English Program
The goal of the English program at the School of Engineering and Environment is to provide you with the language skills to help you become and remain competitive.
Since English has become a lingua franca, it is very often at the heart of collaboration and research in science and technology. As a software engineer or engineer, your ability to communicate successfully in English can help you synthesize the latest research, connect with colleagues, and advance your career.
Our English program is designed with Engineers and software engineers’ communication needs in mind. The program focuses on the key communication skills that you need to succeed: collaborating, negotiating, presenting, technical & academic language, critical reading skills, and learning to adapt ideas to reach target audiences. During our program, students not only learn technical language and terminology, but they also learn how to implement this by describing various processes, products, problems and solutions in real-life contexts.
Our goal is to promote collaboration within teams, develop writing skills to enable students to share research results and new ideas with colleagues, as well as to strengthen their presentation and oral communication skills and build confidence.
Our English modules are divided into Core modules (Den1, Den2, Ten1, Ten2) and Elective modules:
The core modules develop the communication skills and specialist English language knowledge of engineering professionals, enabling them to communicate more confidently and effectively. The courses are based on levels B1-B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CERF).
Students must reach a score of at least 40 points to enter the English program. Students who do not reach this level must complete a Bridging Course.
The elective modules, based on CEFR levels B2-C2, are designed to improve the communication skills and specialist language knowledge of engineers, enabling them to work more confidently and effectively. They are also designed to give students a strong footing in a broader spectrum of multi-disciplinary subjects in English, bridging Engineering, Business and the Arts.
ecpe1 | Develop communicative language skills as well as extend the students' lexical and grammatical knowledge required to enter ecpe2; Cambridge Proficiency course 2. | |
ecpe2 | Prepare for the internationally-recognised Certificate of Proficiency in English issued by the University of Cambridge, England. | |
ecae1 | Develop communicative language skills as well as extend the students' lexical and grammatical knowledge required to enter ecae2; Cambridge Advanced course 2. | |
ecae2 | Prepares students for the internationally-recognised Certificate of Advanced English issued by the University of Cambridge, England. | |
eadc | Develop advanced speaking skills and encourage activation of the spoken language in a range of contexts. | |
ecura | Using topical news articles, podcasts and video clips students will activate and develop language skills through reading, listening, discussion and vocab development. | |
esfss | Activate English through reading and discussion of early English science fiction short stories (1929-1964). Present stories within the anthology in addition to vocabulary activation. | |
egi | Increase language accuracy, fluency and clarity through a review of the English tense system. Focus on improving skills in additional areas such as verb patterns, prepositions, relative clauses, etc. | |
efst | Use the fundamentals of film studies, such as the history of film, the analysis and theory of film, and the study of film genres, to improve students' English skills through listening, reading, writing, and discussion. | |
epp | The module From Page to Podcast gives students the opportunity to not only learn about news media but also gain experience writing articles and recording podcasts. | |
edc | Develop the students' speaking skills in the context of putting forward a convincing argument and debating a point. | |
ekn | Express yourself powerfully and proficiently in English - in your professional and personal life. | |
etmm | This module opens a window onto the creative and literary process of some of the greatest songwriters. | |
phte |
aitw | ||
ecro | Create a professional portfolio containing a Curriculum Vita and letters of Application. Practise successful interview techniques. | |
edse | Explore written and oral storytelling and develop linguistic and critical thinking skills and media awareness. | |
eidpe | Learn how to describe technical problems, to analyze projects or to communicate more confidently and effectively with colleagues and customers. | |
ehsw | How Stuff Works will help students transform their instructional ideas into engaging online content, which is becoming a must-have skill in our digitized and globalized world. Not only will students explore the essentials of describing a process in writing, but transforming that process to video by using a large toolkit for effective meaning-making: linguistic, visual, aural, and kinesthetic. The module will thus enable students to write for a digital audience and use that to compose an effective instructional video. | |
erctc | The module Read critically,Think Critically gives students the opportunity to not only learn about how to approach reading scientific texts, but also to delve deeper into subject matters of their own and related disciplines in English, such as self-driving cars or renewable energies. | |
Students entering the college are required to do an online placement test, the results of which are used to place them either in the core or elective modules and are required to complete a total of 8 credits (4 courses) in English during the course of their studies.
