Admission requirements
None.
Description
Thanks to their education, university graduates – this includes those with a degree in English Studies – are able to thoroughly research any given topic. They can define a research topic, formulate a thesis question, and find and process relevant literature. This is something our society takes for granted: in principle, anyone with a university degree should be able to report on research findings, orally or in writing. In principle, that is, because studies on the employability of graduates of a language or cultures degree show that what makes them special least in the eyes of their prospective employers is their excellent command of language, a skill that receives special attention in a language degree programme, but one that those fresh out of university are no longer automatically assumed to possess. An added advantage of having a degree in English is that the written and/or oral presentation skills that you have acquired in the language acquisition courses (and that you have perfected in other courses) enable you to express yourself accurately and precisely in the international language of science, trade and culture, English.
Language Acquisition 2: From Scratch to Script 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 and usage 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 four students to discuss your progress with the writing of an essay of approximately 1000 words. This essay is handed in at the end of the course, commented upon and marked.
Course objectives
By the end of the course you have acquired an active vocabulary that enables you to express yourself on a variety of everyday topics, as well as all kinds of current social and cultural topics.
You will be able to recognise and paraphrase over 1000 words and idioms frequently used in academic and literary texts.
You pronounce British or American English naturally and intelligibly with regard to vowel and consonant sounds, stress and intonation.
And you are able to identify and describe the pronunciation problems of your fellow students.
Mode of instruction
One ninety-minute tutorial.
Self-study and preparation of short usage and writing assignments.
Course Load
The total course load is 140 hours (5 EC), allocated as follows:
Tutorial attendance: 26 hours.
Tutorial preparation: 74 hours.
Self-study, including the writing of the course essay: 38 hours.
Tutoring/opportunity to inspect essay: 2 hours.
Assessment method
One 1000-word essay (100%). To pass the course, you need to get a 6.0 pass for the essay. If you fail, you can rewrite the essay.
Blackboard
In this course, Blackboard is used to present course information, notify you of changes to the course and to make course materials available.
Reading list
Collins English paperback thesaurus (2011). Glasgow: HarperCollins Publishers.
From scratch to script: Texts and assignments for Language Acquisition 2: Reader, verkrijgbaar via Blackboard.
Longman dictionary of contemporary English. For advanced learners (2014). Harlow, Essex: Pearson Longman.
McIntosh, Colin, Ben Francis & Richard Poole. (2009). Oxford collocations dictionary for students of English.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Registration Studeren à la carte via: www.hum.leidenuniv.nl/onderwijs/alacarte
Registration Contractonderwijs via: http://www.hum.leidenuniv.nl/onderwijs/contractonderwijs/