CERTIFICATE IN ENGLISH PROFICIENCY 

First Semester 

Second Semester 

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS 

LANG 001:          WRITING SKILLS I                                                                                                      (3 Credits) 

This is a basic writing skills course designed to gradually introduce the students to continuous or paragraph writing in the English language. The dominant technique employed in the course is guided writing, which is intended to boost the confidence of the students, particularly those who have no previous experience of writing in English. By the end of this course, the students should have improved their paragraph-writing ability in English, developed the ability to construct paragraphs on the basis of topic, unity, coherence and cohesion, and developed the ability to recognize incorrect grammar and word choice in sentences and paragraphs. 

LANG 002:          WRITING SKILLS II                                                                                                     (3 Credits)  

This course is intended to introduce the students to the practice of academic writing in the English language. Students will be taught to write thematically beyond the paragraph level, and be able to handle descriptive and analytical writing for academic purposes. By the end of this course, the student should have acquired a heightened sense of awareness of the special demands of academic writing, developed a better understanding of the application of various rhetorical functions in English, including description, definition, exemplification, and classification, be better able to produce coherently written paragraphs, and should have been exposed to a variety of samples of academic writing. 

LANG 003:          READING & COMPREHENSION SKILLS I                                                               (3 Credits)  

This course is designed to encourage critical thinking and reading, and to promote vocabulary building by teaching essential vocabulary in context. The students also benefit from extensive reading activities. By the end of this course, the students should have improved their ability to independently read and understand general English texts, developed the ability to make appropriate inferences and deductions from texts, improved their ability to read and analyse academic and general texts in a critical manner, acquired the ability to work out the meanings of unfamiliar words through the use of context clues, and increased their overall reading speed.  

LANG 004:          READING & COMPREHENSION SKILLS II                                                             (3 Credits)  

This higher-level reading comprehension component of the proficiency programme aims to develop the reading and comprehension speed of the students up to an intermediate level through the combined use of skimming, scanning and detailed reading of authentic English texts. Note-taking and summarizing techniques will also be taught as a means of developing reading and comprehension abilities. By the end of this course, the students should have the ability to skim the main ideas of a text as a pre-reading technique, scan a text for specific information, make informed guesses of the meanings of unfamiliar words with the help of context, take notes of the salient points of relevant paragraphs in a text as a means of achieving comprehension, and demonstrate comprehension of a text by correctly summarizing the main ideas. 

LANG 005:          LISTENING & SPEAKING SKILLS I                                                                           (3 Credits)  

This course is designed to fill gaps in the listening and speaking competence of the students and provide the necessary finish to any rough edges in their pronunciation and improve their familiarity with a variety of English accents. The course will provide ample opportunities for the trainees for debates, role-play, and dialogue practice in the language laboratory. By the end of this course, the trainees should have improved their fluency and ability to engage in social conversations in English, improved their ability to engage in English conversations with native speakers of English, improved the accuracy of their English pronunciation, and acquired the basics of using persuasive arguments in English in support of a position they have taken in a discussion or debate.  

LANG 006:          LISTENING & SPEAKING SKILLS II                                                                         (3 Credits)  

This course aims to raise the listening and speaking competence of the students from intermediate to a higher intermediate level. By the end of this course, the students should have the ability to engage in conversations in English dealing with problem-solving, understand and respond appropriately to English speakers with different accents, deliver short presentations, and use higher-level persuasive arguments in English in support of a position they have taken in a discussion or debate.  

LANG 007:          STRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE I                                                        (2 Credits)  

This component of the Certificate of English Proficiency programme is a basic grammar course designed to build upon and develop the existing grammar skills of the students. It is designed to concentrate on the functions of the English verb in its three basic tense forms. By the end of this course, the students should have generally improved the grammatical accuracy of their spoken and written sentences, grasped the correct use of English articles; the simple, continuous, perfect and future tenses; sentence patterns and pronouns, including the interrogative, negative, wh-questions; the use of prepositions of place, movement and time; the modal system in English; passive sentences; and relative clauses.  

LANG 008:          STRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE II                                                       (2 Credits)  

This is an English grammar course designed to consolidate the students’ existing grammar skills, and to raise their awareness of possible pitfalls in grammatical usage in conversation and writing. By the end of this course, the students should have developed the ability to recognize incorrect grammar and word choice in sentences and paragraphs, improved the grammatical accuracy of their spoken and written sentences, developed an awareness of the functions and correct use of modals, interrogatives, negation, and passive structures in the English language.  

LANG 009:          LITERATURE IN ENGLISH I                                                                                          (4 Credits)  

This course is designed to enable the students to appreciate literature in the English language. The three branches of literature, namely drama, poetry, and prose, are explored through private reading, class discussion and performance. By the end of this course, the students should have acquired enough appreciation of drama, poetry and prose in the English language to motivate them to read for pleasure, built up their English vocabulary and stock of English expressions to a degree that should make them become independent readers, developed ways to apply the rules learned in grammar lessons in their reading and vice versa, gained some exposure to the cultures of English speakers, as represented in their writing. 

LANG 012            LITERATURE IN ENGLISH II                                                                                 (4 Credits)

This course is a continuation of LANG 009 (Literature in English I). The course is designed to deepen and widen the appreciation of the three branches of Literature, namely Drama Prose and Poetry. Essentially, the course is to help enhance a greater use of English vocabulary and its construction. Above all, the course is meant to expose students to other cultures where English is the main vehicle for communication purposes.

UGRC 110:   ACADEMIC WRITING I 

The course orientates fresh students to understand the expectations of lecturers concerning university-level reading and writing assignments and equips them with the skills and strategies to meet the requirements. In furtherance of this goal, students will be taught the characteristics of academic writing as opposed to non-academic writing. Academic reading skills associated with the writing process will be considered along with skills related to writing with clarity and coherence. These will be consolidated through practical tasks. Also, grammar review exercises aimed at firming up students’ knowledge of grammar will be done along with specific writing tasks. There will be preliminary discussions on strategies for incorporating information from multiple sources into an academic essay and avoiding plagiarism. These discussions will cover the nature of in-text citations and the list of references at the end of the essay.  

The Language Centre teaches the Academic Writing I course in all programmes in Level 100. 

UGRC 210:   ACADEMIC WRITING II 

This course builds upon the skills introduced at level 100 in the UGRC 110 Academic Writing I course. The course reviews the requirements of writing effective paragraphs and extends the discussion to developing content for the academic essay. Students are introduced to strategies for evaluating their own writing as well as that of their peers. In order to increase the awareness of students to the connection between reading and writing, they are also introduced to organizational patterns in paragraphs/essays and how they can contribute to effective reading and writing. With this foundation, students are now ready to practise summary writing in the context of expository writing. They will be taken through strategies for synthesizing information from multiple sources in order to develop a thesis statement into a full-fledged essay. In this regard, key issues related to writing from sources such as referencing skills and avoiding plagiarism will be thoroughly discussed with accompanying practical exercises. Grammar review exercises aimed at consolidating students’ knowledge of grammar will be done along with specific writing tasks. The course will also consider disciplinary variation in writing. How different is writing in science from writing in arts? There will also be a focus on academic presentation skills.  

The Language Centre teaches the Academic Writing II course in all programmes in Level 200, except the following:  

• College of Basic and Applied Sciences (CBAS) 
• College of Health Sciences (CoHS).  

Schools and Departments within the CBAS and CoHS have opted to offer alternatives in lieu of UGRC 210. For instance, the School of Engineering has opted to offer Technical Report Writing (FAEN 206) in lieu of Academic Writing II.