beo

TOKYO COLLEGE
Academic English Courses

Academic English 1
Course Outline
February May 2015

Course Outline
1.Introduction............................................................................................................................
2.Course Content and Materials..............................................................................................
3.Teacher: Andras Badics........................................................................................................

4.Homework.............................................................................................................................
5.Schedule...............................................................................................................................
1 Introduction
Academic English 1 (AE1) is part of the b e o suite of Academic English courses. A
minimum English level of IELTS 5.0 is generally required to join this course. The course
follows on from b e o s General English for IELTS (GEI) course. On completion of this
course students can progress to our Academic English 2 course, or one of the b e o IELTS
courses.
Classes take place on Sundays, from 2.30 p.m. to 6.30 p.m., from 14 th February to 1st May.
Course Content and Materials
The course will cover all four language skills, listening, reading, speaking and writing, with
discussion sessions and the possibility of presentations. Students are expected to take an
active part in class.
Students will have copies of the book Oxford English for Academic Purposes and this will
be the main textbook for the course. Copies of other supportive text materials may be
provided as required.
Teacher Introdcution Andras Badics
Thank you for choosing my course! Learning a language can be frustrating and there will
be times when you fell that you are not making progress. However, it can also be
tremendously satisfying when you realise that you can use that new language to do useful
things. To keep making progress it is important to try to make English a part of your life
every day. Try to read something in English every day, maybe one story on the internet
about a subject you are passionate about, e.g. sport, fashion, celebrities, politics, etc. Write
a paragraph in English each day, perhaps a summary of what you have read, or about
something that happened to you during the day. Try some speaking exercises, perhaps
trying to repeat something as you listen, or reading out loud. There are plenty of listening
materials on the internet as well, such as on the BBC website.
I have been in Japan for over 2 years and have taught in various other countries. I have a
Masters degree in English Language and Literature and the CELTA. My e-mail address is
badics@yandex.com

Homework
Each week you will be required to read an article about a topic of your choice. You will
then be asked to provide an oral summary in class. Similar to an IELTS speaking task, your
presentation should be about 2 minutes long and include why you feel the article is
relevant. There will be some time for questions/discussion of the topic after each
presentation.
Students are expected to submit an essay every week. The title for each essay is given in
the schedule below. Teacher feedback on your essays will be given using the error code
contained in the separate handout. This is so that students attempt to correct mistakes
independently which has been shown to be more effective in developing students grammar
knowledge than direct feedback alone.
Finally, you will also prepare one presentation per month during the course. Based on an

academic topic of your choice, presentations should include power point slides and last 15
minutes.

Course Preparation
Students should familiarise themselves with the contents and style of the text book prior to
the course. Students should pre-read page 6 of the textbook prior to course
commencement.

6.Schedule
Class
14 February

Topics
Course Introduction
Introduction to self-study materials
Bookwork: Unit 6 Writing 1, Reading
Essay 1: Studying abroad can give you a valuable experience in
your future life
After this class the students will be able to: recognize perspectives in a
lecture/text, present perspectives, write topic sentences.

21 February

Bookwork: Unit 6 Writing 2, Listening and Speaking

Essay 2: Studying a science can contribute to a better society.
How far do you agree?
After this class the students will be able to: recognize perspectives in a
lecture/text, present perspectives, write topic sentences.

28 February

Bookwork: Unit 7 Writing 1, Reading

Essay 3: Describe an academic concept from your field of study.
Use citations.
After this class the students will be able to: paraphrase in writing,
understand references in a text.
Bookwork: Unit 7 Writing 2, Listening and Speaking
Essay 4: Is English a hard language to learn? Use citations to
support your argument.
After this class the students will be able to: paraphrase in speaking and
writing.
Bookwork: Unit 8 Writing 1, Reading
Essay 5: Describe a process from your field of study.
After this class the students will be able to: describe a process,
understanding a written description of a process.
Bookwork: Unit 8 Writing 2, Listening and Speaking
Essay 6: p117 Task3
After this class the students will be able to: listen effectively to a past
narrative, describe a process

6 March

13 March

20 March

Class
27 March

3 April

Topics
Bookwork: Unit 9 Writing 1, Reading
Essay 7: Write about a cause and effect relationship in your field
of study.
After this class the students will be able to: understand cause and
effect relationships in a text, write cause and effect paragraphs
Bookwork: Unit 9 Writing 2, Listening and Speaking
Essay 8: Do you support vaccination? Why? Why not? Use
cause and effect paragraphs.
After this class the students will be able to: listen for cause and effect,
write cause and effect paragraphs

10 April

Bookwork: Unit 10 Writing 1

Essay 9: Argue for or against mass migration.
After this class the students will be able to: write arguments and
supporting ideas.

