Technical English and Learning Skills COMM 0008

Upon successful completion, the student will be able to:

Writing skills

• Draft, revise, and edit extended texts such as sustained series of paragraphs comprising a college level report.
• Identify and correct to eliminate all but occasional grammatical and lexical errors.
• Use a wide range of complex structures and a good control over sentence patterns.
• Use a wide range of vocabulary appropriate to the formality, level, subject area, topic and task.
• Set and adjust goals according to audience, purpose, form, and organization.

Reading skills

• Comprehend a wide variety of lengthy complex material (e.g. technical manuals, journal articles, formal and informal reports).
• Take effective study notes from readings.
• Comprehend a complete range of structures to be able to fully interact with the text.

Speaking skills

• Participate in a variety of complex academic activities or situations involving multiple purposes and participants (e.g. group work, discussions, seminars, presentations).
• Respond to questions and feedback and maintain or extend an exchange.
• Use a wide range of vocabulary, idioms, and colloquial expressions to handle most study situations typical of academic environments.
• Use a wide range of structures fluently and appropriately with very few errors which interfere with meaning.

Listening skills

• Understand conversations, discussions, instructions, lectures at a normal rate of speech, despite unfamiliar or low frequency vocabulary.
• Understand natural speech incorporating changes in rate of delivery and a full range of structures.
• Understand a range of vocabulary, idioms, colloquial expressions and technical terminology to handle most study situations typical of an academic environment.
• Take effective notes from oral academic discourse (e.g. lectures, presentations, videos).

Effective as of Fall 2003