2025/2026

English for General Academic Purposes. Proficiency Course – 2

Type: Optional course

Delivered by: School of Foreign Languages

When: 3, 4 module

Open to: students of one campus

Instructors: Пинчукова Анна Евгеньевна

Language: English

Course Syllabus

Abstract

«English for General Academic Purposes. Proficiency Course–2» is designed for first-year HSE undergraduates to enhance their English skills in specialized academic discourses at the proficiency level. In compliance with The Concept of Development of Foreign Language Communicative Competence of HSE University Undergraduate, Specialist and Graduate 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. Students should get no less than 75 points as a result of the Midterm Test to join the course. The course comprises three general academic topics crucial for navigating modern sociocultural contexts – biology, humanities, and environmental engineering. Students are expected to master different receptive and productive skills at the C1+ CEFR level, such as understanding and utilizing cohesion in a text, recognizing ambiguity and different speaking styles, making appropriate stylistic choices, understanding text references to visuals and interpreting them, participating in discussions, encouraging participation, preparing and delivering presentations, developing their own ideas, integrating, and producing coherent and cohesive oral and written texts. The acquisition of the skills is checked with the help of written tests (in vocabulary, grammar, reading, and listening), written works (two essay types – opinion and discussion), oral works (a discussion, a presentation, and a monologue), and student independent work in class and at home (participation in discussions and online work on SmartLMS). The offline exam (final assessment) checks students’ ability to deal with reading texts within the academic context and producing comprehensible essays. To successfully master the course, students are encouraged to work independently on SmartLMS. There are no blocking elements of assessment.