English Language Stage 3A

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

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

• Reading - Understand the main ideas of texts in the most common registers and relating to familiar topics - Extract key data and main ideas from media texts of general interest with the support of reference materials
• Communication strategies - Negotiate meaning and opinions appropriately with another TL user on familiar topics, and also on some specialised ones. - Deploy a range of reading and listening skills which enable you to understand the main points and gist of written and spoken language on familiar topics, and also on some specialised ones.
• Listening - Understand vocabulary and structures relating to many everyday contexts. - Understand the gist of most spoken language relating to familiar contexts when delivered at normal speed in a familiar accent.
• Language knowledge and awareness - Identify and produce with some accuracy most individual TL sounds and some sound sequences. - Be aware of a limited range of registers. - Have reasonable command of the basic grammatical structures of the TL and some complex ones. - Have command of a range of vocabulary on familiar and some specialised topics. - Know sufficient metalanguage (terminology), where necessary in English, to understand and construct a range of grammatical descriptions.
• Knowledge and understanding of the target language and culture - Have a basic understanding of appropriate interactional behaviour and intercultural differences in such behaviour. - Have an in-depth knowledge of aspects of the target language culture relevant to your studies, such as social issues and current events or topics of current interest in, for example, technology, law, art.
• Writing - Write texts in a limited range of registers on every day and some specialised topics. - Express facts and concepts using an appropriate range of vocabulary and some complex structures, but with some first language interference.
• Speaking: interaction - Engage with increasing grammatical correctness and some spontaneity in conversations relating to many everyday topics as well as in conversations on some specialised topics. - Exchange information on everyday topics as well as on some specialised ones.
• Speaking: production - Express ideas and concepts with increasing confidence. - Manipulate language dealing with everyday topics as well as a few specialised ones, using an expanding range of grammatical structures and vocabulary with a fair, if sometimes inconsistent level of accuracy.
• Language learning strategies - Use a bilingual dictionary and standard grammar reference book to check grammar and a range of vocabulary, and to extend your knowledge. - Reflect upon your language learning style and progress, and start to set appropriate learning goals - Use a repertoire of skills in using resources for independent language learning in order to practice and extend vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation and the productive and receptive learning outcomes of this Stage. This repertoire to include using a monolingual dictionary, and a range of learning tasks with authentic video/aural/print materials and computer-based resources. - Be prepared to take risks in trying out the language and start to monitor your performance. - Read, watch or otherwise engage with current media in the TL on a regular, if limited, basis.

Cognitive Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• extract and synthesise key information from written and spoken sources.
• develop problem-solving skills.
• engage in analytical and evaluative thinking.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Time management
• Communication skills: written, oral, and IT
• Perseverance
• Development of memory
• Learning, research and organisational skills
• Intercultural and interpersonal skills
• Attention to detail

This Stage will integrate topics and, where appropriate, specialist areas with the study of the language. Course books, reference books and topic-based material will be used as appropriate. Much of the material will be derived from authentic print and audio-visual media. Independent learning material will be available on Blackboard and/or the Language Resources Centre.

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 for independent language learning (described under Independent Learning above) and you will find many of the recommended learning and reference materials here. You will need a comprehensive dictionary for this module but there will also be a large number of authentic resources made available via Blackboard, the University’s Virtual Learning Environment.

Grammar book. For example, Swan and Walter. (1997). How English Works: A Grammar Practice Book (With Answers). OUP. (ISBN: 9780194314565)

Monolingual dictionary. For example, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English (OUP), Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary (Collins CoBuild), or Cambridge International Dictionary of English (CUP)

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.

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

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