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Pre-sessional course modules

Our pre-sessional courses all have modules that focus on improving your academic skills in:  

  • reading and writing 
  • listening and speaking 
  • independent learning 

Academic reading and writing 

Your tutors will teach you how to: 

  • plan, research, and structure your essays 
  • paraphrase, summarise, and combine academic sources 
  • reference academic sources 
  • use academic language effectively 
  • use research skills and reading strategies to critically evaluate sources of information and ideas 
  • develop comprehension and note-taking strategies to help you use written sources of information  

You will have tutorials with your tutors to talk about your progress and will learn how to use the University libraries

Academic listening and speaking 

Your tutors will teach you to: 

  • take part in small group and class discussions 
  • improve your pronunciation 
  • plan and deliver academic presentations 
  • design PowerPoint slides to support an academic presentation 
  • practise active listening and listening for the main points of an argument or verbal presentation 
  • understand how lecturers organise information 
  • identify the most important points made in a lecture 
  • take notes on a lecture effectively 
  • use your notes to help you revise for exams 

You will regularly meet with your tutors to discuss your progress. 

Independent learning 

You will learn to study on your own by:  

  • understanding how you learn (your learning style) 
  • developing language learning strategies 
  • finding learning resources (physical and electronic) 
  • using university systems, including the BlackBoard Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and e-Assignments (used for submitting assignments) 
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