Course description

This new, tailor-made course aims at PhD students whose written English is not yet up to standard, for instance to be able to participate in Publishing in English (= CEFR B2+ / IELTS 6,5).

In seven two-hour sessions, five grammatical problem areas are targeted. The course is open to all PhD students and is, given the problem areas, particularly suitable for Asian or Eastern European PhD students.

The sessions are workshops. On the basis of a written text by the participants during the first session, each will be given an advice by the instructor as to which of the workshops to attend.

You will be charged per attended workshop + an introductory and evaluation session (EUR 40,00 each). The number of credits is dependent on the number of attended workshops (max 1 ECTS, 3-4 attended sessions = 0,5 ECTS)

These workshops are centered around

1) correct use of articles

2) concord and subject/verb agreement

3) punctuation and sentence structure

4) verb phrases and tenses

5) paragraph development

6) refresher session of all topics covered

After the final workhop, an evaluation session will be held during which you again have to produce a text, which will be judged in the final meeting.

Participants will receive course material to use and are expected to practice with in their own time.

Course objectives

Detailed course description 

• Workshop 1: orientation on grammatical difficulties, plus a test, in which participants will be asked to write a 500-word general academic text under some time pressure.
• Workshop 2: This workshop will focus on when to use a, an, the or no article – understandably difficult if your first language has no articles
• Workshop 3: English has fairly strict concord rules – singular with singular and plural with plural - but this may work differently in your first language.
• Workshop 4: Do you know exactly how to use commas? Do you know how to structure your sentences in English so that the reader will understand them the way you meant him to?
• Workshop 5: Do you know when to use We analysed and when to use We have analysed? Do you know when verb forms can be left out? Do you know that the passive equivalent of We have tested x is X has been tested?
• Workshop 6: Why is a text structured in paragraphs? Do you know how to structure a paragraph properly, so that the reader can follow your line of reasoning easily? Can you use linking words and linking phrases correctly?
• Workshop 7: refresher session of all topics covered to prepare for the evaluation/test session
• Workshop 8: Evaluation/test session: You will once again be asked to write a general academic text under some time pressure.

ECTS

1

Available methods of payment

• Projectcode (e.g. ITB)
• Payment by money transfer
• Extern (not Faculty Science and Engineering)