Prospectus

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Language Acquisition 1: From Scratch to Print

Course
2021-2022

Admission requirements

Not applicable.

Description

Language Acquisition 1 is an introductory writing course whose aim it is to familiarise you with the grammatical and stylistic features of formal written texts in English. The topics that the course will address are formal register, cohesion, writing effective paragraphs, titles, introductions and conclusions, working with dictionaries and grammars, and referencing your sources. At home you will prepare short writing assignments, which are discussed in tutorial. In the second half of the course you will meet with your tutor every week in small tutorial groups of about four students to discuss your progress with the writing of an essay of approximately 1,000 words. This essay is handed in at the end of the course, commented upon and marked. Extensive peer-reviewing is part of this course.

Course objectives

Ability to write several types of texts, namely those that university-educated professionals are expected to write in their future professions. Ability to peer-review texts of fellow students. Ability to choose the right register for various text types. Ability to apply grammatical and punctuation conventions correctly.

Timetable

The timetables are available through My Timetable.

Mode of instruction

  • One 45-minute lecture per week until Reading Week.

  • One ninety-minute tutorial per week until reading Week.

  • Weekly mini-tutorials after the Break Week.

  • Self-study and preparation of short usage and writing assignments.

Assessment method

Assessment

  • 1,000-word Essay

  • Mid-term Exam on lecture content

  • Online Participation: we will give you a 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 or 10 for this component every week and determine the average by the end of the course

Weighing

  • Essay (50%)

  • Mid-term exam (30%)

  • Online Participation (20%)

To pass the course, students need to obtain at least a 6.0 for the Essay.

Attendance is compulsory. Missing more than two tutorials means that students will be excluded from the tutorials. Unauthorized absence also applies to being unprepared, not participating and/or not bringing the relevant course materials to class.

Resit

Students need to resit the essay if the course grade is below a 6.0. The Online Participation component cannot be retaken.

Inspection and feedback

How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.

Reading list

Not applicable.

Registration

Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.

General information about uSis is available on the website

NB: First year students will be enrolled by the coordinator of studies. All other students need to contact the coordinator of studies to be enrolled for this course.

Students other than from the BA English language and culture cannot take this course.

Contact

Remarks