IL3APRN: Advanced Oracy Skills for Politics and International Relations

Module code: IL3APRN

Module provider: International Study and Language Institute

Credits: 0

Level: Level 3 (Honours)

When you'll be taught: Semester 2

Module convenor: Mr Daniel Devane, email: d.devane@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2024/5

Available to visiting students: No

Talis reading list: No

Last updated: 21 May 2024

Overview

Module aims and purpose

This non-credit bearing module is delivered at the University of Reading for students who are studying degrees delivered by the Department of Politics and International Relations (PIR) at undergraduate level. It is primarily designed for international students whose first language is not English and who are studying for a double degree at Reading and at MGIMO Moscow and are required to complete the State Exam in Moscow.  

This module focuses on the advanced spoken communication skills (‘oracy’ skills) required for effective communication in academic contexts, specifically those needed to successfully complete a range of Level 6 spoken communicative assessments. This developmental enhancement has been designed to be transferrable, not only to other modules and assessments, both concurrent and future at the University of Reading and at MGIMO Moscow, but also to a range of employment contexts related to PIR. Thus, the module helps facilitate the students’ assessment task(s) and overall performance in their undergraduate PIR studies and aims to enhance their oracy self-confidence.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to: 

1. Employ relevant text-mediating strategies to communicate ideas and arguments from a range of Politics and International Relations (PIR) sources orally.
2. Employ relevant oracy skills to plan, organise and deliver content of spoken genres such as presentations, debates, and discussions.
3. Identify oracy techniques used by expert speakers to communicate (complex) ideas clearly and effectively.
4. Use tools and techniques to analyse language, and how it is used to construct stance and argument, in a range of PIR sources.

Module content

Classes will focus on: 

• Reflection on how oracy is summative assessed, including analysis and review of marking descriptors and rubrics from a range of spoken assessments, as well as identification of key characteristics of spoken-language genres.   
• Analysis and application of key physical, linguistic, cognitive, and social / emotional oracy skills using Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) toolkits where applicable.  
• The use of SFL toolkits in the analysis of text and spoken sources as well as in the production of students’ discourse. This includes cohesion, conjunction, topic & taxonomies, and evaluation & engagement.   
• Introduction to, and practical application of, oral fluency tools to show effective cognitive, utterance, and perceived fluency as well as how to mitigate errors.

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

The module blends a ‘genre’ approach, taking the social purpose of exemplars as the starting point to explicate organisation / structure features, with a ‘systemic functional linguistics’ approach to discourse analysis and language features.

It takes a discipline-specific task-based approach to language and literacy development using example rubrics and published Politics and International Relations specific sources in classroom tasks as a cycle of input and practice.

Teaching is learner-centred, taking a task-based approach to analysis of example texts and transcripts from the target genres, guided ‘noticing’ of key organisational and linguistic features in context and scaffolded reading-to-speak exercises.

The in-person delivery of the module will be supported by digital tools in the classroom where appropriate (e.g. short interactive learning tasks and/or quizzes).

Study hours

At least 16 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

There is no assessment on this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

There is no assessment on this module.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

Sessions will take a task-based approach, enabling students to receive feedback from the instructor and from other students during class discussions. 

Reassessment

Additional costs