SYLLABUS

GENERAL COURSE OBJECTIVES
The objectives of this course are to help you to develop the necessary skills to perform the tasks outlined below. It is designed to bridge the gap between level B 2 and C1.1, as defined by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

Relation to the Certificate in Advanced English (CAE)
In taking this course students will start to progress towards the level required to obtain the Certificate in Advanced English (CAE). The focus however will concentrate on the development of skills as outlined above rather than being explicitly examination-oriented. The course could be considered as the first module of a two-year block of instruction. Advanced 1 aims to develop the language level necessary to embark on Advanced 2, a more examination-oriented second block.

READING: To understand general articles and reports, together with contemporary literary texts and correspondence, appreciating distinctions of style as well as the writer's viewpoint. To understand specialised academic articles and longer technical instructions, especially when they relate to your field.
LISTENING: To understand extended speech and complex lines of argument, including most lectures, discussions and debates, even when the topic is not familiar provided they are clearly structured. To understand most television programmes and films provided they are in standard dialect.
WRITING: To express yourself in clear, well-structured text, supporting a point of view with subsidiary points, reasons and relevant examples, and rounding off with a conclusion. To write different kinds of texts in a style appropriate to the reader in mind, such as fairly detailed expositions of complex subjects in an essay or report, letters with a degree of clarity and precision, relating to the addressee, or clear, well-structured descriptions and imaginative texts in a personal style.
SPOKEN INTERACTION: To express yourself fairly fluently and spontaneously with relatively little searching for expressions. To use language with some degree of flexibility and effectiveness for social and professional purposes. To formulate ideas and opinions and relate your contribution to those of other speakers, especially when related to your occupational role.
SPOKEN PRODUCTION: To give clear, systematically developed descriptions and presentations with appropriate highlighting of significant points and relevant supporting detail..

SPECIFIC COURSE OBJECTIVES

Listening
Type
Interviews
Discussions and debates
Conversations
onologues
Narrative accounts
Talks
Lectures
Speeches
Documentaries
Instructions and explanations
News Programmes
Developing skills of
Understanding overall function and message
Identifying main points and selecting relevant details in different contexts
Extracting specific information
Inferring underlying meaning, attitude, feelings and opinions implied by changes in intonation, vocabulary and structure
Recognising relationships between speakers and detecting agreement and disagreement
Recognising speech features such as: technical language, hesitation/false starts, non-standard language, accent, completion by second speaker, approximation, vague language, fillers and hesitation devices, signposting and deixis, stress, elision and weak forms

Reading
Sources and Genres
Extracts from books (fiction and non-fiction)
Non-specialist articles from journals, magazines and newspapers
Formal and informal correspondence
Instructions, publicity and information leaflets
Reports
Web pages
Developing skills / awareness of
Structure, development, and overall meaning of a text
Reading for gist and detail; scanning for specific information
Identifying main idea and supporting detail; fact and opinion; attitude, tone, purpose, text organisation features (reference, exemplification, comparison)
Register and cultural implication
Complex sentences, idioms, collocations, fixed phrases, phrasal verbs, false friends, word-building and semantic precision

Speaking
Activities
Conversation
Description
Narration
Presentations and speeches
Explanation
Persuasion
Developing
Discourse structure: opening and closing gambits; turn-taking and co-operating; structuring a presentation, giving reasons and examples
Expression of opinions and arguments; agreement and disagreement; complaints; comparison and contrast
Skills of using stress and intonation; paraphrasing;
Repairing communication breakdowns

Use of English
Noun phrases
Uses of articles (including absence of the article)
-ing and past participle as premodifiers
nominal group qualifiers
compound nouns and noun groups
Verb phrases
The tense system - consolidation and extension
Past tense in expressing wishes and non-fact
Conditional verb forms (0, 1st, 2nd and 3rd), including inversion patterns
Advanced passive structures
Modal verbs and structures expressing modality: consolidation and extension of use in present/future and past
Verb patterns with the infinitive, gerund and that clause
Future forms: consolidation and extension of expressions
Expressions indicating habit in the present and past
Sentence patterns
Subordinate clauses of purpose, cause, result, contrast and time
Relative clauses (defining, non-defining, prepositional, coordinate)
Participle clauses
Thematization: cleft sentences and what clauses
Thematization: introduction to negative inversion patterns
Thematization: fronting, intensifying adverbs, wherever and other devices
Conditional sentences: consolidation and extension
Reported speech, including offers, suggestions, orders, intentions etc.
Linking devices to focus, add a point, structure, generalise, give examples or summarise
Other points
Reference and substitution; ellipsis; so/it and reduced infinitives
comparison: extension of forms
attitude adverbs and discourse markers
adverb position
determiners, quantifiers and pronouns
singular, plurals and number
Vocabulary points
Adjective, noun and verb affixes
Attributive and predicative adjs.
Gradable/non-gradable adjs.
Compound adjectives
Adverbs with two forms
Statistical language and trends
Excess, quantification and approximation
Formal and informal vocabulary
Gender
Nouns derived from phrasal verbs
Changing word stress
Prepositional phrases
Vague language
Emotional reactions
Phrasal verbs
Dependent prepositions
Homophones, homonyms and homographs
Lexical fields
Age
Behaviour and character
Business
Change
Complaining
Homes
Legal matters
Memory
Money and gambling
Relationships
Rubbish and recycling
Sight and sound
Success and failure
Technology
Television
Voice and ways of speaking

Writing
Type
Formal letters
Discursive texts and essays
Reports
Narratives (including detailed descriptions)
Developing skills of
Introducing the topic, presenting and developing arguments, expressing and supporting opinions, evaluating ideas and concluding in a suitable manner
Describing, persuading, narrating, evaluating, recommending, giving information, summarising from different sources
Formatting texts in different genres, using suitable register, demonstrating awareness of audience, but also a personal style when appropriate
Using cohesive devices, text- reference words and punctuation appropriately, so as to organise texts at sentence, paragraph and text level

MATERIALS

Course book: Your teacher will tell you which course book you will be using.

Supplementary materials:
A good ENGLISH dictionary: Oxford Advanced Learners, Cambridge International Dictionary of English, or Collins Cobuild.
A Spanish/Catalan-English; English-Spanish/Catalan Dictionary: for example, the Diccionario Oxford or the Enciclopèdia Catalana

ASSESSMENT

(a) Continuous Assessment - 40%
10% based on participation in class and other work done during the course.
20% based on written work done during the course.
10% based on Oral level shown during the course.

(b) FINAL EXAM - 60%
(c) PASS MARK:
In order to pass the course, it is necessary to achieve a minimum mark of 50% in the written and oral examinations and 60% in the overall combination of examination and continuous assessment.