Module description
This core English Foundation module will teach you how to understand the academic English used in scientific contexts, which is essential for university study.
During this English for Scientific Academic Purposes module, you’ll learn how to express yourself through speaking and writing and develop your reading and listening skills within those same contexts.
You’ll focus on understanding your strengths and weaknesses, reflecting on and redrafting work using feedback, and working effectively under pressure.
In particular, you’ll learn how to:
- identify the key points in scientific articles
- take effective notes on scientific lectures
- produce a scientific report;
- describe and use statistical data
- use a range of discussion language to take part in discussions on scientific topics.
This module will help you to improve your marks across all of your other modules, and will give you the confidence to engage with tutors and peers. It’ll also give you a good understanding of English that you can use to excel in your undergraduate studies.
Assessment details
You’ll be assessed for this English for Scientific Academic Purposes module through coursework (60%) and exam (40%).
Educational aims & objectives
This English for Scientific Academic Purposes module will:
- develop your ability to write critically, fluently and accurately for a variety of academic contexts appropriate to the hard sciences and more mathematically-based social sciences
- increase your ability to read and listen critically and selectively in order to inform academic writing and speaking
- help you learn to communicate appropriately and effectively in a variety of academic contexts, including seminars, presentations and tutorials
- ensure you can understand and use a wide range of academic vocabulary and grammar relevant to the hard sciences and more mathematically-based social sciences
- further your ability to learn creatively, independently, responsibly and reflectively.
Learning outcomes
At the end of this English for Scientific Academic Purposes module, you will be able to:
- use a range of strategies to extract general and specific information from authentic written and oral academic sources from the 'hard' sciences and more mathematically-based social sciences for a given purpose
- produce written and oral work that adheres to disciplinary conventions in the 'hard' sciences and more mathematically-based social sciences
- find, critically evaluate, select and use appropriately the work of others in your own work without plagiarising them
- showcase your control of a range of academic lexis and grammar
- demonstrate an increased ability to write effectively in coursework and under timed conditions
- show an increased ability to understand and make use of a variety of spoken and written academic sources
- have greater confidence in communicating in the range of situations you will encounter on your undergraduate programme
- actively seek and act on feedback from tutors and peers, reflect on your own work and identify areas for development
- feel more capable of successfully managing your own learning
- feel better prepared for and more confident about the writing and speaking tasks you will encounter on your undergraduate degree.