FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS SOCIALES

DEPARTAMENTO DE LENGUAS Y CULTURA

SPEAKING AND WRITING FOR PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES

(ENGLISH 10B)

COURSE CODE - SECTION: LENG-1162 – YOUR SECTION

TYPE OF COURSE LANGUAGE X
COURSE LEVEL UNDERGRADUATE
CREDITS 2
YEAR - SEMESTER 2021-1A
PROFESSOR: INSERT
CLASS SCHEDULE Monday, Wednesday, Friday (in class) + 1.5
hours (online)
E-MAIL: INSERT
OFFICE: INSERT
OFFICE HOURS INSERT

DEPARTMENT, PROGRAM & COURSE MISSION STATEMENTS

DEPARTMENT MISSION STATEMENT:

The mission of the English programs of the Department of Languages and Culture of
Universidad de los Andes is to support learners enrolled in the programs offered by the
university in the development of highly proficient English language use, critical thinking skills,
cultural and interdisciplinary sensitivity, and autonomy to be successful in academic, social,
and professional situations by providing high quality teaching as demonstrated through
rigorous coursework and assessments.

ACADEMIC ENGLISH SUPPORT PROGRAM (AESP) MISSION STATEMENT:

The mission of the Academic English Support Program (AESP) is to support undergraduate
students at Los Andes in effectively completing academic and professional tasks in English
within the university and beyond, by providing students with high quality English instruction,
autonomous learning strategies, and critical thinking skills.
 PROGRAM AND COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

English 10B Course Description

English 10B is an English for Professional Purposes course taught within the Academic English
Support Program (AESP). This course allows students to develop their speaking and writing
skills, and language systems related to their university and future professional goals. English
10B focuses on a variety of different spoken and written genres commonly found in a
professional context outside the language classroom so that students are better prepared to
enter the world of work following graduation.

This course develops students’ speaking and communication skills when performing planned
spoken tasks that involve both speaking in public (storytelling in front of an audience) and
during a job/internship interview. Special emphasis is placed on communicative strategies,
the planning and preparation process, developing confidence and fluency, establishing
connection with the audience, as well as the importance of organization and concision with
respect to expressing ideas.

There is also a strong emphasis on developing students’ writing skills in a variety of

professional written genres. Students will be able to engage with, analyze and produce
different written texts in English that are commonly required of students about to embark on
a professional career. Specifically, this course will help students to develop the ability to
write an effective LinkedIn profile, resume document and cover letter. Throughout the
course, grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation are explicitly treated as key supporting
elements that form a part of these real-world writing and speaking tasks around which this
course is organized.

Academic English Support Program Description

The Academic English Support Program (AESP) provides undergraduate students at Los Andes
with the English language instruction they need to complete academic tasks in English within
the university, as well as to use English effectively in both academic and professional
situations outside the university. It is also designed to help students acquire the strategies
they need to continue learning English independently beyond the classroom. The Academic
English Support Program has eleven levels and two cycles: basic and and advanced. The
purpose of the basic cycle is to prepare students for an English-language academic
environment and to be able to read academic texts, which are required in their university
classes. Successful completion of the basic cycle also fulfills the university’s English reading
requirement. The purpose of the advanced cycle program is to provide English language
instruction that principally focuses on developing students’ speaking and writing skills, as well
as communication strategies. Successful completion of the advanced cycle fulfills the
university’s second language requirement.
Basic English Fundamentals LENG 1150
English 1 LENG 1151
English 2 LENG 1152
English 3 LENG 1153 Integrated Academic Skills
English 4 LENG 1154
English 5 LENG 1155
English 6 LENG 1156
Intermediate Pronunciation and Academic
English 7 LENG 1157
Communication
The Basics of Writing Academic
English 8 LENG 1158
English
Advanced Writing for Science and
English 9A Students LENG 1159
Engineering
Choose
One Writing for Humanities and Social
English 9B LENG 1160
Sciences
English 10A Students LENG 1161 Speaking for Academic Purposes
Choose Speaking and Writing for
English 10B One LENG 1162
Professional Purposes

