2024/25 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

ELU3021 Language for Civil Engineering

Module manager: Stephanie Hoppitt
Email: s.hoppitt@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: 1 Jul to 15 Sep (2.5mth) View Timetable

Year running 2024/25

Module replaces

For pre-sessional students looking to enter the School of Civil Engineering, this module replaces Language for Engineering (ELU3013). All other engineering students are to take Language for Engineering as previously.

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Module summary

The module is taught in liaison with academics from both the University of Leeds Language Centre and the School of Civil Engineering. This allows the learning of language to be integrated and built around key content areas, and students to develop a deeper understanding of how knowledge and theory are communicated in their own subject.This module will help students develop the language skills, knowledge and understanding required for postgraduate study in the field of civil engineering. Students will study subject-specific content to help them develop their academic skills and language competence and ability to communicate at an appropriate academic level within their chosen field of study.This course will help students familiarise themselves with academic discourse within Civil Engineering and give them the opportunity to practise being an active member of the learning community while developing their academic skills and language that allows them to successfully cope with the challenges of their degree programme.This module is an Academic Skills and English Language content-based pre-sessional designed to support students who either do not meet the English language requirements for their chosen post-graduate programme or who wish to gain a better understanding of the academic language and literacy practices in their area of study.

Objectives

This module provides students with the opportunity to:

1. meet the language requirements of their future academic programme. [MO1]
2. display linguistic and literacy skills to a level that will enable them to communicate competently within their discipline specific academic context at post-graduate level. [MO2]
3. demonstrate an awareness and understanding of the culture, context and discourse of academic study in the field of civil engineering. [MO3]
4. develop as autonomous, reflective learners, with a cultural awareness and understanding of ethical academic practices. [MO4]

Learning outcomes
On completion of the module, students should have begun to develop:

1. a use of written and spoken academic language to suit a clear communicative purpose, including having a wide lexical resource, a range of appropriate structures and the ability to use these coherently, accurately and fluently [MO1];
2. an awareness of subject specific genre, discourse and rhetorical function; making appropriate choices in relation to audience and purpose at whole text, paragraph and sentence level [MO2];
3. an ability to follow subject specific academic conventions in both spoken and written tasks, such as referencing, citations, synthesising sources and their own argument, meeting task requirements, turn taking and building collaborative understanding [MO3];
4. a critical approach to their own work and the work of others through use of a range of sources, counter-argument and/ or evaluation; development of an argument with a clear position [MO3];
5. an ability to critically reflect on their own learning and demonstrate awareness of resources and techniques they could employ to continue their own development [MO4];
6. an ability to communicate an awareness of the cultural and ethical issues of academic study within the field of civil engineering [MO4].

Syllabus

Each unit will be based around academic content. Students then work on understanding this content and the language used, alongside that of core texts, through a series of language classes and seminars. Students have the chance to work both individually and with others, and they will also produce pieces of independent work.

This course focuses on developing autonomous academic literacy (the ability to perform to their best ability within the context of UK academia). Students will work on developing these skills through a series of language classes, group and peer work, lectures and seminars. They will do so via discipline-specific academic content. Students will also be introduced to the processes of and tools for independent study, through both input methods and self-reflection and will be given practice in independent study.

Week 1: Theme: Teaching and Learning Project
- Assessment set up
- Managing a heavy workload
- Asking questions
- Communicating with your tutor
- Evaluating sources & genre analysis

Week 2: Theme: Ethics Project
- Vocabulary Learning
- Collocations
- Reading effectively
- Seminar language
- Researching sources

Week 3: Theme: Challenges & Sustainability Project
- Paraphrasing
- Note making
- Nominalisation & noun phrases
- Summarising information


Week 4: Theme: Challenges & Sustainability Project (contd.)
- Working towards assessment
- Creating study plans
- Referencing
- Paragraph structure & cohesion
- Hedging

Week 5: Dream Project
- Presentation design & language
- reporting verbs
- understanding & giving feedback
- introductions & conclusions

Week 6: Assessment Week
- Motivation, engagement & goalsetting
- Academic language review
- Critical thinking review
- Researching support for future studies

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
On-line Learning	6	1.00	6.00
Lectures	12	2.00	24.00
Seminars	32	2.00	64.00
Tutorials	6	0.20	1.50
Class tests, exams and assessment	1	0.50	0.50
Group learning	6	1.00	6.00
Independent online learning hours			74.00
Private study hours			74.00
Total Contact hours			102.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			250.00

Private study

This is a full-time course. On average you will have 16 hours of tuition per week, however, this may vary each week. You will also be expected to do an additional 25 hours or more of independent study each week. This includes:

- Independent online learning:
Discipline-specific academic content & language
Preparation for group work

- Private study:
Vocabulary and language development

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Opportunities for feedback will be provided through:

- Checking, and formative feedback of, students’ weekly performance on tasks, presentations and seminar participation.

- Checking, assessing and giving feedback on students’ progress with weekly written tasks.
- In class informal observation by teachers on students use of language and level of engagement.

The final assessments will be based specifically on the core areas of academic language and subject specific literacy as well as the students’ future field of study and Masters’ programme.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Literature Review	Approximately 1,500 words	50.00
Oral Presentation	Individual oral presentation of up to 15 minutes	50.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Resits are offered for students who need to pass to progress and who either do not meet the required overall score or reach the required overall score but fail to reach the required score on more than one assessment component.

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 29/04/2024 16:13:39

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