Pre-Sessional English

Course Code: K16LI

Course Name: Lower
Intermediate
Pre-Sessional English: Lower Intermediate is an integrated skills course that focuses on
building academic literacy skills to prepare students for tertiary studies. Students will
develop key skills and strategies in academic reading and writing, listening and speaking,
academic language, thinking and research, as well as learning strategies for university
studies. Throughout the course, there is an emphasis on students developing the ability to
think, solve problems and take responsibility for their own learning.

Credit Value 10
Workload 16 contact hours + 4 hours of online study per week
Prerequisites None
Lecturer/ Nur Ili Syazwani binti Mohd. Azhar
Tutor
Campus: Heriot-Watt University Malaysia
Phone: 03-88943900
Email: [email protected]
Office hours: Monday to Friday 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.

Consultation Wednesday – 9.00 a.m. – 10.00 a.m.

hours: Thursday – 3.00 p.m. – 4.00 p.m.

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www.hw.edu.my
 April 2018 cohort
Programme Aims and Objectives

Pre-Sessional English: Lower Intermediate is an integrated skills course that focuses on

building academic literacy skills to prepare students for tertiary studies. Students will
develop key skills and strategies in academic reading and writing, listening and
speaking, academic language, thinking and research, as well as learning strategies for
university studies. Throughout the course, there is an emphasis on students developing
the ability to think, solve problems and take responsibility for their own learning.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Develop a range of strategies to read, understand and analyse texts, and

address questions
2. Plan, draft, revise and refine academic paragraphs so that they are well-
developed, unified and coherent
3. Understand and respond appropriately to a variety of spoken discourse, including
conversations, discussions and lectures
4. Effectively prepare for and participate in oral tasks: tutorials, group discussions
and oral presentations

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 5. Demonstrate understanding and application of essential grammatical, lexical and
phonological resources for academic tasks
6. Develop key study skills in a range of areas to meet the needs of tertiary learning

Assessment Summary

Assessment Task Value Due Date

Final Examination 60% Week 10

Mid-Term Examination 20% Week 6

Coursework is made up of:

 Written Assignments 20% Week 3, Week 5

- Essay outline Week 8
- Essay writing

 Oral Presentation
- Individual presentation

TOTAL 100%

Teaching Approach

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This course will be delivered using tutorials and online study.

Tutorial sessions will allow students to participate in various tasks, focusing on

discussions, assessments, application, practice and analysis of skills development in
context. The primary focus is practical: students will actively engage in various tasks,
presentations, language enhancement activities and group projects.

VISION is Heriot-Watt University's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and is a web-

based integrated teaching and learning environment. VISION will be used to facilitate
communication, content uploading, assignment workflow, peer assessment, student
group management and assessment, grading and others.

Self-study A considerable part of the learning for this course will be accomplished
through self-study by students. This course is valued at 10 credit points and requires 20
hours of study each week. This includes 16 contact hours and 14 hours of private study
spent for blended learning activities, completing assessment tasks and in general study.

Feedback

Our Feedback to You

In general, you will receive written feedback 2-3 weeks after the submission of your
assignments. Specific marking criteria for each assignment will identify whether your
performance on the assessment tasks is above or below expected levels, and individual
comments will identify areas of strength and aspects of your work that need further
attention.

The marking criteria for each assignment will be made available before tasks are due,
and can also be used as a guide or checklist for you to complete tasks. General
feedback to groups (not identifying individuals) will also be given verbally in tutorials or
during consultation hours.

By Week 8, you will receive interim feedback tutorial performance. This feedback will
help you to work towards maintaining and/or improving your participation in tutorials.

Your Feedback to Us
Heriot-Watt is committed to excellence in education and regularly seeks feedback from
students, employers and staff. There are several ways we obtain your feedback. One is
through staff-student consultative meetings, and another is through course evaluations
normally conducted at the end of semesters.

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Required Resources

The Course Guide – This is the Course Guide. It is designed to provide a framework
and a detailed weekly guide for your studies.

Textbook:

Walsh, C. and Warwick, L. (2014) PTE academic expert B1 course book. England:
Pearson Education Limited.

Recommended Resources

There are additional resources such as printed/electronic books and journals available
from the library that you may find useful in helping you understand the course materials,
prepare for your tutorials and complete your assignments. Therefore, if you are new to
Heriot-Watt, you are strongly recommended to join the library tours and familiarise
yourself with how to find learning resources.

Books you will find helpful include:

Azar, B. S. and Hagen, S. A. (2011) Fundamentals of English grammar. 4th edn. New
Jersey: Pearson Education ESL.

Chandler, K., Cotteril, S., Da Silva, S., O’Dell, F., and Hogan, M.J. (2013) Practise tests
plus with key. England: Pearson Education Limited.

Evans V. and Dooley J. (2002) Upstream: Intermediate workbook. United Kingdom:

Express Publishing.

Hartmann, P. (2007) Reading and writing. 2nd edn. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Langan, J. (2014) College writing skills with readings. 9th edn. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Murphy, R. (1985) English grammar in use. United Kingdom: Cambridge University

Press.

Oshima, A. and Hogue, A. (1997) Writing academic English. 4th edn. New York:
Pearson.

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COURSE SCHEDULE

Week Topics Assessments

1 Reading
 Skimming and scanning
Speaking
 Pronunciation
 Oral fluency
Grammar
 Present tenses
 Past tenses

2 Writing
Writing the essay
 The introduction
opening sentence, information, thesis
statement
 The body paragraph
topic sentence, elaboration example
 The concluding paragraph
paraphrase thesis, summary of ideas,
comment

3 Listening Assignment 1:
 Listening: comprehension of main ideas and
important details Collaborative essay – 5%
 Note-taking
Reading
 Understanding main ideas
 Identifying main ideas and supporting details

Writing
 Summary writing

4 Speaking
 Descriptive speech
Listening
 Identifying speaker’s purpose and attitude

Grammar
 Future forms

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5 Speaking Assignment 2:
 Summarizing from different sources
 Retell lecture Individual essay – 5%
Listening
 Listening: comprehension of main ideas and
important details

6 Reading Mid-Term Exam:

 Skimming and scanning
 Understanding main ideas and supporting Reading & Listening – 20%
details
Speaking
 Presenting ideas spontaneously

7 Listening
 Listening: comprehension of main ideas and
important details
 Identifying speaker’s purpose and attitude
Writing
 Summary writing
Grammar
 Conditional sentences

8 Reading Assignment 3:
 Skimming and scanning
 Understanding main ideas and supporting Individual speech – 10%
details
Listening
 Listening: comprehension of main ideas and
important details
Writing
 Essay review

9 Revision Week

10 Final Examination Final Examination – 60%

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