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

Skill CEFR Entry CEFR Exit
Reading B2 B2+
Writing B2 B2+
Speaking B2- B2
Listening B2- B2
Grammar/ B2- B2
Vocabulary

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

 effectively describe a meaningful past experience using an appropriate organizational
structure, vocabulary and a range of narrative tenses.

 apply effective communication strategies and techniques to tell a personal story in an

engaging way.

 create an optimized LinkedIn profile to promote themselves online and search for
employment opportunities.

 create a resume for a specific and authentic professional opportunity that contains
appropriate information categories, language and register.

 write a tailored cover letter for a particular job or internship position using
appropriate content, layout, organization, language and register.

 effectively talk about themselves, their professional background and relevant

experience in an interview setting.

 understand and effectively respond to common interview questions in a professional

interview setting.

 effectively implement processes (outlining, script-writing, rehearsing) that help to

develop and prepare the content and delivery of a planned spoken presentation.

 identify and use pronunciation features including word stress, intonation and thought
groups that improve their intelligibility in a rehearsed spoken presentation.

 critically evaluate and reflect on both their peers’ and their own spoken and written
task performances in English.
 METHODOLOGY
DESCRIPCIÓN GENE
Task-Based Language Teaching: The underlying methodological approach to teaching on this
course is Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT), a stronger version of Communicative
Language Teaching (CLT) which promotes real-world communication and interaction by
focussing on tasks that provide learners with a genuine and meaningful reason to complete
them. Students are presented with linguistically and cognitively challenging tasks that will
help them to develop their competencies in different spoken genres. These tasks may be
completed in-class, online or as part of their independent communicative tasks.
The version of TBLT adopted for this course distinguishes between target tasks- tasks learners
complete beyond the classroom in the real world-and pedagogical tasks (or sub-tasks), which
are those simpler component pieces of a target task that form the core of the classroom
activity and gradually increase in complexity until they reach the full complexity level of the
climactic target task.

Focus on Form: While the main emphasis of this course is primarily on meaning, classroom
data and academic research studies support the view that an overt-focus on form in
communicative ELT programmes is effective at promoting second language acquisition.
Therefore, the course teachers are encouraged to draw attention to language form and form-
meaning connections when there is a communication difficulty during a lesson in which the
primary focus is on meaning. In addition, explicit instruction and practice in certain grammar
structures and new pronunciation features (prosody) are taught.

Peer and Self Evaluation: Self-evaluation is an important part of the learning process
because it enables students to effectively monitor their own progress and reflect on how they
can improve their speaking skills in the future. In this course, students will develop the ability
to reflect on their own spoken performance and incorporate feedback from the teacher and
their peers. As such, students will carry out a number of self-evaluation tasks to reflect
critically on their own performance and practise giving and receiving feedback on different
types of spoken tasks.

Computer Assisted Language Learning: The Brightspace Learning Platform (Bloque Neón) will
be used to promote autonomous practice of pronunciation in computer laboratory sessions,
preparation of speeches and for other tasks. Computer laboratory sessions and online classes
occur once a week.

Blended Learning: This is a blended course. This means that students will complete
coursework both in class and online (Bloque Neón), and the teacher will take attendance for
both. Each week, students have 4.5 hours in class, and 1.5 hours online. Online work is
important to successful completion of the course, and classroom activities will often depend
on doing online tasks first. The course teacher may set deadlines and assign grades for this
work. On Bloque Neón, the blended tasks for this course are found in the "Speaking
laboratory" section of the course page. Note that this is NOT 'homework'. It is classwork that
you complete in your own time, separate from any homework that may be assigned.
Content / Objectives
**Specific schedule of course readings, content, and project dates will be determined by
the professor and distributed to the students in each section.

EVALUATION

Assessment
Students’ work is marked on a scale of 0 to 5. 5.0 is the highest possible grade, and 3.0 is the
lowest passing grade. The final official grade is reported as either A (aprobrado/pass) for
grades of 3.0 and above or R (reprobado/fail) for grades below 3.0. Projects and coursework
have the following values:

NOTE: Please keep in mind that THERE IS NO LOS ANDES POLICY FOR AUTOMATICALLY
ROUNDING COURSE GRADES. The lowest passing grade is 3.0; any grade lower than 3.0 WILL
NOT BE a passing grade.

