English for Specific Purposes

3 ECTS credits
90 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 1021022BNR for all students in the 2nd semester at a (B) Bachelor - advanced level.

Semester

2nd semester

Enrollment based on exam contract

Impossible

Grading method

Grading (scale from 0 to 20)

Can retake in second session

Yes

Enrollment Requirements

English for Specific Purposes opnemen houdt in dat je gelijktijdig ‘English Proficiency II’ volgt of reeds geslaagd bent voor 'English Proficiency II’.

Taught in

Faculty

Faculty of Languages & Humanities

Department

Linguistics and Literary Studies

Educational team

Julie Deconinck (course titular)
Louise Holtzem

Activities and contact hours

26 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
39 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study

Course Content

In this course students will practise and hone their English skills in relation to genre, context, and communicative purpose.

With English Proficiency I and English Proficiency II as a point of departure, this course homes in on specific language features in three specific settings:

1. Audio descriptions

2. Academic writing

3. Creative writing

Practically, this means we will work on improving students’ language skills in three main areas: vocabulary expansion (1) and writing skills (2) and, to a minor extent, spoken skills (3).

1) Students are expected to systematically expand their lexical range in the aforementioned contexts. New vocabulary – words and phrases – is acquired through targeted vocabulary exercises and/or listening and reading exercises. Some of this vocabulary is then consolidated in an integrated manner through the assignments.  

2) The assignments are aimed at further developing the writing and oral skills trajectory first established in English Proficiency I and II. Emphasis is placed on descriptive content (e.g. audio description, creative writing), academic texts (e.g. abstracts, a Bachelor thesis), and narrative texts (e.g. creative writing). Special attention will be paid in assignments to functional language, style, register.

Course material

Digital course material (Required) : Handouts, Lou Holtzem (& Julie Deconinck)

Additional info

Although grammar will not be taught explicitly, specific grammar topics can be covered on a need-to-know basis.

The interactive seminars will be supplemented with online material to consolidate vocabulary (and grammar if need be) and with (peer)feedback sessions to highlight and discuss points for improvement in the assignments.

Learning Outcomes

Competences

In terms of writing skills, students work towards level C1  on the European Framework of Reference for Languages.
Based on Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, https://rm.coe.int/CoERMPublicCommonSearchServices/DisplayDCTMContent?documentId=0900001680459f97 

This entails they can produce clear, well-structured, detailed texts on complex subjects, showing controlled use of organizational patterns, connectors, and cohesive devices.

For ESP specifically, this means the students

· can communicate effectively in English that is adapted to context, genre, audience, and communicative goal(s);

· can name and identify formal and stylistic conventions of English in audio descriptions and in academic texts;

· can use language flexibly and effectively in descriptive texts such as audio descriptions, academic texts such as an abstract, and narrative texts such as a story;

· can adequately summarize and paraphrase academic discourse;

· can produce a cohesive and coherent abstract in accordance with the conventions of the academic register;

· can adequately and precisely describe the visual cues in a clip that are not made clear through sound in a clip from a short film.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 60% of the final mark.
Other Exam determines 40% of the final mark.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

schriftelijk examen with a relative weight of 60 which comprises 60% of the final mark.

Within the Other Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

permanente evaluatie with a relative weight of 40 which comprises 40% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation

The assessment of this course consists of two components:

1. A written exam with a number of lexical exercises and writing exercises. This assessment accounts for 60% of the final score for this course.
2. Continuous assessment (40%) is based on a number of assignments that need to be submitted over the course of the semester.

Students who want to pass the course need to have participated in / completed all assessment components (i.e., the continuous assessment assignments and one written exam).
In the second exam session, the total mark for English for specific purposes is based on:
· a written exam which counts for 70%
· continuous assessment (i.e. a paper assignment) which counts for 30%

If the student obtained a pass mark for continuous assessment in the first exam session, the mark will be transferred to the second session.

For each assignment, the course instructor will explicitly indicate the permissibility of using generative AI, specifying whether its usage is prohibited, limited to certain extents, or fully permitted. Non-compliance with these specifications will be considered academic fraud and penalised accordingly.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark

The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context