL culture and a general awareness of many others.
• Knowledge and Understanding Having successfully completed this module you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of: LANGUAGE SKILLS Understanding Listening - Understand with ease virtually everything that is heard. - Engage with the subtleties of meaning and nuance in spoken language.
• Language knowledge and awareness - Produce with accuracy all TL phonemes and phoneme sequences. - Identify and produce accurately specific intonation patterns within a sequence and understand their communicative significance. - Repair linguistic errors. - Identify all common registers and replicate them accurately and appropriately to meet the demands of the situation.
• Communication strategies - Handle all situations likely to be encountered in social and professional life in an acceptable and effective manner. - Initiate, sustain and resolve negotiations and bring them to a satisfactory conclusion. - Deploy a range of reading and listening skills that lead to the understanding of all the main points and most subtleties of all written and spoken language on familiar topics, and most information relating to specialised topics when these are presented in formats aimed at a general, educated TL audience. - Be able to work effectively between L1 and L2 both orally and in writing.
• Reading - Understand with ease virtually everything that is read, with recourse to reference materials only for specialised texts. - Understand and interpret critically virtually all forms of the written language including abstract, structurally complex or highly colloquial literary and non-literary writings.
• STRATEGIES AND KNOWLEDGE RELATED TO LANGUAGE LEARNING Language learning strategies - Be a highly skilled and independent language learner in that you make proficient use of a full range of reference tools, that you access and learn from all available TL media, and that you set appropriate learning goals and monitor your progress. - Exploit the full range of information provided in language reference materials and data (e.g. standard and specialised dictionaries, corpora, term banks) to refine your knowledge and understanding of the nuances of meaning and use of the language.
• Production Speaking: interaction - Converse with ease in most formal and informal situations. - Employ mostly appropriate and effective strategies in managing linguistically and/or culturally complex interactions, including informal conversation, difficult encounters, presenting and defending arguments and analysing concepts.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• self-reliance, initiative, adaptability and flexibility
• the ability to work creatively and flexibly with others as part of a team
• be proficient in and know how to learn a foreign language; you will know this is a key skill in its own right
• intercultural competence.
• qualities of empathy
• communication, presentation, interaction

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• access electronic resources and use information and communication technologies appropriately.
• take accurate and effective notes and summarise material
• use and present material in the target language and one's own language in written and oral forms in a clear and effective manner
• use target language source materials appropriately
• write and think under pressure and meet deadlines
• research effectively in libraries and handle bibliographic information
• work autonomously, manifested in self-direction, self-discipline and time management

This Stage develops linguistic proficiency by focusing on wide range of texts (both written and spoken) relevant to the target language culture(s). These texts will provide a framework for developing sophisticated language forms and uses. Authentic print and multimedia material covering a variety of styles, registers and genres will be used. Most inadequacies in your linguistic proficiency will be remedied through discussion with the tutor, who will refer you to self-access material relevant to your particular needs available in the relevant resources area and help you to develop an individual learning programme.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include: classes and independent learning

Classes

Although part of any class session is likely to involve direct teaching, the emphasis is on student participation and you will be expected to take part actively in discussion and in tasks such as small group and pair work, role play, and individual or group presentations.

Independent learning

You will be expected to spend time studying outside the class, and we provide guidance, facilities and materials to help you develop your expertise as an independent language learner. As you progress through the Stages you will learn to understand, monitor and improve your own learning style; you will also acquire some expertise as a researcher and develop the kind of key skills which are valued by employers. You are encouraged to use the facilities in the Centre for Language Study Resources Centre at the Avenue Campus and at other sites in the University, including the Southampton Oceanography Centre, the Hartley Library and Winchester School of Art. These include on-line and computer-based resources, current newspapers and magazines, language laboratories and satellite TV, and self-access materials. For this Stage, you will be asked to consolidate your class work, to read, watch or listen to material in the target language, to prepare exercises and activities for the class, to write assignments, undertake projects and continue to develop your repertoire of effective language learning strategies.

Resources & Reading list

General Resources

Resources and reading list. The Library and Learning Commons is continually updating its facilities and materials and you will find many of the recommended learning and reference materials here. You will need a comprehensive dictionary for this module and there will be a large number of resources made available via Blackboard, the University’s Virtual Learning Environment.

Textbooks

Bloor, M. and Bloor, T (2007). The Practice of Critical Discourse Analysis: an introduction. London: Hodder Education.

Ortony, A. (ed.) (1993). Metaphor and thought, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. (2003). Metaphors we live by (with a new afterward).. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Jackson, H. and Zé Amvela (2000). Words, Meaning and Vocabulary. London: Continuum.

Carter,R. and McCarthy, M. (2006). Cambridge Grammar of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Assessment strategy

At the beginning of the module, you will receive information about your assessment. This will include:

• what tasks you will be expected to carry out
• clear criteria against which your work will be assessed
• what the provisional date and deadline of each assessment task is.

Note that it is the responsibility of students to ensure that they have read and understood this documentation, to plan their work schedule in advance, and to keep to the deadlines. If you are in any doubt, talk to the module coordinator in good time.

Assessment will cover what you have studied in class and what you are expected to have acquired as an independent learner. The design of the tasks and the criteria by which they are assessed ensure that you will be able to demonstrate all aspects of your learning: language skills, strategies and knowledge related to language learning, and key skills. Coursework and the in-class exam will give you formative feedback on your progress, that is, feedback which will help you learn. The exam at the end of the module will test what you have achieved and also what you are able to do in real life conditions of language use where you need to think on your feet and use your own linguistic resources.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External