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Staffing

Examiner:

Other requisites

Students must have an IELTS of 6.0 across all bands and have successful completed a minimum of the equivalent of Australian Grade 12.

Rationale

Today’s 21st century work and learning environments demand an accurate, fluent, and flexible range of contextually appropriate communication skills. This course develops students’ capacity to communicate clearly and sufficiently in English, to meet the more complex communication demands of tertiary studies, in both face to face and digital environments, with support at an early independent level (CEFR B1+ level, IELTS 6.5, Pearson 58 or TOEFL iBT 87). It also aims to enable students to engage in the academic requirements of a range of USQ degree programs and to enable articulation to ACS 2.

Synopsis

In this course, activities in English have been organised from an integrated communicative language teaching approach for academic reading, writing, listening, and speaking processes, purposes, attitudes, and strategies. Students' command of the English language should develop to a degree that supports an emerging expression of `voice' and enables students to begin to manage the comprehension, construction and delivery of a range of familiar and some non-familiar academic texts for routine purposes and audiences. Communicative English language activities are designed to develop students' capacity to integrate academic reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills reliably with some confidence. Special focus is given to developing the precision and efficiency of a students' English language skills to an intermediate level through emphasis on enabling skills such as grammar, oral fluency, pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary, coherence and cohesion, and test taking strategies.

Objectives

Topics

Text and materials required to be purchased or accessed

Reference materials

Student workload expectations

Assessment details

Important assessment information

1. Attendance requirements:
   
   It is the students' responsibility to attend and participate appropriately in all activities (such as lectures and tutorials) scheduled for them, and to study all material provided to them or required to be accessed by them to maximise their chance of meeting the objectives of the course and to be informed of course-related activities and administration.
   
   
2. Requirements for students to complete each assessment item satisfactorily:
   
   To satisfactorily complete an individual assessment item a student must achieve at least 50% of the marks for that item.
   
   
3. Penalties for late submission of required work:
   
   Students should refer to the Assessment Procedure (point 4.2.4)
   
   
4. Requirements for student to be awarded a passing grade in the course:
   
   To be assured of receiving a passing grade a student must obtain at least 50% of the total weighted marks available for the course (i.e. the Primary Hurdle), and have satisfied the Secondary Hurdle (Proficiency), i.e. must submit each assessment item and obtain at least 50% of the total weighted marks available for each of the assessment items in the course.
   
   Supplementary assessment may be offered where a student has undertaken all of the required summative assessment items and has passed the Primary Hurdle but failed to satisfy the Secondary Hurdle (Supervised), or has satisfied the Secondary Hurdle (Supervised) but failed to achieve a passing Final Grade by 5% or less.
   
   4.2 To be awarded a passing grade for a supplementary assessment item (if applicable), a student must achieve at least 50% of the available marks for the supplementary assessment item as per the Assessment Procedure
   
   
   
5. Method used to combine assessment results to attain final grade:
   
   The final grades for students will be assigned on the basis of the aggregate of the weighted marks obtained for each of the summative items for the course.
   
   
6. Examination information:
   
   Not applicable.
   
   
7. Examination period when Deferred/Supplementary examinations will be held:
   
   Not applicable.
   
   
8. University Student Policies:
   
   Students should read the USQ policies: Definitions, Assessment and Student Academic Misconduct to avoid actions which might contravene University policies and practices. These policies can be found at .
   
   

Assessment notes

1. Referencing in assignments must comply with the recommended referencing system. This system should be used by students to format details of the information sources they have cited in their work. The recommended style to be used is defined by the USQ library's referencing guide. This guide can be found at .
   
   

Evaluation and benchmarking

1. conforms to the USQ Policy on Evaluation of Teaching, Courses and Programs to ensure ongoing monitoring and systematic improvement.
2. forms part of the Advanced Communication Skills Program and is benchmarked against the internal USQ accreditation/reaccreditation processes which include (i) stringent standards in the independent accreditation of its academic programs, (ii) close integration between business and academic planning, and (iii) regular and rigorous review.