ILMAEFN-Academic English for Finance

Module Provider: International Study and Language Institute
Number of credits: 0 [0 ECTS credits]
Level:7
Terms in which taught: Autumn term module
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2020/1

Email: v.collins@reading.ac.uk

Type of module:

Summary module description:

This module focuses on the academic language and literacy skills needed to perform more effectively at postgraduate level in Finance. It is primarily designed for students whose first language is not English. The module closely maps to core Finance modules to develop students’ academic language, literacy and study skills for successful participation in their degree programmes and completion of assessed coursework tasks.

The module is non-credit-bearing and designed to support students’ disciplinary study, the expectation being that students will apply the skills they have learnt on ILMAEFN in their credit-bearing work. Therefore, for the module itself   there is no assessment or expectation of independent study hours.

Aims:

This module aims to support Finance students following any of the 10 postgraduate programmes at the ICMA Centre. It is for international students whose first language is not English, and focuses on the key academic language and skills needed to successfully complete undergraduate coursework assignments. 

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

• accurately interpret coursework assignment instructions/briefs


• employ task-appropriate organisational patterns at paragraph, section and whole-text level


• use a variety of task-appropriate techniques to incorporate and comment on the views of others in their writing


• accurately use the referencing conventions for their discipline.


• employ task-appropriate language 


• critically evaluate their own and others’ writing


• read disciplinary texts employing appropriate reading skills and strategies to critically engage with them


• deploy listening and note-taking skills to record important ideas and information


• communicate fluently and accurately within their discipline by building their subject-specific vocabulary and grammar

Assessable learning outcomes:

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Additional outcomes:

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Outline content:

Classes will have the following foci :

• Recognising the key written coursework assignment genre(s) in Finance e.g. the group financial report  :
  
  
  
  • expected structural & argumentation patterns and how these differ according to question type 
  
  
  • reading-to-write and source use and synthesis processes
  
  
  
  


• Grammar for academic and professional communication, including verb tense and form, clause and sentence structure


• Building discipline-specific vocabulary knowledge for Finance.


• Reading skills and strategies for dealing with academic, professional, and  news sources  such as company and government reports, financial news articles, directed text books including
  
  
  
  • careful reading to build gradual understanding of ideas and relationships between them 
  
  
  • strategic reading to identify:  ;
    
    
    
    • specific sources or concepts (search reading)
    
    
    • overall nature and structure of text (skimming)
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Listening skills and strategies for short online audio visual media e.g. news reports, explanations of financial concepts. 

Global context:

This module supports internationalisation at Reading by facilitating successful and equal inclusion of students whose first language is not English in UK degree programme study.

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:

The module takes a discipline-specific approach to language and literacy development using example student texts and published Finance specific sources in classroom tasks. 

Teaching will be learner-centred, taking a task-based approach to :

• guided ‘noticing’ of key organisational, argumentative and linguistic features in context


• exercises practicing use of relevant lexical/grammatical items


• s caffolded reading tasks


• scaffolded written language tasks 

Summative assessment- Examinations:

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Summative assessment- Coursework and in-class tests:

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Formative assessment methods:

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Penalties for late submission:

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Assessment requirements for a pass:

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Reassessment arrangements:

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Additional Costs (specified where applicable):

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Last updated: 4 June 2020