Postgraduate Courses

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Use more accurate pronunciation and more appropriate features of connected speech for effective communication.
• 2.
  Express views about academic and social topics with more appropriate topic development and coherence.
• 3.
  Show progress in their skills in listening for features in English texts to improve their own development of speaking skills.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Apply appropriate methods such as summarizing and paraphrasing to avoid plagiarism in their research writing.
• 2.
  Identify the organization, conventions and functions of different sections of a research paper or thesis.
• 3.
  Structure a research paper or thesis appropriately in line with the accepted norms of the field.
• 4.
  Produce a critical review of the literature for their research.
• 5.
  Explain their research effectively in an oral presentation to a mixed audience.
• 6.
  Lead, and actively participate in, academic seminars and contribute to the discussion as well as participate in self-assessment, leading to autonomous learning.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Understand academic, stylistic and rhetorical conventions of spoken and written research in the sciences.
• 2.
  Understand the importance of critique, argument and contribution in spoken and written research in the sciences.
• 3.
  Develop an engaging and appropriate style of academic writing and speaking suitable for potential audiences.
• 4.
  Communicate their own research persuasively to academic and non-specialist audiences by applying this learning.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Make effective presentations, and be able to evaluate their fellow classmates’ presentation skills.
• 2.
  Participate effectively in and conduct seminar discussions.
• 3.
  Develop strategies for effective listening and speaking in academic contexts.
• 4.
  Develop strategies for writing accurately in academic contexts.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Write a range of academic texts demonstrating appropriate control of syntaz.
• 2.
  Recognize and produce the essential features of different written genres, including critical reviews, summaries and abstracts.
• 3.
  Distinguish clearly between facts and opinions and extract salient points in written texts.
• 4.
  Develop written arguments with reference to different sources.
• 5.
  Demonstrate critical awareness of accuracy in written English, including texts written by peers.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Understand rhetorical, academic and stylistic conventions of spoken and written humanities texts.
• 2.
  Understand how persuasive argument is the core feature and organizing principle of humanities research texts.
• 3.
  Communicate their own research persuasively to academic audiences by applying this learning.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Identify the common genres of academic writing, including abstract, literature review, argument essay and research article.
• 2.
  Identify the common referencing format and referencing skills, including quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing.
• 3.
  Describe how academic texts are structured and how various devices are used for improving the coherence and cohesion of academic writing.
• 4.
  Recognize how hedging and qualifying language strengthens and weakens arguments and common fallacies in academic writing.
• 5.
  Explain the importance of identifying purposes and audience before writing, which affects the writing style and tone.
• 6.
  Distinguish specific language and vocabulary for academic writing.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Engage confidently and fluently in seminar discussion on a range of topics related to Environmental Science, Policy and Management.
• 2.
  Explain and defend their own positions on a range of issues related to their subject.
• 3.
  Provide an effective oral critique of others’ positions and proposals.
• 4.
  Ask appropriate question in seminar discussion.
• 5.
  Use a wide range of subject-related vocabulary in oral interaction.
• 6.
  Deliver effective presentations based on their own research topics.
• 7.
  Demonstrate skills in referring to empirical data in oral presentations.
• 8.
  Make appropriate use of supporting visual material in oral presentations.
• 9.
  Handle audience questions skilfully.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Understand the specific discourse features of the writing of their own discipline and individual research interest, and internalize these into their research writing.
• 2.
  Identify the overall structure of a thesis or research paper, as well as the functions and conventions of its different sections (abstract, introduction, literature review, method, results, discussion and conclusion.
• 3.
  Use language effectively to write succinct and persuasive abstracts according to their specific purposes (for acceptance by conferences/journals, summarizing their thesis).
• 4.
  Integrate the introduction with the overall organization of a paper or thesis, and engage readers right from the start.
• 5.
  Include citations and quotations seamlessly in the literature review, and effectively synthesize different viewpoints to form a coherent argument.
• 6.
  Meet the linguistic challenges in writing papers and thesis chapters based on quantitative data, and in describing experimental designs and formulating research questions.
• 7.
  Present results accurately and clearly, and discuss their essence by making use of linguistic devices such as hedging.
• 8.
  Adopt rhetorical devices in the conclusion, and to make meaningful connections with earlier parts/chapters of a paper or thesis.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Pronounce and produce words or sentences with a fair degree of accuracy.
• 2.
  Achieve communicative tasks relevant to business contexts in relatively simple terms.
• 3.
  Understand simple, familiar, brief and clear discourse related to personal or everyday life.
• 4.
  Produce simple sentence structures, provide descriptions, and exchange some ideas on familiar and common topics.
• 5.
  Develop confidence and interest in learning the Chinese language.
• 6.
  Gain basic Chinese cultural knowledge and acquire a degree of cultural awareness.
• 7.
  Understand and use familiar everyday expressions and basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of concrete needs of business professionals.
• 8.
  Introduce themselves and others and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where they live, people they know and things they have.
• 9.
  Interact in a simple way provided the interlocutor talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Understand, make, and respond appropriately to everyday conversational enquiries.
• 2.
  Understand basic instructions, notices or information.
• 3.
  Take part in a basic factual conversation.
• 4.
  Understand short reports or descriptions.
• 5.
  Take and pass on simple messages.
• 6.
  Make factual summaries and requests based on notes taken, including times, dates and places.
• 7.
  Understand and give straightforward opinions and explanations.
• 8.
  Understand and produce short texts relating to people's lives and interests.
• 9.
  Demonstrate sufficiently accurate pronunciation and grammatical structure to be understood by native speakers of Spanish.
• 10.
  Show confidence when dealing with Spanish-speaking people and Spanish-language materials in their study and in business contexts.