THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2019/2020

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Centre for Open Learning : Literature, Languages and Cultures

Undergraduate Course: English for Humanities and Social Sciences (EHSS) (LLLG07120)

Course Outline
SchoolCentre for Open Learning CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 7 (Year 1 Undergraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits0 ECTS Credits0
SummaryThis four-week full-time course is the final course of our 10-week suite of EAP Pre-sessional courses. It is for international/overseas students wanting to improve their academic English skills in preparation for entry to postgraduate degree programmes usually
within the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh.
Course description 1) Academic Description
This pre-sessional EAP course forms the third and final course of ELE's suite of Pre-sessional courses. It is one of five final English for Specific Academic Purposes courses for international students who have either completed EAP2 or who have already met the English language requirement and hold unconditional offers for a postgraduate degree (normally PGT) programme at the University of Edinburgh. EHSS is the appropriate course for students in arts, humanities or social science fields apart from Business, Law, Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics. (Students in those fields take, respectively, English for Business Masters, English for the LLM, or English for Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, and students in STEM fields take English for Science, Technology and Medicine).
EHSS provides opportunities to carry out in a supported environment academic tasks typically required across a range of taught master's programmes in arts, humanities and social science fields: evaluating, selecting and using academic sources in the composition of a written assignment in the student's specialist field, using peer and tutor feedback on a first draft to produce a revised final draft; researching, preparing and delivering a 10-minute individual oral presentation on a topic within the student's field and handling questions; listening to other students' presentations and responding with questions; listening to and taking notes from lectures and responding critically to their content in discussion; and working with a partner to research, prepare and present a Research Poster, respond to questions, and ask questions about other posters.
All Pre-sessional students undertake three summative assessments during the course: Reading-into-Writing, in the form of an 1800 word source-based written assignment; Speaking, in the form of a ten-minute individual oral presentation to the class followed by Q&A; and Listening in the form of a short dictation test.
Key aims of the Pre-sessional courses are the development of student autonomy and transferability of the skills taught to the students' future study contexts.

2) Outline Content
The Specialist Written Assignment work involves input lectures offering advice on evaluating online sources, structuring the sections of the assignment, documenting references and revising the first draft. Students write up the assignment over three weeks in lab sessions monitored by course assistants and in their own
time, and receive formative feedback on a complete first draft before writing up the final draft in semi-exam conditions, supervised by class tutors before submitting it electronically for summative assessment.
Following from the work in EAP2, class work on Presentation Skills is provided, based on further material adapted from Study Speaking by Kenneth Anderson, Joan Maclean and Tony Lynch (Cambridge University Press, 2004), in preparation for the summatively assessed Individual Presentations during weeks 2 and 3.

As in EAP2, the Guest Lectures involve preparation classes in which tutors guide work on preparatory material suggested by the lecturer, the lectures, in which students take notes and are encouraged to ask questions, and follow-up tutor-led classes where students compare their notes, evaluate their performance in following the lecture and discuss issues relating to the content.
Students take practice listening tests prior to the formal listening assessment (a short dictation test) which takes place in Week 3.
In the final week, students work in pairs to research, prepare and present Research Posters. A 'carousel' system allows each student both to host their own poster, responding to questions, and visit others, asking questions.

3) Student Learning Experience
The course is delivered mainly by four groups of staff: course directors, who present daily lectures and are responsible for the operational management of the course on each site; course tutors, who work with classes of up to ten students; course assistants, who work as classroom assistants, monitor lab work, and are available for informal conversation with students during the morning break; and guest lecturers who give lectures on academic topics of general relevance and interest to students embarking on postgraduate studies in Arts, Humanities and Social Science fields.
After an orientation day, daily interactive lectures given by course directors provide content input. There are also three Guest Lectures. Students spend around half of each teaching day in class groups with tutors, sometimes supported by course assistants, practising academic language and skills and receiving feedback, and preparing for and discussing the Guest Lectures. Most days include work on their Specialist Written Assignments in a computer lab, monitored by course assistants.
Students receive written formative feedback on the first draft of their Written Assignment, and peer and teacher feedback on
practice presentations, and formal summative assessment of their final Written Assignment submission and performance in their Individual Presentation.
Each student participates in one small group tutorial with their class tutor, to discuss their progress and how they can address their continuing needs to develop their academic English skills.
Further lectures provide information and advice on studying at Edinburgh, continuing to improve English, and services offered by EUSA.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Additional Costs Students are expected to bring their own laptops or tablets to access materials electronically.
No additional fees; student receive standard allowance of print credit.
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2019/20, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  None
Course Start Flexible
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Please contact the School directly for a breakdown of Learning and Teaching Activities
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Feedback Detailed written formative feedback given by tutors on an interim submission (partial draft) of Written Assignment. General formative peer and tutor feedback on full first draft. General summative comments on final assessed draft.
Oral peer and tutor formative feedback on presentation practice tasks. General summative
comments on assessed Individual Presentations.
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Research and write an 1800 word written assignment on a topic relevant to their specialist area drawing on appropriately selected and integrated academic source material, and making effective use of peer and tutor formative feedback on drafts
  2. Research, prepare and effectively deliver a 10-minute individual oral presentation and respond appropriately to questions
  3. Work successfully with a partner to research, prepare and present an academic Research Poster, responding effectively to questions
  4. Follow, make notes on and critically respond in discussion to live and recorded lectures on a range of academic topics
  5. Progress onto their Edinburgh degree programme with confidence in their EAP skills.
Reading List
N/A
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Enquiry and lifelong learning; aspiration and personal development; outlook and engagement; research and enquiry; personal and intellectual autonomy; personal effectiveness; communication
KeywordsPre-sessional,English,EAP,postgraduate,academic,arts,humanities,social science,language,research
Contacts
Course organiserMr Anthony Elloway
Tel: (0131 6)50 6200
Email: Anton.Elloway@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMs Kameliya Skerleva
Tel: (0131 6)51 1855
Email: Kameliya.Skerleva@ed.ac.uk
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