17 April

Bookwork: Unit 10 Listening and Speaking

Essay 12: Do you think the advantages of globalization outweigh
its disadvantages?
After this class the students will be able to: listen for ideas for and
against.

24 April

Bookwork: Unit 10 Reading

Essay 11: Do you agree with offshoring?
After this class the students will be able to: undersand arguements in a
text.
Bookwork: Unit 10 Writing 2
After this class the students will be able to: write an argument essay.

1 May

7 Writing Feedback Code

In many cases when your writing is corrected the marker will only identify your errors and
not correct them. This is because students generally improve faster when they have to
solve problems for themselves. This error code is designed to identify the most common
errors. However, particularly if a sentence is written poorly, there may be several different
ways of transforming it into a correct sentence. In such cases it is often impossible to say
just what an error is because different ways of producing a correct sentence may retain
different parts of the original.

Code

Meaning
Dashed underline indicates an example of a good word or expression. May
have one of the positive codes (CS, DM, GV) above it.
Solid underline indicates a word or expression with a problem and should
have an error code above it.
Squiggly underline indicates an expression or phrase with a complex of
errors.
Squiggly underline with a large question mark indicates the meaning is
unclear.

Code
A
CS
DM
GV
INF
PS

PU
R?
REP
SP
SVA

Vb
WF

WO
WP
WW

Meaning
Problems with an Article (a, an, the), either the use of an incorrect one, or
omission where one is needed.
This is a positive comment indicating the use of a Complex Sentence
structure, e.g. sentences with more than one clause.
Another positive comment indicating the presence of Discourse Markers
(e.g. first, second, on the other hand, however, in addition, to conclude, etc.)
Good Vocabulary a positive comment
INFormal language, such as contractions (e.g. dont, cant, whats, its, etc.),
or imprecise verbs (e.g. do, get, go, etc.)
Plural and Singular problem. This includes things like three book, these
dog, a people, etc. and can often be corrected in two ways, by making
everything in the expression singular, or be making everything plural. The
problem of singular countable nouns with without an article can often be
solved by either adding an article, or by changing the noun to the plural
form.
PUnctuation problems. Either the wrong punctuation mark (e.g. a full stop at
the end of a question instead of a question mark) or a missing punctuation
mark.
It is not clear who, or what, a pronoun (he, she, it, they, etc.) is Referring to
REPetition of a word or phrase. This usually means that you should use
either a synonym (a different word with a similar meaning) or a pronoun (he,
she, it, they, these, those, this, that, etc.).
SPelling mistake.
Subject Verb Agreement problem. Usually this is the use of a third person
singular subject (he, she, it, the dog, etc.) without the third person form of
the verb (an s ending in the present simple), e.g. he walk should be he
walks.
Incorrect use of a Verb. This is usually about tense, e.g. using the present
simple (I walk) when the present continuous (I was walking) is more
appropriate
Use of the wrong Word Form, e.g. using an adjective (such as healthy)
when a noun (health) is needed. It also covers the use of the wrong choice
from words with the same root and word class, but different meanings, e.g.
economic and economical are both adjectives, but they mean different
things (economic = related to trade and industry, economical = not using a
lot of something (usually money)). Also includes confusing -ing and -ed
forms
Incorrect Word Order.
A word or phrase is in the Wrong Place in the sentence. This is often an
adverb that is too far away from the verb it modifies.
Use of the Wrong Word. Usually the word used has the wrong meaning.
Sometimes this is a result of a misspelling, possibly by Words autocorrect.
Missing word or words.

The second type of feedback will be a form that focuses on your general writing
ability and the sub-skills needed to be a good writer. The aim of this form is
make you think about the structure and content of your essays, rather than
focusing only on language errors.