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The Language Institute of Thammasat University

TU 105 Communication Skills in English

EL 172 English Course 3

Course Outline 2/2017

***************************************** Course Description:

Development of English listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, focusing on the

ability to hold a conversation in exchanging opinions, as well as reading comprehension of

academic texts from various disciplines related to students’ field of study.

Course Objectives:

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

have a broad understanding of general academic English usage;

be familiar with a broad range of academic disciplines;

develop skills which enable them to deal with unknown vocabulary;

discuss and give opinions on academic and controversial topics;

improve their understanding of key standard English Language functions;

understand how learning English is empowering and become more autonomous;

use a number of English academic skills beneficial to subsequent TU classes;

be a little wiser about the world in general through the English Language;

foster positive relationships towards English Language Learning;

connect to the target culture and to raise their awareness of cultural differences in

relation with Thai culture.

Teaching Methods & Materials:

Teaching Methods: Student-Centered Learning, Autonomous/Self-Directed Learning,

Discussions, Pair Work, Group Work, Oral Presentations, Media Application

Materials: 1. Coursebook TU 105: Communication Skills in English (2nd Edition)

Scoring Criteria

Attendance 10

Assignments 30

Speaking Assessment 10

Final Exam 50

TOTAL 100

Assignments

1. Survey Findings Report 10%

2. Novelty App Pitch 10%

3. Mini Essay 10%

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Tentative Schedule

Date Unit Content Concept/ Language Function

1 Jan 8-12 Unit 1 – Time

Organization

Course Outline

Let’s Break the Ice: Introducing Yourself

Successful Time

Management

Reading I

Comprehension and Vocabulary

Stressed Syllables

Time Collocations

2

Jan 15-19

Unit 1 – Time

Organization

Teens Use of Time

Asking Questions

Writing and

Conducting a Survey

Reading II – Scanning for

Information

Conducting a class survey – “The

average student.” Assignment I – A: Conducting

Classroom Survey (4%) 3 Feb 5-9 Unit 2 –

Discrimination

What is discrimination?

News Reports - Listening for Details

Vocabulary - Synonyms

Cross-cultural

Misunderstanding

Assignment I – B: Submission

Group Report of Survey findings

(6%)

4 Feb 12-16 Unit 2 - Discrimination

Dual-Pricing: Is it

discrimination?

Understanding and

giving opinions

The Unpleasant Flier

Reading Comprehension

Writing opinions

Communication Activity: Is that

Discrimination?

5 Feb 19-23 Unit 3 – Business

Innovations

Weird Inventions Describing Things

Active sentences

Passive sentences

6 Feb 26-Mar 2 *Mar 1

Makha Bucha Day

Unit 3 – Business

Innovations

Listening – The

Dragon’s Den

Sales Pitches

Smart Phone App’s

Positive Adjectives

Presentation Language

Exploring the merits of success

Language of presentation

Sales pitches

7 Mar 5-9

Unit 3 – Business Innovations

Presentation Day

Dragon’s Den Style

Business Pitches

where groups present

their app’s to the class.

Assignment II - Novelty App

Pitch (10%)

March 11-18, 2017 Midterm Week (NO CLASS)

8 Mar 19-23

Unit 4 - Antibiotic

Apocalypse

Pair Quiz – What do

you know about

antibiotics?

Documentary – Antibiotic Apocalypse

Solutions to the

problem

Watch the programme and

capture the main ideas

Medical Vocabulary

Reading – BBC News

Individual web-based research

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Date Unit Content Concept/Language Function

9 Mar 26-30

Unit 4 – Antibiotic

Apocalypse Writing Cause and

Effect

Asking Questions in

the Past

Interview Speaking

Activity

Paragraph

Organization*

Connectors*

Using because (of) and so

Identifying cause and result

Sentence writing

Information gap – Alexander

Flemming

10 Apr 2-6 *Apr 6

Chakri Memorial Day

Unit 4 – Antibiotic

Apocalypse

In-Class Mini Essay Assignment III – Mini Essay (10%)

11 Apr 9-13

Unit 5 – An Ageing

Population

Discussion: Changing

Demographics

Reading: A Billion

Shades of Grey

Reading

Comprehension

Language of expressing opinions

Reading Skills: Skimming

Compound nouns/adjectives

Prefixes

Heading Matching

12 Apr 16-20 *Apr 11-17

Songkran Holidays

Unit 5 – An Ageing

Population

Paragraph Writing

Paragraph

Organization*

Connectors*

Solving Japan’s age

problem

Creating a coherent paragraph

Listening: Innovative Products

Group Project: Creating an

innovative project.

13 Apr 23-27

Unit 6 – Ethics in IT Discussion: Movie

Previews

Reading: Hacking and

Privacy

Speaking: What you’re

your friend/teacher do?

Identifying trends in technology

Vocabulary: Synonyms and

Antonyms

First Conditional

Survey – What will you do if ..?

