The course, taught by A. Johns, aims to help undergraduate students to improve their proficiency in the English language. It will focus on their developing an academic level in English by helping them prepare for their exams and by managing the course duties. The skills that we will learn are commonly required at European or American universities and it is absolutely necessary to have good English communicating and writing skills to be successful in academia.

Remedial English for students who receive instruction in English, detailed information and syllabus will be available at first lesson.

Methods

The course will have two main parts.

1.)   In the first part, we will study academic English, learn new vocabulary, and learn how to write and discuss in the English-speaking academic environment.

           Indicative Reading: Hewings, M. (2012) Cambridge Academic English C1, Advanced Student's Book, Student edition,  CUP, Cambridge.

 

2.)   In the second part, we will put these skills into practice. We will read and discuss two original research papers during the term. We will read one academic paper in the first half of the term and one academic paper in the second half of the term.  We will decide about the required reading material during the first week of the term.

 

            Indicative Reading (may comprise the following titles)

                                          i.    De Cruz, H. (2015) Where philosophical intuitions come from, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 93, pp. 233 - 249.

                                          ii.   Buchak. L. (2012) Can it be Rational to Have Faith?, in Probability in the Philosophy of Religion, Chandlers, J. & Harrison, V. S. (eds.), OUP.

Summative assessment is by two English-written papers and short summaries submitted at the beginning of each class.

A 70-100-word summary of the required reading material will be submitted by every student at the beginning of each class the latest. To submit all required summaries is a necessary condition for submitting the final paper.

The midterm paper is a formative paper. The topic of the midterm paper has to be related to the academic paper that we will read before the midterm. The word limit for the midterm paper is max. 1 500 words. To submit the midterm paper is a necessary condition for submitting the final paper.

The final paper will be 100% of the summative assessment. The topic of the final paper has to be related to the academic paper that we will read during the second part of the term. The word limit for the final paper is max. 1 500 words.

0-100 points and marks will be distributed based on the following three criteria and the mark scheme.

1.)   argument

2.)   presentation

3.)   knowledge and understanding

 

Points 0-100	Mark
>70	first
60-69	second
40-59	third
<40	fail

 

If a student’s paper is found to have exceeded the specified word limit for an assessment, his or her work will be subject to a penalty: deduction of 7 points off the final score.

The assessment criteria will be discussed in the class more in detail.

Fourteen 80-minute seminars in the 2017/2018 winter term. The preliminary course plan is as follows.

Week	Plan
1	Unit 1,
2	Unit 2, paper 1
3	Unit 3, paper 1
4	Unit 4, paper 1
5	Unit 5, paper 1
6	Unit 5, paper 1+ questions
7	midterm paper submission
8	Unit 6, paper 2
9	Unit 7, paper 2
10	Unit 7, paper 2
11	Unit 8, paper 2
12	Unit 9, paper 2
13	Unit 10, paper 2 + questions
14	final paper submission