Learning Outcomes ENGL04

Course Description

ENGL04 is a general English course at upper-intermediate level, equivalent to B2 on the CEFR scale. Its primary objective is to raise students’ language competencies to this level in their speaking, writing, reading and listening skills. A key component of the course is the Institutional TOEFL exam, whose function is to ensure standardization of outcomes through benchmarking of institution-developed testing materials. The course uses a range of commercially available teaching materials, Life, Reading Explorer and Longman TOEFL materials, alongside supplemental materials developed within the department.

Learning Outcomes – Listening

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

  • Demonstrate the ability to comprehend spoken English employing a range of macro- and micro-skills
  • Identify subjects of whole-text
  • Comprehend individual sounds within words
  • Make inferences

Learning Outcomes – Reading

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

  • Identify the general subject of a text at whole-text or paragraph level
  • Infer meaning of unknown vocabulary using the context
  • To extract specific information from the text
  • Identify the referents of pronouns

Learning Outcomes – Writing

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

  • Write a coherent and cohesive personal response to a task at B2 level, using appropriate tone and register, with organized paragraphing and a range of appropriate structures and vocabulary.

Learning Outcomes – Vocabulary

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

  • Use over 600 new items (B2 level)

 

Institutional TOEFL Examination

The ENGL04 course contains an Institutional TOEFL component with a weight of 20%. The Institutional TOEFL is an external examination provided by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and comprises Listening, Grammar (called ‘Structure and Written Expression’), and Reading components. This examination is always held at the end of each module.

Because the Institutional TOEFL does not assess students’ speaking and writing abilities, students do not receive an official TOEFL certification upon completion. Rather, the Institutional TOEFL is intended for internal PEP purposes only.

TOEFL scores are scaled to a fixed weighted percentage from 430 to 530. To illustrate, an ENGL04 student scoring 500 would receive an allocation of 14% out of a possible 20%.