ATS1340 - English for academic purposes - 2018

This unit will provide students with the opportunity to develop existing skills in the following areas: reading, writing, discussion, note-taking, locating sources, referencing, exam revision, writing critiques, and familiarity with key concepts in the humanities and social sciences. This unit makes these skills its focus and these skills are taught around and through a generalist, foundational or cross disciplinary content with reference to broad conceptual frameworks relevant to Arts units. This unit may be of benefit to: International students, students who have completed VCE ESL, mature-age students and students who wish to focus on the acquisition of academic language and study skills.

The study skills unit introduces or re-familiarises students with key abilities required for the Bachelor of Arts degree. On successful completion, students will be able to:

1. listen and take notes in a variety of academic settings;
2. engage in spoken discussions;
3. develop efficient reading techniques;
4. locate and scrutinise sources;
5. display an understanding of written assessment tasks and complete an outline or plan for a task;
6. report the views of other scholars, including the use of various referencing systems: Harvard, APA and Oxford;
7. paraphrase and incorporate others' ideas appropriately;
8. evaluate the views of other scholars by the following means: use of reporting verbs, summarising and evaluating, comparing and contrasting competing positions, indicating authorial stance, agreeing and disagreeing with published sources;
9. build an academic argument through clear argument structure, topic placement and framing of key issues;
10. recognise key features of Western scholarship, e.g. individuality, ownership of ideas;
11. recognise cross-cultural perspectives on academic learning;
12. practise effective proof-reading, editing, summarising and revision techniques;
13. develop an understanding of the differences between written academic prose and spoken or colloquial English.

Within semester assessment: 80% + Exam: 20%

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

See also Unit timetable information

Arts enrichment units