| English for Effective Communication 1 |
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ENGL E100
English for Effective Communication 1
| Introduction |  |
Welcome to ENGL E100 English for Effective Communication 1.
ENGL E100 is a ten-credit, foundation-level course which emphasizes both understanding of the English language as a system for communication and the development of skills to apply this understanding in practical contexts. These two components are integrated in both teaching and assessment through practice and use in simulated study, work and social contexts.
Before you begin to study the course content, you need to understand how ENGL E100 operates and how its various parts fit together. You will find the answers to these questions in this Course Guide. Please read it thoroughly now and refer to it while you are studying the course.
| Course aims | |
ENGL E100 aims to develop your:
understanding of the English language;
proficiency in using English for study, work and social purposes;
interest in activities in which English is used as the medium of communication.
| Course learning outcomes | |
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
Demonstrate knowledge of the basic functional and structural properties of the English language.
Use English proficiently for study purpose and social communication.
Present their views, orally and/or in writing, on information in written and listening texts.
Read and write English texts proficiently in both academic and vocational contexts.
Identify main and supporting points in presentations.
| Course overview | |
The following table provides an overview of the course and suggests the amount of time to allow for completing each unit. However, as we each have our own pace of study, this schedule is only a guide. You can adjust it to fit your personal needs more closely. The estimated time, on average, which you need to spend on this course is eight to ten hours per week – although this will clearly vary depending on your proficiency in English. This estimate includes time for reading the study units and carrying out the practice activities in them, listening to/watching the audio-visual materials, writing your assignments, reviewing the study materials, attending the tutorials and preparing for your final examination.
Unit
Title
Weeks of work
Assessment
1
Review of the basics 1
4 weeks
2
Review of the basics 2
4 weeks
Assignment 1
3
Review of the basics 3
4 weeks
4
Bringing it all together
4 weeks
Assignment 2
5
Communication for social and persuasive purposes
3 weeks
6
Academic communication 1
4 weeks
Assignment 3
7
Academic communication 2
4 weeks
8
Academic communication 3
4 weeks
Assignment 4
9
Workplace communication 1
4 weeks
10
Workplace communication 2
4 weeks
Assignment 5
Revision
2 weeks
41 weeks
4 of 5 assignments
| Course materials | |
ENGL E100 consists of this Course Guide, 10 study units, assignments, audio CDs and a VCD – all of which are provided by the OUHK – and a set book which you must obtain yourself.
Course Guide
The Course Guide tells you briefly what the course is about, what it contains and how you can work through it. It also gives you some information about tutorials and assessment.
Study units
As you saw in the 'Course overview', ENGL E100 contains ten study units, all except one of them involving four weeks' work.
Units 1 to 4 deal with generic skills and knowledge for understanding and using the structural and functional properties of the English language. Unit 5 considers social English, and Units 6 to 8 focus on academic English. Finally, Units 9 and 10 deal with the mastery of skills to perform tasks in English related to the workplace.
Each unit includes specific objectives as well as a very wide range of practice activities to help you to improve your English language skills.
Set text and recommended books
There is only one set text for the course:
Carter, R (1996) The Penguin Modern English Language Reader, London: Penguin.
However, for ENGL E100 -- and indeed all your degree courses in English medium -- you will need a good English dictionary. We recommend either the most current edition of the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English or Collins Cobuild English Dictionary, though there are also other very useful ones such as the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.
Also, if you feel the need to improve your grammar, we suggest you consult Collins Cobuild English Grammar English (2011), London: HarperCollins.
Finally, you may find that the following book provides useful support in improving your writing: Raimes, A (1996) Keys for Writers: a brief handbook, Boston/Toronto: Houghton Mifflin Company. (However, note that this is an American text, and therefore the spelling of some words differs from the British spelling used in OUHK units).
Audio-visual material
The course includes four audio CDs which give you an opportunity to practise speaking and listening skills, and you are directed to them at the appropriate points in each unit. There is also a VCD which is used primarily to develop your skills in non-verbal communication. (Please note that these audio-visual materials were originally in audio cassette/video cassette format and still contain a few references to 'tapes'.)
As mentioned above, the course contains a significant number of practice activities. For those who prefer to use a computer to carry these out, we also include a CD-ROM which contains not only these activities (with some minor changes) but also supplementary exercises on various language skills.
