2025/2026
Английский язык для общих академических целей. Основной курс - 2
Статус:
Факультатив
Кто читает:
Школа иностранных языков
Где читается:
Школа иностранных языков
Когда читается:
3, 4 модуль
Охват аудитории:
для своего кампуса
Язык:
английский
Кредиты:
5
Контактные часы:
80
Course Syllabus
Abstract
«English for General Academic Purposes. Upper-Intermediate–2» course is designed for the first-year HSE undergraduates to consistently build their understanding and use of specialized academic discourses for tertiary education and research as well as intercultural communication at a B2+ level. In compliance with “Concept of Development of Foreign-Language Communicative Competence of HSE Students” and “Regulations for Interim and Ongoing Assessments of Students at National Research University Higher School of Economics”, the course aims at developing English-language communicative, integrated, critical and creative thinking competences, and digital literacy. Specifically, the course is targeted at building students’ core receptive (reading and listening) and productive (writing and speaking) knowledge and skills belonging to the academic domain at B2+ (CEFR). This allows to extract and process key information for further integrating multiple source materials and presenting coherent and cohesive analytical oral (monologue, group discussion, presentation) and written (‘opinion’ and ‘advantages and disadvantages’ essays) texts. Essentially, the course comprises multiple texts and tasks employed in mainstream academic environments and practices. To successfully master the programme materials, the course provides for independent work on the online platform SMART LMS. There are no blocking controls.
Learning Objectives
- The course focuses on enhancing essential analytical and language skills to deal with basic reading, listening, writing, and speaking assignments in English for academic purposes at the Upper-Intermediate (B2+) level, which would meet students’ immediate academic needs. While catering to different learning styles, the course fosters autonomous learning, team building and digital literacy competences. To achieve these goals, students are expected to further enhance their knowledge of key concepts and conventions pertaining to the academic English as well as develop academic competences; gain awareness of different writing genres as well as assignment types pertaining to their academic and professional scope of activity (comparison and contrast; describing processes; cause and effect; narration; description); examine and apply different strategies to reading, listening, writing and speaking assignments depending on the target audience/ interlocutor; purpose; topic and organization requirements; develop skills of locating, organizing, analyzing, evaluating and integrating the necessary sources and ideas to fulfill their academic and professional tasks; increase awareness of and apply appropriate reading, writing, listening, speaking strategies, and academic language command to extract and analyze necessary information and produce relevant oral and written responses, depending on the target audience/ interlocutor, purpose, topic and organization requirements; gain awareness of key debates pertaining to the topics of “Money and commerce”, Zoology”, “History”, “Chemical engineering” at a B2+ level (CEFR); reflect and foster their individual style of learning as well as soft skills and digital literacy while contributing to collaborative problem-solving activities as a team member.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- To read authentic academic texts on different disciplines
- To develop skills of using different listening techniques (listening for gist, listening for details, listening for specific information)
- To develop linguistic competence
- To produce informative presentations
- To develop skills of writing a paragraph
- Students demonstrate awareness of key academic vocabulary and functional grammar at B2+ level (CEFR).
- Students define key principles of academic text organization and structures.
- Students demonstrate awareness of and respond to key contemporary debates within the scope of the given Course.
- Students employ active reading and listening strategies to suit text type and reader/ listener purpose.
- Students produce coherent and cohesive written texts, such as “Discuss both views and express your opinion” essays and “Discuss advantages and disadvantages” essays.
- Students employ argumentation to produce an academic monologue, deliver a presentation or engage in problem-solving discussions and group debates.
Course Contents
- Unit 1. Money and Commerce 1a
- Unit 2. Zoology.
- Unit 3. History
- Unit 4. Chemical engineering. Ecology. Factors contributing to natural disasters and effective design solutions to prevent them.
Assessment Elements
- Classroom Written AssessmentThe Classroom Written Assessment (CWA) comprises 6 to 8 tasks. The final grade is the arithmetic mean of all but two tasks (meaning 4, 5, or 6 tasks depending on the total number of all tasks) for which the student has received the highest scores. The final grade is not rounded up.
- Classroom Oral Assessment:Oral Assessment includes minimum 1 monologue, 1 Q&A discussion.
- Home Assignment
- Final AssessmentFinal Assessment includes a reading test (40% of the total grade) and a writing test (60% of the total grade).
Interim Assessment
- 2025/2026 4th module0.2 * Classroom Oral Assessment: + 0.25 * Classroom Written Assessment + 0.3 * Final Assessment + 0.25 * Home Assignment
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- 50 steps to improving your academic writing : study book, Sowton, C., 2012
- University success: oral communication : intermediate to high-intermediate, McLaughlin, T., 2018
- University success: reading : intermediate to high-intermediate, Steenburgh, C., 2018
- University success: writing : intermediate to high-intermediate, Dalby, K., 2018
- Учебное пособие по развитию навыков чтения и понимания текстов (английский язык), сост. И. В. Извольская, Ю. Б. Кузьменкова, О. Н. Шевлякова ; Гос. ун-т - Высшая школа экономики, 49 с., , 1999
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Berry, R. (2018). English Grammar : A Resource Book for Students (Vol. 2nd edition). [Place of publication not identified]: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1753147
- Downing, A. (2015). English Grammar : A University Course (Vol. Third edition). London: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=929043
- Swales, J. M., & Feak, C. B. (2001). Academic Communications and the Graduate Student. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.3E2EACE3
- Yucuis, N. (2016). Basics of Academic Writing ; A guide for navigating the perils of mechanics, punctuation, grammar, and style. United States, North America: Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.29CD07C0
- Антонова, М. Б. Academic Writing in English for Mathematics and Computer Science: Академическое письмо на английском языке: фундаментальная и прикладная математика и компьютерные науки. Уровни владения языком В2-С1 : учебник / М. Б. Антонова, А. В. Бакулев. — Москва : ФЛИНТА, 2019. — 264 с. — ISBN 978-5-9765-4269-3. — Текст : электронный // Лань : электронно-библиотечная система. — URL: https://e.lanbook.com/book/151302 (дата обращения: 00.00.0000). — Режим доступа: для авториз. пользователей.