Cílem tohoto kurzu je upevnit dosavadní znalosti angličtiny prostřednictvím diskusí na akademická témata, získat plynulost projevu, rozšířit si slovní zásobu a vylepšit výslovnost. Kurz chce posílit sebevědomí v angličtině pozitivní motivací a pružným přístupem. Součástí kurzu bude v rámci možností i úvod do psaní neformálních i akademických textů. Technika psaní odpovídá úrovni OCR (Oxford and Cambridge Board), která vyžaduje schopnost dobře postavit větu, správně členit odstavce, přesně formulovat úsudek, doložit ho argumenty i z napsaného vyvodit odpovídající závěr.

This class is intended for students who already have a high level of English (ideally B2 or above). The focus of this class will be to consolidate the students' pre-existing knowledge of the English language through discussion based on academic topics consistent with the syllabus. The aim is to increase the students' fluency and confidence with conversational English, both in terms of vocabulary and pronunciation ("accent"). This will be achieved through the study of articles and literature, with subsequent discussion. There will also be classes on some aspects of English that cause particular difficulty: advanced use of verb tenses, conditionals, phrasal verbs (particularly in an academic context), articles (a, an, the), etc. We may also work with texts taken from English literature (contemporary and older) to extend our understanding of English, particularly different registers of the language. This course has an accompanying Moodle site at https://dl2.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=3467 where teaching materials will be made available. If sufficient progress is made, and if the timetable allows it, the Upper-Advanced class will also offer some help with written English; both informal writing and academic essay writing techniques. The class will provide students with the groundwork for writing essays in a manner consistent with Oxford and Cambridge Board (OCR) level exams. They will learn useful techniques for complex written sentence and paragraph structure, as well as how to put forward judgements, the evidence to back up those judgements and the ensuing conclusion to their argument.

Recommended:

• Swan, Michael. Practical English Usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, 658 s. ISBN 0194420981.
• Vodička, Lukáš. Anglicko-český slovník frázových sloves. Havlíčkův Brod: Práh, 2005, 295 s. ISBN 80-901278-3-5.
• Klégr, Aleš, Key, Petra Hronková, Norah. Česko-anglický slovník spojení: podstatné jméno a sloveso / Czech-English combinatory dictionary: noun and verb. Praha: Karolinum, 2005, 370 s. ISBN 80-246-1106-6.

Optional:

• Simon Horobin. How English Became English : A Short History of a Global Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016, 175 s. ISBN 9780198754275.
• Lynne Truss. Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. London: Profile Books, 2003, 209 s. ISBN 1861976127.

Weekly lectures.

Moodle site at https://dl2.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=3467 for all downloadable course materials.

Assessment for this course will be partly through assignments during the semester, and partly through a written exam at the end of the course. Proper attendance at classes, whether in person or online, is also required.

Kurz není určen začátečníkům.

This is a challenging course, and is not suitable for beginners. It is intended for students with at least a B2 level of English.