Unit information: Academic English for Engineers: critical thinking in 2019/20

Unit name	Academic English for Engineers: critical thinking
Unit code	LANG10016
Credit points	10
Level of study	C/4
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Mr. Tony Prince
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	none
Co-requisites	none
School/department	Centre for Academic Language and Development
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit is designed for international students with English as a foreign language, who have met the University's minimum English language entry requirements for Engineering and wish to develop their competence in English for specific academic purposes.

Students will develop their ability to:

• analyse an essay question, develop an outline and write an essay
• propose a thesis (stance) and create a logical argument to support it
• read and evaluate relevant source texts to use as support in an essay
• develop their ability to apply critical thinking
• understand academic style and vocabulary
• write with written fluency and accuracy
• speak with spoken fluency and accuracy
• present ideas orally

Intended Learning Outcomes

At the end of the unit, students will be able to:

1. Write an essay as appropriate to level C
2. Analyse information from reading
3. Synthesise, reference and cite information from sources
4. Construct and present an argument
5. Support an argument appropriately
6. Describe and analyse data
7. Plan, produce and present a poster orally

Teaching Information

This unit comprises 20 hours of teaching between weeks 15 and 21. As this is a 10-credit unit, you are expected to study for a total of 100 hours. This will include set pre- and post-session tasks as well as guided independent interactive online study.

Teaching and Learning will focus on the development of the student as an independent and critical thinker, capable of setting goals and implementing strategies, resulting from a heightened awareness of the written communication skills required. The students will be given practice in the planning and writing of such texts and will receive formative feedback to them to reflect more effectively on their written skills. The importance of independent and critical thinking will be developed through class discussion and reading tasks.

Students will be encouraged to ‘notice’, and attempt to use, the features of the target texts (vocabulary, grammar and style) and the ways in which texts are organised and presented.

Assessment Information

Summative essay (1000 words) 60% (ILOs 1-6)

Poster presentation (max. 15 mins.) 40% (ILOs 2-7)

Reading and References

Materials provided by the Centre