Course manual 2020/2021

Course content

From the second year onwards, Future Planet Studies is fully English, i.e. all study materials, lectures, work groups and tests are in English, and you are encouraged to write your exams and assignments in English and participate in academic discussions in that language.

In order to adequately prepare you for the transition to an all-English education, we have contracted the British Language Training Center (BLTC), and set up a tailor-made program for the FPS-programme. We have tried to optimally align the Academic English course with the rest of the FPS program, i.e. the writing and presenting assignments are related to relevant topics within Future Planet Studies and connected to assignments that you’ll work on in the parallel courses within the Quality of Life semester.

POSSIBILITY TO GET AN EXEMPTION FROM TAKING THE ACADEMIC ENGLISH COURSE

Students who priorly have received high level education in the English language can apply to the exam committee to get dispensation for Academic English (3 EC) via

https://uvasocialsciences.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3ekzYZbXN32eHGJ.

You’ll need to be able to show evidence in the form of:

An International Baccalaureate certificate at C1 level minimally.
A TOEFL certificate indicating you successfully completed the TOEFL test with a score of ≥ 95, at C1 level minimally.
An IELTS certificate indicating you successfully completed the IELTS test with a score of ≥ 7, at C1 level minimally.
Evidence showing that you followed several English taught courses at university level.
Note: If the exam committee grants you dispensation on the basis of (a) course(s) taught at another university, we assume that at least 3 EC of this course will replace the 3 EC course of Academic English within your Future Planet Studies programme, i.e. that you still will have earned the necessary minimum of 180 EC required to receive a bachelor diploma.

Study materials

Literature

Materials will be made available during the work groups or via Canvas.

Objectives

This course aims to prepare students for participation in academic discourse in English.
It will improve their skills in writing academic texts, giving academic presentations and following lectures.

Teaching methods

Werkcollege
Zelfstudie

Prior to the course, you are asked to submit a short writing assignment. Make sure you submit the assignment before the indicated deadline, as you will receive individual feedback and your texts will serve as a starting point of the course.

The course exists of ten workgroups in which you will actively practice your English speaking, writing and presentations skills. You will receive feedback from your teacher on your work and will learn from the peer feedback you are given and asked to give to your peer students during class.

There will be six workgroups on academic writing in English, of which two will be devoted to learning how to write a summary (assignment 1) This is followed by four workgroups on learning how to give a presentation in English (assignment 2). The last of these four sessions, in which you are asked to give a Presentation yourself, is the assessment moment for assignment 2. The final part of the course, which also consists of four workgroups, will be dedicated to learning how to write a concept research report (assignment 3).

The schedule of the course can be found at www.datanose.nl

Learning activities

Component	Amount	Duration	Total
Participation in work groups	10	2	20
Working on preparatory assignments for the work groups			12
Writing a summary (including the preparatory activity: listening to a selection of TED lectures)	1		10
Preparing and giving a Presentation	1	10 +2	12
Writing an individual concept Research Report	1		30
Total			84

Note: Here only the work load that is implied in writing and presenting in English is taken into consideration. The more substantial work implied in the assignments is taken into account in the study load of the Quality of Life courses, with which the assignments are aligned.

Attendance

Programme's requirements concerning attendance (OER-B):

Participation in fieldwork is compulsory and cannot be replaced by assignments or other courses.
In case of practical sessions, the student is obliged to attend at least of 90% of the sessions and to prepare himself adequately, unless indicated otherwise in the course manual. In case the student attends less than 90%, the practical sessions should be redone entirely.
In case of tutorials/seminars with assignments, the student is obliged to attend at least 7 out of 8 seminars and to prepare thoroughly for these meetings, unless indicated otherwise in the course manual. If the course has more than 8 seminars, the student can miss up to 1 extra meeting for every (part of) 8 tutorials/seminars. If the students attends less than the mandatory tutorials/seminars, the course cannot be completed.

Additional requirements for this course:

Each student needs to be present and well prepared for at least 90% of the work groups.

In case you missed more than 10% of the work groups (i.e. more than 1), you’ll be excluded from the course and have to re-take this courses, unless the exam committee decides differently.

As indicated, in this course students are trained in academic English up to level of C1.

If you think you are eligible for dispensation for this course on the grounds of earlier acquired competencies, you can submit a request to the exam committee (see the instructions in the first section of this Course Guide).

Assessment

Item and weight	Details
Final grade

Your attained level of Academic English is assessed via three assignments:

Assignment 1: Writing a Summary on the basis of TED-lectures that students can watch (Max. 900 words).

The Assessment Form for the writing assignments, i.e. the CERF writing band descriptors can be found in the folder Assignments & Assessment of the Canvas site for this course.

Assignment 2: Giving a Presentation: You are asked to give a mini presentation of the stakeholder's position you represented during the stakeholder dialogue organized in the parallel course Kwaliteit van Leven. (Those of you who performed the role of chair can pick any position you prefer in your presentation).

The assessment of your mastery of English will be based on:

The level of oral mastery of the English language as reflected in the individual turns in the presentation. (Note: The student will NOT read a previously prepared text but will give a proper presentation that rests on some guiding bullet points only).
The capacity to give proper answers to the questions posed by the audience.
The capacity to give a clear summary of the issues that were addressed during the presentation.