Assignment File
This file gives you details of what is required in your assignments, their due dates, how many marks each is worth, and how each will be graded. Assignments must reach your tutor on or before the due date. Please read the Student Handbook for the University's policy on late assignments.
| Tutors and tutorials | |
Your tutor
Before the course starts you will be advised by the OUHK Registry of the name, address and phone number of your tutor. Your tutor will:
conduct tutorials for your group;
assess and comment on your assignments;
be available at certain times to help you by phone. (You will be advised of these times separately.)
Tutorials
There are 16 tutorials spread throughout the course. The first session will be an introduction to the course and may take a different form from that of the other tutorials. The times, dates and locations of the tutorials will be sent to you before the semester starts, and you will receive a Tutorial Manual which will suggest topics for your tutorial group and tutor to work on at each session. To benefit fully from the tutorials you will need to have studied the relevant unit(s), including the practice activities, beforehand.
| How to work through the course | |
We recommend the following strategies for working through ENGL E100. Remember to contact your tutor for assistance and advice if required.
Read this Course Guide thoroughly.
Organize a study schedule. Refer to the course overview and to the suggested Study Schedule provided by your Course Coordinator for more details. Note the minimum time you are expected to spend on each unit and how the assignments relate to the units. You need to gather together all this information in one place, such as your diary or a wall calendar.
When you have created your own study schedule, do all you can to stick to it. The major reason for student failure is falling behind with the course work. If you get into difficulties with your schedule, please let your tutor know before it is too late for help.Turn to Unit 1 and read the overview for the unit.
Work through the unit, carrying out the activities and using the audio-visual material when indicated. Attempting the activities, and checking your responses against the feedback provided, is very important for developing your language skills. Check your understanding at the end of each section of the unit.
Regularly review the objectives for the unit to confirm that you have achieved them. Keep a note of any problems and discuss them with your tutor as soon as possible.
Follow the same strategy for each unit in the course, submitting the assignments (TMAs) when required. You will learn a lot by doing the assignments and by studying carefully your tutor's comments on them. The TMAs have been designed to help you to meet the objectives of the course, and therefore to pass the examination.
After completing the last unit, review the course and prepare for the final examination.
| What you need to do to pass this course | |
To complete ENGL E100 successfully you are required to pass both the continuous assessment (the assignments) and the examination.
Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs)
There are five assignments for continuous assessment purposes in this course, of which the best four are counted. Each assignment is worth 10% of the total course score. Detailed information on the questions, how to approach them and the submission dates are provided in the Assignment File.
Final examination
The examination at the end of ENGL E100 lasts for two hours and forty minutes and has a value of 60% of the total marks for the course.
It will assess your mastery of all four language skills – reading, writing, listening and speaking. If you have completed the assignments and have acted on your tutor's feedback on your work, you will be well prepared for it. Further information about the examination, including a specimen examination paper, will be sent to you later in the course.
| Conclusion | |
We hope that you find English for Effective Communication I interesting and useful. The effort you put into studying it will be worthwhile, as good communication skills can help you to perform more effectively in academic, work and social situations.
We wish you the best of luck with your studies.
| A note about the course developers | |
Chris Green (BA, MEd, DipEd, Dip TESOL) is an Assistant Professor in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University's English Department. He has been involved in teaching English as a second language for over 20 years and about half of that time has been spent in Hong Kong; first as a teacher educator at the former Institute of Language in Education and then as a Senior Instructor in the Language Centre at the University of Science and Technology. He has published academic articles in a number of international journals and has written textbooks for Hong Kong secondary schools. His main research interests are in written discourse analysis and pedagogic grammar.
Cynthia F K Lee (BEd, MA, PhD) is an Assistant Professor at the Hong Kong Baptist University. She has taught a wide spectrum of students at university level for seven years, and is actively involved in course design and materials development. Her research areas include second language acquisition, strategy learning and training, discourse analysis and task-based learning and teaching. She has presented and published academic papers locally and internationally on English language learning and teaching.
Philip Leetch (BA, MA, PGCE) is Assistant Principal of SKH Tang Shiu Kin Secondary School. He has taught in the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, and has lived in Hong Kong for over 15 years. He has published a large number of textbooks and has been a member of a wide range of Education Department and Examinations Authority Committees, and of the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR).
Elizabeth A Mueller (BA, MA) is a Senior Language Instructor in the English Centre at the University of Hong Kong, where she has worked since 1988. She has also taught a range of EAP and ESP classes in tertiary institutions in Hong Kong, Beijing and Hefei in the PRC, and in the USA. She is currently involved in ESP course development, action research and an interactive CD-ROM package to teach English pronunciation to secondary and tertiary students. She has presented and published papers locally and internationally on ELT.
