This module is designed to enable you to operate at a very advanced level of English (described in this descriptor as a 'proficiency' level of English based on the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English exam). In keeping with the advanced language demands and the fact that this is a level three module, you will be expected to demonstrate a range of challenging linguistic and cognitive skills, both in the passive competences of listening and reading, and in the active competences of speaking and writing.

Listening Skills
You will be listening to English being spoken in a variety of situations. We'll look at recognising and evaluating a speaker's attitude and opinion, and inferring underlying meaning. You'll encounter material which familiarizes you with a range of voices, accents and styles of delivery. Moreover, you'll use advanced academic cognitive skills to analyse and evaluate listening texts in order to understand and respond appropriately to them.

Speaking Skills
You'll practise speaking in a variety of situations with different numbers of people. We'll look at things like organising language and ideas, coherence, developing topics, turn-taking, responding to questions and expanding on a response. More specifically, we'll be exploring how to give personal information, talk about present and future circumstances, speculate about what might happen, justify actions or ideas, express our opinions, exchange information and agree or disagree. In keeping with the honours level of the module, we'll expect you to be able to engage critically with the module content and express a coherent analytical judgement of it.

Reading Skills
This module will develop your awareness of text types, and help you to choose and practise the various reading skills needed to read efficiently (scanning, skimming, recognizing purpose and tone of text, etc). We'll look at a wide range of text types to help you to become comfortable and familiar with the broad variety of language you'll encounter. As with the listening part of the module, you'll use advanced academic cognitive skills to analyse and evaluate reading texts in order to understand and respond appropriately to them.

Writing Skills
At this level, you'll become very sophisticated in your approach to writing. You'll think carefully about your audience and the purpose of your writing. So you can develop and practise these skills, you'll be writing a number of different types of text. We'll also expect you to demonstrate independence of thought and the ability to engage critically with the module content to deliver sustained arguments offering evaluation of situations and solutions to problems.

You'll be using English a lot during this module, sometimes working on your own (e.g. reading or listening to a text), sometimes collaborating with a partner (e.g. discussing ideas or drawing up a plan for an essay or report) and sometimes working as part of a team (e.g. preparing a team presentation or having a seminar discussion). So expect a range of learning activities; individual reading and writing, group discussions, role-plays, pair-work, individual and group presentations, listening exercises etc.

There is a lot of material to get through, and you need as much practise as possible. That's why class contact time is 4 hours a week. You will also have a CPE text book (details below) which gives you a thorough grounding in the skills you will need to reach a Proficiency level of English. (It is essential that you buy this set text listed below: you won't be able to do the module adequately without it).

Wilson, J & Newbrook, J. (2008) Proficiency Gold Coursebook (for the revised CPE Exam) (Paperback) Pearson Longman

Supplemented by materials provided by the tutor.

You should have an IELTS score of a least 7.

The library
A PC with MS Office and Internet
Individual and group study space
A good advanced learner's English dictionary
Multimedia equipment (DVD player, listening station)

The assessment for this module is broadly based on the assessments used in the CPE exam. These assessments each count for 20% of the total module assessment. Here are the details:

Listening (about 1 hour, 25%, Learning Outcomes 1, 3, 5)

What you'll hear is a series of listening texts with one or more speakers. You'll be tested on a variety of things such as understanding gist, detail, purpose, topic, speaker, person being spoken to, attitude, opinion, agreement and disagreement and so on.

Speaking (20 mins, 25%, Learning Outcomes 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)

This test is usually conducted in pairs. There are three parts: (1) a general conversation with the examiner; (2) a conversation with your fellow student; (3) a two minute talk from you, followed by a discussion with your fellow student.

Reading (1 hour, 25%, Learning Outcomes 1, 3, 5)

You will answer a variety of questions on a range of texts on different topics.

Writing (2 hours, 25%, Learning Outcomes 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,)

You'll write two texts of about 300 - 350 word in length based on work done in the module.