		Insufficient	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9	10	Excellent
A: Presentation Skills Verbal/Non-Verbal/Paralingual
§ Word use, verbal skills, clarity § Gestures § Interaction with audience, eye-contact § Articulation, intonation, tempo
		Insufficient	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9	10	Excellent
B: Structure
§ Clear introduction with notification of structure § Logical composition § Division and interaction among speakers § Good transitions § Subparts concluded with summary?
		Insufficient	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9	10	Excellent
C: Support Powerpoint / Sheets
§ Utility § Number § Readable § Understandable
	Insufficient			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8	9	10	Excellent
D: Content
§ Clear introduction of the research question & attractive opening § Clear presentation of the results, i.e. balanced assessment of arguments pro and contra § Conclusion: Good summary & Answers to the Research Question § Recommendations § Attractive final sheet with tickling question or claim § Discussion in Response to questions from audience & Reflection

Additionally, the writing and speaking band descriptors can be found on Canvas, in the folder Assignments & Assessment.

Assignment 3: Writing a concept Research Report, based on scientific literature and written in proper academic English with convincing underlying argumentation. The table below shows which components of the final Research Report need to be addresses in your individual concept.

Concept Research Report (individual work)

(maximally 2 pages A4, ± 900 words)

Final Research Report (group work)

(max. 7 pages, ± 3000 words per group)

· Short introduction

· Theoretical framework

· Discussion of interview selection and results

· Critical Reflection and Evaluation of the proposed research instrument

· Conclusion

· Cover page

· Index

· Short introduction

· Theoretical framework

· Operationalization table

· Code scheme

· Discussion of interview selection and results

· Critical Reflection and Evaluation of the proposed research instrument

· Improved operationalization table

· Conclusion

· Literature list

· Appendix with coded interview transcript

Note: Whereas the final Research Report for the Quality of Life course is a group effort, your assignment for Academic English is explicitly an individual assignment. So make sure that you work on your own contribution to the group’s report, and that your individual concept differs from the individual concepts of your group members. You are referred to paragraph 10, on Fraud or Plagiarism, to review the repercussions for offenders.

Assessment diagram

Leerdoel:	Toetsonderdeel 1:	Toetsonderdeel 2:
#1.
#2.
#3.
#4.
#5.
#6.
#7.

Students that were enrolled in the course in previous years

If you do not succeed in passing the course, the following rules apply:

	Took part in the course …
	…last year	…2+ years before
Attendance requirements	Attendance requirements may be lifted, but this needs to be decided by your work group teacher. Take up contact with your teacher within a month after the re-sit (in the first week of July) and make sure you get a written declaration of the agreement.	No longer valid, you’ll have to meet the requirements mentioned in paragraph 7.
Assignment 1 Assignment 2 Assignment 3	Sufficient grade remains valid under the condition that you contact your teacher within a month after the re-sit (in the first week of July) and make sure you get a written declaration of the agreement.	No longer valid.

Inspection of assessed work

Up to 20 working days after the announcement of the results you have the right of inspection of your work (all forms of assessment). You can request a copy of your work by e-mailing the course coordinator.

Assignments

Table 2: Weights and deadlines of the various assessments

Component	Deadline	Weight	Minimum grade	Compen-sable?	Resit
Writing a Summary		15%	B2 level	No
Presentation		35%	B2 level	No
Writing a Research Report		50%	B2 level	No

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Weeknummer	Onderwerpen	Studiestof
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Timetable

The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.

Additional information

You need to register for the course on Academic English via the Student Information System (SIS). When you have registered for the course you are automatically registered for the examination of this course as well.

You can only participate in a re-sit (or re-examination of assignments) when you have registered for the course and have met all requirements (i.e. presence requirements, active participation in work groups, handing in assignments before the indicated deadlines etc.).

Important information such as literature, sheets of the lectures, assignments and unforeseen changes in the schedule, will be communicated via Canvas.

Last year's course evaluation

Most important findings from the student evaluation

Strong assets / Positive remarks about the course

· Most students indicated they learned a lot from the work groups

Weak points / Negative remarks about the course

· There were quite some students who remarked that for them, the level was too low.

· The position paper assignment was considered not clear enough

· Some students commented that they would have liked to receive feedback on their work earlier

Remarks and Recommendations of the OpleidingsCommissie (in addition to points mentioned above)

Teacher’s and coordinator’s Evaluation

· This year, students only found out half way through the course that they could get a dispensation for the course if they had former high level education in Academic English. Consequently, there was a lot of pressure on the administrative staff to deal with dispensation requests and put them before the exam committee, and we had a relatively large legal drop out of class from students who started off in work groups but got their dispensation after a couple of weeks.

· Students seemed to appreciate the link of the assignments with the content of the parallel courses, but some of them seem to have expected that in the Academic English course, it would also about content instead of purely about language.

· UvA definitely needs to get contact information of the BLTC teachers beforegand, i.e. from the start of the course it has to be clear who responds to questions from students (for example when students are sick etc.).

· BLTC must grade on a scale from 1-10 and NOT on a scale from 1-9, as one of the teachers did). This caused a lot of confusion under students and a lot of extra work for the administrative staff to put things right again.

Points of improvement

· The possibility of exemption is going to be communicated in advance to students. This will solve the issue that students only half way through the course found out that they can get a dispensation.

· As of next year, the work groups Academic English will be organized over the whole course of semester 2. This means there will a work groups every 2 weeks instead of every week. This enables the teachers to give feedback on students work timely enough for them to be able to profit from it (i.e. before they have deadlines for the parallel courses which the assignments relate to).

· The assignment on writing a Position Paper will be changed in writing a concept Research Report.

· UvA will get the necessary contact information of the BLTC teachers.

Contact information

Coordinator

dr. Coyan Tromp

For questions about meetings and assignments, you take up contact with your work group teacher.

For other questions you can contact the coordinator for the course, Lucie Le Poidevin via email (lucie.lepoidevin@googlemail.com).

Owner	Bachelor Future Planet Studies
Coordinator	dr. Coyan Tromp
Part of	Bachelor Future Planet Studies, year 1