English - English for Technical Purposes - Industry and Energy Module C1

In this module grammatical forms are reviewed and practiced with a focus on topics of interest to students preparing for professions in business and technology branches. The module includes opportunities for students to practice both written and oral communication needed in professional life, with emphasis on career skills such as questioning techniques, negotiating, prioritizing, problem solving, and persuading, as well as aspects of intercultural communication needed for achieving professional success. Emphasis is placed on developing strategies for continued learning.

After completion of this module students can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognize implicit meaning; they can express themselves fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions; they can use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes and they can produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, showing controlled use of organizational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices.

Ability to begin work at the C1 level of the GER as evidenced by a score in the range of 60 – 80 percent on the placement test at www.moodle.tum.de. (Please check current announcements as the exact percentages may vary each semester.)

Communicative and skills oriented treatment of topics with use of group discussion, case studies, presentations, writing workshops, listening exercises, and pair work to encourage active use of language, and provide opportunities for ongoing feedback.

Textbook, use of online learning platform such as www.moodle.tum.de or use of Macmillan English Campus online learning resources, presentations, film viewings and audio practice.

Textbook and handouts.

Grades for an oral presentation (including a handout and visual aids) (25%), multiple drafts of two homework assignments to allow students to develop written skills by means of a process of drafting and revising texts (25% each assignment), and a final written examination (25%) contribute to the final course grade. Duration of the final examination: 60 minutes.

In the presentation, students demonstrate an awareness of Anglo-American academic public speaking conventions and are able to put these into practice; in the homework assignments, students are graded on multiple drafts of their texts based on their ability to present content clearly and succinctly taking readers’ needs and writing conventions into consideration. In the final exam, they will demonstrate the ability to use complex grammatical structures and professional vocabulary correctly (e.g. are able to differentiate accurately between situations requiring formal or familiar registers and select the correct form). Dictionaries and other aids may not be used during the exam.