2010-2011 Academic Year

English Language for the Humanities (20008)

Degree/study: Degree in Humanities
Year: 1st
Term: 3rd
Number of ECTS credits: 4
Hours of student dedication: 100
Teaching language or languages: English
Teaching Staff: Maria Antònia Oliver, James McCullough, Anna Asián, Àngels Oliva, Marta Puxan.

1. Presentation of the subject

This 1st year subject from the Degree in Humanities has as a main goal the acquisition of receptive and productive skills in English, mainly those of academic and argument reading and writing. The course seeks to prepare students to confront some of the challenges raised by the degree, not only towards achieving a knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon language and culture for those students willing to do so, but also towards guaranteeing communicative skills in one of the most important vehicular languages in the academic world. Thus, the goal is to consolidate skills and to give the tools needed to take subjects, to read academic texts, to attend lectures and to communicate in English in academic contexts.

The subject is structured around different registers concerning disciplines of the Humanities such as Art, Literature, and History. A variety of texts will be read: short fragments from literary works, short literary texts, fragments from academic essays and short essays. The texts will deal with topics such as wealth and poverty, the conditioning of gender on artistic production, war and interculturality.

Taking as a starting point texts and lectures, the vocabulary of a high register will be consolidated on several areas, and students will need to develop a variety of academic and linguistic skills, such as the writing of summaries and essays or the perceiving of the internal structure and cohesion of a text, in English.

2. Previous recommendations: level of English

At the start of the course, students should have at least an A2 level of English, according to the standards set in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Students who have not achieved an A2 level before the start of the course are encouraged to engage in some previous preparation. Otherwise, following the course may be difficult. 

3. Competences to be attained

General competences

Specific competences

1.      Discourse analysis and textual organisation skills.

2.      Synthesising ideas.

3.      Identifying main ideas.

4.      Successfully communicating ideas through spoken English.

5.      Having a good understanding of spoken English.

6.      Having a good understanding of written English.

7.      Successfully communicating ideas in written English.

8.      Group working skills.

1.      Elaborating schemas about written or spoken texts.

2.      Summarising written or spoken texts.

3.      Writing short texts about the most salient ideas in a written or spoken text.

4.       

a.       Being fluent and articulate enough in English for hearers to be able to understand the message.

b.      Speaking English in front of a big audience without great difficulties or losses of information.

5.       

a.       Being able to follow long speeches (45-60 minutes) in English.

b.      Getting used to a variety of accents, registers and communication channels in spoken English.

c.       Taking notes while attending a lecture.

6.       

a.       Identifying the meaning of complicated texts (looking for the text structure, the function of the different paragraphs and sections, the main ideas, the links between ideas, etc.).

b.      Knowing the most usual features of the different genres (poetry, academic essays, journal or divulgation articles, etc.) and registers (formal, informal) in English.

7.       

a.       Knowing and applying the English rhetorical norms to the elaboration of academic texts such as essays.

b.      Writing well-structured paragraphs, according to the rhetorical norms of English.

c.       Making use of the appropriate strategies for writing introductions, for establishing textual and semantic cohesion in texts and for concluding texts.

8.      Reaching common decisions and producing a written and oral text working with a group.

4. Contents

Unit 1: Introduction: Internal Text Cohesion.

  • 1: Lexical cohesion: register.
  • 2: Grammar cohesion: intratextual references in a paragraph and between paragraphs.
  • 3: Connectors and other useful expressions.

Unit 2: Wealth and poverty in literature and academic discourse.

  • 1: Concepts: related to structure, cohesion and use of the academic and literary discourse.
  • 2: Literary texts: "Down and Out in Paris and London", F.S. Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (excerpt), the aesthetics of wealth, the aesthetics of poverty.
  • 3: Academic text: Raj Patel, "Stuffed and Starved" (excerpt). Vocabulary on social differences.
  • 4: Lecture on poverty.

Unit 3: Creativity and gender in literature and academic discourse.

  • 1: Concepts: related to structure, cohesion and use of academic and literary discourse.
  • 2: Literary texts: Dorothy Wordsworth, "The Grasmere Journal"; William Wordsworth, "Daffodils"; Lynn Peters, "Why is Dorothy Wordsworth...?"
  • 3: Academic text: Linda Nochlin, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?"
  • 4: Lecture on "Art and Gender" by an invited lecturer.

Unit 4: War in literature and academic discourse.

  • 1: Concepts: related to structure, cohesion and use of academic and literary discourse.
  • 2: Literary text: Graham Greene, The Quiet American (excerpt).
  • 3: Academic Text: Mahmood Mamdani, "Inventing Political Violence".
  • 4: Lecture on "War and History" by an invited lecturer.

 

*The full version with the sections 4. Assessment, 5. Bibliography and teaching resources, 6. Methodology, and 7. Planning of activities is available in the original version.