In the event that you wish to dispute a grade, please refer to the procedure explained in
articles 62 and 63 of the undergraduate student handbook (reglamento de estudiantes de
pregrado).

Grade Distribution

Grades for this course are distributed in the following manner:

Target Tasks Assignments & Quizzes Dates* Value

Online Quizzes: Weeks 1-3 10%

Storytelling Reading Quiz (5%)
Listening Quiz (5%)

Assessed Task:
Give a Short Story Presentation End of Week 3 20%
Online Quizzes: 10%
LinkedIn Profile Features of a LinkedIn Profile Quiz (5%) Week 4
& Resume Features of a Resume Quiz (5%) Week 5

Assessed Tasks:
Create a LinkedIn Profile (10%) End of Week 4 10%
Create a Resume Document (10%) End of Week 5 10%
Assessed Task:
Cover Letter Write a Cover Letter (10%) End of Week 6 10%

Online Quizzes Weeks 6 -7 10%

Interview Listening Quiz (5%)
Interview Vocabulary Quiz (5%)

Assessed Task:
Have a Job/Internship Interview Week 8 20%
Total 100%

*Dates are subject to change

DESCRIPCION GENERDIPGENERDESCIP
 COURSE STRUCTURE

WEEKS FOCUS ASSESSMENTS

1-3 Speaking Skills: Storytelling Task Give a Short Story
Presentation
QUIZ 1
QUIZ 2
4 Writing Skills: LinkedIn Profile Create a LinkedIn Profile
QUIZ 3
5 Writing Skills: Resume Create a Resume Document
QUIZ 4
6 Writing Skills: Cover Letter Write a Cover Letter

6-8 Speaking Skills: Job/Internship Interview Have a Job/Internship

Interview
QUIZ 5
QUIZ 6

Attendance
From the undergraduate student handbook (Reglamento de estudiantes de pregrado):

Artículo 42: Es facultativo de cada profesor controlar la asistencia de sus alumnos y

determinar las consecuencias de la inasistencia, si ésta es superior al 20%.

Artículo 43: Los parámetros para controlar la asistencia serán informados a los
estudiantes el primer día de clases, junto con el programa del curso, con el fin de que se
comprometan a respetarlos desde ese momento.

Parágrafo. El estudiante que desee justificar su ausencia deberá hacerlo ante el profesor
dentro de un término no superior a ocho (8) días hábiles siguientes a la fecha de ésta.
Serán excusas válidas las siguientes:
a) Incapacidades médicas.
b) Incapacidades expedidas por la Decanatura de Estudiantes.
c)Muerte del cónyuge o de un familiar hasta del segundo grado de consanguinidad.
d)Autorización para participar en eventos deportivos, expedida por la Decanatura de
Estudiantes.
e) Autorización para asistir a actividades académicas y culturales, expedida por la
respectiva dependencia académica.
f) Citación a diligencias judiciales, debidamente respaldada por el documento respectivo.
(Véansela Reglamentación de las incapacidades estudiantiles y el acuerdo 126 del
Consejo Académico, sobre participación estudiantil en eventos académicos y deportivos.)

All courses in the program will follow these regulations. Students who miss more than 20% of
classes will fail the course and will receive a grade of R (reprobado/fail). Instructors will
inform students of the procedure for checking and counting attendance on the first day of
class. Students are responsible for keeping track of their own attendance.

política de ajustes razonables y política de momentos difíciles

El/la estudiante debe expresarle a su profesor(a) por correo y de manera oportuna las
dificultades que está teniendo. Estas pueden ser barreras de conectividad,
de acceso a recursos tecnológicos suficientes, así como barreras de salud física y mental de
él/ella o de sus familiares que se agudizan a causa de las consecuencias derivadas de la
pandemia y el confinamiento.

REFERENCES

Powel, Mark. (2011). Dynamic Presentations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Powel, Mark. (2011). Presenting in English: How to Give Successful
Presentations. Boston, Massachusetts Heinle Cengage Learning. 
Appleby, Rachel. (2013) International Express Third Edition Upper Intermediate Student Book
Pack. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.