| CODE | FST0122 | ||||||||||||||||
| TITLE | Technical and Academic English Reading | ||||||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 00 - Mod Pre-Tert, Foundation, Proficiency & DegreePlus | ||||||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 4 | ||||||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | ||||||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Engineering and ICT | ||||||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit is designed to develop the reading and critical thinking skills necessary to function effectively as a student of engineering, architecture or basic sciences at the University of Malta. The syllabus is divided in to three stages/levels as required by the level and needs of the students. Throughout the year the students will work to develop the fundamental reading skills necessary to comprehend technical and academic texts in English successfully. As they move on in the study-unit and progress through the levels they will also be encouraged to develop the more advanced reading skills that are essential to perform in an English speaking academic context. The study-unit divided into two sections detailed Technical Reading Skills and Advanced Academic Reading Skills. Technical reading skills are repeated across the levels; however, the advanced academic reading skills appear only in the higher two levels, where the students will have already gained the basic reading skills that allow them to cope with these higher order tasks. A critical thinking element has been included to help students to develop the important evaluative, analytical and decision making skills necessary for study at tertiary level. Study-unit Aims: The principal aim of the study-unit is to prepare students so to deal effectively with the reading load required by first year science, engineering or architecture degree students. Consequently, they will work on developing the skills necessary to enable them to work with a wide variety of increasingly difficult technical and academic texts. The aims of the study-unit are that the students develop the following skills: - Understand the main ideas of a text; - Read for specific information; - Identify redundant information; - Understand text organisation; - Predict content from context; - Check comprehension; - Infer; - Deal with unfamiliar words; - Understand writer’s style; - React to the text; - Extensive reading; - Read Actively; - Recall and review; - Research, analyze and evaluate written texts. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Deal effectively with authentic technical academic texts in the relevant disciplines; - Form target questions and select texts which are likely to hold the answers, discarding irrelevant information and texts; - Deal with an advanced reading load effectively and at some speed; - Be able to identify and reproduce the main points of a text in written and spoken production; - Show and understanding of text organization enabling the correct identification of specific information; - Evaluate and analyze a text and the information it contains to answer specific questions and form new ideas; - Evaluate quickly the target audience, purpose, and likely usefulness of a text as a source of information. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Demonstrate effective reading skills to deduce meaning, confirm expectations, extract specific information and main points, infer opinion and attitude and identify relevant and irrelevant information; - Apply scientific reasoning skills to the evaluation of evidence. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Technical and Academic English Workbook (University of Malta), 2014. (Will be provided to each student) |
||||||||||||||||
| ADDITIONAL NOTES | This study-unit is offered only to the Certificate in Foundation Studies students. Please note that a pass in the Examination component is obligatory for an overall pass mark to be awarded. |
||||||||||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture and Independent Study | ||||||||||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
|
||||||||||||||||
| LECTURER/S | James Formosa Edward Wilkinson |
||||||||||||||||
|
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
|||||||||||||||||