Duration
45h Th
Number of credits
| Bachelor in political sciences : general | 3 crédits |
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
English language
Organisation and examination
All year long, with partial in January
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
This course has a B1-B2 CEFRL level (B1 for writing, speaking and listening skills, B2 for reading comprehension).
The aim of the course is a) to reactivate, consolidate and extend the students' general language understanding and use, and b) to introduce the specific features of the language related to politics. This is done in the four language skills, i.e. reading, listening, speaking and writing.
Concretely, students will deal with:
- the intensive practice of all language skills
- selected articles and readings
- specialized vocabulary exercises
- discussions and oral presentations
- writing exercises (definitions, compare and contrast, commentaries, ...)
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
Vocabulary
The acquisition of specialist vocabulary is at the heart of the LANG8031 course.
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate sufficient mastery of the vocabulary items from the course related to the following lexical fields:
* the different types of political systems and governments ;
* elections, description of an electoral system ;
* political participation by citizens and the political culture of a country;
* accession to power ;
* opposition and repression;
* regionalism and independence;
* international power dynamics.
These lexical items are tested as follows:
* Identifying an intruder word among a group of words belonging to the same semantic field.
* Identifying the positive or negative connotation of a word or group of words.
* Identifying a synonymous or antonymic relationship between words.
* Completing a blank sentence with the correct word.
* Identifying a correct definition of a word or associate a word with its definition.
* - Identifying which of several sentences is semantically meaningless.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the meaning and syntactic functioning of the logical connectors seen in class (nevertheless, moreover, such as...).
This knowledge will be verified as follows:
- Identifying the logical connector that adequately completes a gap-fill text.
Reception of texts
By the end of the course, students will be able to :
For the reception of oral texts,
* Identify a correct statement (paraphrase or translation) about the target text.
* Identify a statement containing incorrect or missing information from the target text.
* - Extract information from the target text.
For the reception of written texts
* - Identify and extract general and detailed information from a text.
* - Identify the connection between ideas communicated by the text at paragraph level, between sentences and within a sentence.
Receptive skills are tested as follows:
* Identifying a correct statement (paraphrase) about the text (general ideas and/or point of detail).
* Identifying a statement containing information that is incorrect or missing from the text in question.
* - Identifying the connection between the ideas in an idea across paragraphs, sentences and within a sentence (selecting the appropriate linking word).
Oral production :
By the end of the course, students will be able to :
* summarise, with prior preparation, the main ideas of a press article on topics covered in the course or on current affairs.
* relay, with prior preparation, specific information contained in a press article
* formulate a personal position in relation to the prepared text (express his/her opinion, preferences, considering hypothetical past, present or future situations)
* define and explain key concepts and/or vocabulary items in the prepared text.
* give a prepared presentation on a familiar topic within their field which is clear enough to be followed without difficulty most of the time, in which the main points are explained with reasonable precision, and with appropriate references.
* take follow-up questions, but may have to ask for repetition if the delivery is rapid.
These activities must be carried out according to descriptors B1 (at least), i.e. :
- can use a repertoire of frequently used phrases and expressions with sufficient accuracy.
- errors may occur but the general meaning of what he/she wants to express remains clear.
- has a good command of basic vocabulary and using sufficient specialist vocabulary.
- pronunciation is generally intelligible
- can structure his/her answers in a simple and logical order.
- can keep going comprehensibly, even though pausing can be evident, especially in longer stretches of free production
Written production:
By the end of the course, students will be able to write a short essay on a political topic, using simple language, listing the advantages and disadvantages of a position, giving and justifying their opinion (B1).
- with sufficient accuracy and mastery of common structures (subject-verb agreement, syntax of affirmative, negative and interrogative sentences, position of adjectives, correct use of pronouns and determiners, concordance of tenses).
- with a good command of basic vocabulary and using sufficient specialist vocabulary.
- in a sufficiently formal register.
- with spelling that is generally understandable throughout.
- following the conventional structure of the target task (size, organisation).
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
The course is not aimed at beginners, but at relatively independent users (from B1- to B1+) who have followed the English language course at secondary level in LM1 or LM2.
One of the aims of LANG8030-1 is to brush up the basic grammar and vocabulary knowledge students need for LANG8031.
We highly recommend that beginners and students requiring a deep revision of the basics of the English language take extra (online or evening) classes. More info: www.islv.uliege.be
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
In addition to regular preparation work, students will have to do one oral presentation which will be taken into account in the final grade for the first session in June, and in August as well.
Extra exercises will be provided online.
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
Face-to-face course
Additional information:
One weekly session of 2h in small groups from September to May.
Weekly preparation work is expected. The workload that this represents is variable and depends on the students' level of competence.
We strongly advise students to read articles about the themes discussed in class, on their own and to practice their listening skills at home.
You can also practice your grammar skills online on eCampus thanks to GABi, an on-line English grammar course.
Recommended or required readings
- Course book Political Science - LANG8031-1 Anglais : Pratique de la langue de la science politique (2022-2023)
- Extra documents (e.g., readings file for the oral exam, revision exercices) will be available online on eCampus.
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- In-person
written exam ( multiple-choice questionnaire, open-ended questions ) AND oral exam
Additional information:
Written exams in January and June, and oral exam in June. The written exams (65%) will include reading and listening comprehension exercises, vocabulary and writing exercises. The oral exam (25%) will deal with articles from a readings file, and the oral presentations.
The assessment grid for the oral exam takes into account content and language skills. In case the student did not get at least 4/10 for each part, the final grade for the oral exam cannot be equal or above 10/20. Detailed guidelines will be provided for the oral exam (and for the written exams as well.)
The written and oral exams in June (and in August) are two inseparable parts.
The in-class oral presentation (second term) accounts for 10% of the final grade.
To pass this course, students will have to obtain a real 10/20, which means that grades between 9,5 and 9,99 will not be rounded up.
Work placement(s)
Organisational remarks and main changes to the course
There are no level groups for this course. Yet we will organize an online test to enable students to assess their level.
Classwork results will be taken into account for the first AND second session.
Contacts
Stéphane Ghijsen - s.ghijsen@uliege.be
Martin Polson - mpolson@uliège.be