Course description

Title of the Teaching Unit

Economic Issues, Corporate Communication and Academic Skills

Code of the Teaching Unit

12ULG14

Academic year

2024 - 2025

Cycle

Number of credits

Number of hours

Quarter

1-2

Weighting

Site

Anjou

Teaching language

French

Teacher in charge

ECHEVIN Laurence

Objectives and contribution to the program

The general objectives of this course aim at the last bullet point of the teaching profile and learning outcomes of the Bachelor and Master cycles: "to be able to communicate orally and in writing in several languages" (LG5)

In addition, they also aim at LG1 (acquiring tools and knowledge for the professional world) and LG3 (openness to the world).

This English course is designed for students doing the bilingual (French-English) Bachelor’s degree in Business Management. It is divided into three compulsory modules:

1. Academic writing (including a discussion essay on a corporate or socio-economic topic).

2. Corporate and socio-economic topics (focus on speaking, listening and reading skills, activation of business vocabulary in relation to corporate and socio-economic topics).

3. Effective meetings skills (focus on meeting practice, language of meetings & minutes writing), phrasal verbs, idiomatic expressions (focus on speaking and advanced vocab).

Objectives
The course English - Economic issues, corporate communication and Academic skills - aims at improving the language and communication skills of students both in corporate and academic contexts, and focuses on both oral and written (academic and professional) communication.

The course introduces students to business vocabulary related to various corporate and economic issues. These are mainly issues students are exposed to through other courses taught in English as part of the bilingual programme (economics, finance …).
Moreover, by making students fully operational in English, the programme increases the chances for international exchanges during their studies as well as their employability on a local and international fast-changing labour market.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Students should have successfully completed the first-year (Block 1) course "English corporate communication skills and socio-economic issues" and have reached a B2 level as described by the European Common Framework for Languages of the Council of Europe. During the first year, they were also introduced to corporate communication, socio-economic issues and academic writing. These knowledge and skills are necessary to further progress in the second and third years of the bilingual programme (Block 2 & Block 3).

Content

The course is organized in three modules:

First term:

1- Academic writing and discussion essay (focus on writing skills in an academic context).

2- Corporate and socio-economic topics (focus on speaking, listening and reading skills, activation of business vocabulary in relation to corporate and socio-economic topics).

First and second terms:

3. Effective meetings skills (focus on meeting practice, language of meetings & minutes writing), phrasal verbs, idiomatic expressions (focus on speaking and advanced vocab).

The modules are taught by different teachers.

Teaching methods

Assessment method

The course is based on a permanent evaluation process throughout the academic year:

Q1
Permanent evaluation throughout the following modules:
1 - Academic Writing - Discussion essay assessed in class (or in January if the student has presented a medical certificate to justify his absence).
2 - Corporate & socio-economic issues (short presentations, debates, vocabulary exercises, working on a research paper…).
3 - Efficient meetings & advanced vocab (meetings practice...)

January exam:
• Oral exam: based on a research paper prepared by the students during the first term
• Written exam: Advanced business vocabulary (reference book) + advanced vocab related to module 2 (socio-economic topics) and module 3 (efficient meetings & advanced vocab, phrasal verbs and other phrases...) + grammatical items (such as modals at an advanced level, the reported speech, phrasal verbs...)
[+ writing a discussion essay in January if the student was absent in class with a medical certificate to justify his absence].

Q2
Permanent evaluation throughout the second part of module 3 - Effective meetings and advanced vocab – Part 2 (focus on meeting practices, language of meetings & minutes writing, revising the reported speech). Students will have to perform both speaking and writing tasks (taking part in an assessed meeting in April/May and writing the minutes of that meeting afterwards).

No exam in June – Evaluation based on continuous assessment throughout the three modules and the January exam.

References

All documents will be posted on Moodle throughout the year.

We will work with the following reference book for vocabulary:
Title: Business Vocabulary in Use: Advanced Author(s): Mascull ISBN: 9781316628232 Date published: NOVEMBER 2017
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

The CORE project. The Economy.

Retrieved from https://core-econ.org/the-economy/book/text/0-3-contents.html

European Framework for Languages. Retrieved from

https://rm.coe.int/cefr-companion-volume-with-new-descriptors-2018/1680787989