14 Apr 30-May 4

Unit 6 – Ethics in IT Critical Listening: Every Breath You Take

Discussion Language

Structuring an

argument

Debating

Song facts and vocabulary

Fact or Opinion?

Strong and Weak Reasons

Agreeing and Disagreeing

Debate Activity: Rebuttal

Tennis/Balloon Debate

15 May 7-11 Review

16 May 14-18

Final Group

Interview and

Discussion

Group discussions with

teacher. Giving

Opinions, agreeing and

disagreeing. Demonstration of

course content

understanding.

Speaking Assessment (10%)

Final Examination

Tuesday May 22, 2017 from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 p.m.

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Important Notes:

80% mandatory class attendance;

Absence for more than 3 class meetings subjected to an automatic “F” grade in the course;

1 point deducted for one absence / 0.5 point deducted for one lateness;

Any lateness or absence for assignments will result in 0 points (unless medical note

provided);

Cooperation and being considerate towards your teachers and classmates is a course

requirement;

Class disruption (i.e. chatting, social networking) may adversely affect the attendance

score.

Thammasat University strongly discourage plagiarism, i.e. an act of copying someone’s

ideas or work and presenting them as if that were yours, without referring to the original

sources of authors. Therefore, any (Speaking & Writing) assignment that is considered

(partially or entirely) plagiarized will be given a score of zero.

No classes on the following holidays:

- January 22 – February 3, 2017 Rajamangala University of Technology

Thanyaburi Games

- March 1, 2017 Makha Bucha Day

- April 6, 2017 Chakri Memorial Day

- April 11-17, 2017 Songkran Holidays

Add / Drop / “W” periods

Add/Drop period January 16 – 19, 2017

Drop “W” period March 26 – April 2, 2017

Midterm Week March 11-18, 2017

Final Exam Week May 21 - 28, 30-31 , June 1 - 5

Assignment I: Report of Survey findings (10%)

For many of you this may be the first time you’ve produced a report in English, but don’t

worry. The following guidelines will help you collect data about the average student in your

class, and then write up a group report of your findings to present to you teacher.

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How to write your report?

Your report is an account of an “investigative journey” (Reid, 2012), in which you are expected

to lead your readers through a clearly mapped out formal linear order.

This typically looks like the following:

Introduction Methods Results Discussion Conclusion

In your writing you need to report what you have done and what you have found out in your

investigation. You should use a chart, table or diagram to display your findings and to write in

a formal written style.

Questionnaire

You aim is to find out how the average student in the class spends his/her time. We could pose

this as a question:

Research Question: How does the average class student spend his/her time?

In your groups you can then build up a survey (your research instrument) to find out your

answer to the question using the prompts in the book and your skills of writing questions in

English. Try to write around 10 questions to ask other students in the class (e.g. How much

time do you usually spend exercising a week?). You may want to compare girls with boys to

get more interesting data.

Writing Up

Start with a brief introduction to give background to your investigation and state your aims.

Next you can describe ‘what you did’ in the methodology section. Remember to use past tense

here and keep it clear and to the point. How you show you results is up to you but perhaps a

table reporting your findings would be good with sentences such as:

½ the class spend less than 30 minutes a week exercising.

90% of girls never meditate.

The average boy in the class sends 129 text messages a day.

Don’t forget to discuss what your results show briefly by interpreting your findings in the

discussion section. You should finish with a conclusion to summarize your main findings and

make any recommendations. You report should be between 1 and 2 sides of A4 in length.

Don’t forget to check your report for language errors and punctuation!

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Assignment II: Novelty App Pitch (10%)

This assignment is a group activity that students should be assigned new groups. Each group

is supposed to come up with an idea for creating a novelty smartphone application and

present it to the customers in World Mobile Phone Application Expo. The students are

encouraged to research on the current trends and create the application that serve the needs of

customers. Each group is suggested to use presentation language from the unit as well as

business vocabulary and appropriate collocations.

Assignment III: In-Class Essay (10%) (approx. 200 words)

Students are expected to write a short essay which summarizes the ideas from the unit by

answering the following question:

Why is there a current problem in the use of antibiotics throughout the world?

The essay should be done in-class to avoid possibilities of plagiarism. The following guidelines

can be used to replace those in the book. Allow the students one hour to complete their writing

in the class.

Suggested Paragraph Outline

Paragraph I: Introduction

Introduce antibiotics their usefulness

outline the problem presented in the unit.

Paragraph II: Body 1

Why is there such a problem?

Where does the problem arise from?

Use examples to illustrate the seriousness of a potential future without antibiotics.

This should be the largest paragraph in your essay as it supports the question posed.

Use vocabulary and language from the books to help you.

Cause and effect structures could be used here.

Paragraph III: Body 2

What can be done to prevent an antibiotic apocalypse?

Present some possible solutions to the problem.

Cause and effect structures as well as conditional sentences could be used here (e.g. If

people were educated about the dangers of antibiotic overuse, they would most likely

take less).

Paragraph IV: Conclusion

Briefly conclude your essay by summarizing your key points relevant to the question.