Welcome to this module! Here you will find all the necessary information regarding exam content, essay submission and presentation deadlines for English 2.
Week 1
Students will listen to a webinar on redox reactions and practice taking linear notes with abbreviations and symbols.
Students will distinguish organic and inorganic chemistry properties and scope, and identify types of isomers and properties of major functional groups.
Students will read an introduction to organic chemistry and key biomolecules and will use Venn diagrams to make comparisons and summarise key points of the article.
Student will practice their academic vocabulary skills by using scientific and technical vocabulary in context and synonyms.
Week 2
Students will read an article on Enzyme Biochemistry answering comprehension questions on activation energy, substrates, inhibition and regulation of enzyme activity and factors affecting enzyme function.
Students will identify moves in a lecture (on Enzymes) and corresponding signposting language. Student will produce missing words in word families, making a distinction between some confusing words and they will use adverbs: degree, opinion, frequency and manner in science.
Week 3
Students will evaluate the use of in-text citations and references. and in pairs write why and how we use them appropriately.
Students will also take notes for a lecture on respiration and ATP in order to notice (in)formality and make a smooth transition from informal to formal language.
Week 4
Students will notice conventions of experimental language for common biological techniques regarding DNA plasmids, restriction enzymes and ligase, electroporation, heat shock transformation, bacterial transformation and recombinant DNA.
They will practice seminar discussions expressing purpose
They will focus on Style and language of experimental data identifying common pitfalls in scientific writing such as ambiguity, personification, contractions, numerals
and phrasal verbs
Week 5
Students will re-create a Laboratory report making sure that its structure is appropriate. They will learn what language is used when constructing a hypothesis and about formatting in Scientific tables and graphs.
Students will also practice peer-reviewing another student’s sample laboratory report. Then, following instructions (teacher feedback), they will revise it.
Students will read an article on Laboratory Safety Issues in order to identify expressions of cause and effect. Then, they will use expressions of “Cause and effect” as a paraphrasing tools.
Week 6
Students will distinguish between descriptive and evaluative language, objective and subjective (biased) statements in an paragraph, use adjectives that allow chemistry researchers to favour or unfavourites other researchers’ views and write counter-arguments. Students will write an argumentative essay and practice peer-reviewing other student samples on the same topic.
Week 7
Students will have a workshop on how to enhance their presentations with visuals, signposting language, “How to give an engaging speech” and a model presentation on “bio-printing” given by senior students whose presentations were deemed to be one of the best ones the year before. Students will be provided with criteria for peer-evaluation to complete during the student presentation and then discuss the student presentation strengths and weaknesses with the teacher and the presenters.
Kindly note that attendance is compulsory for all. Library workshop for first year students!
Week 8
Students compare separation techniques such as distillation, evaporation, crystallisation, thin layer or paper chromatography, separating funnel, filtration and discuss advantages and disadvantages.
Academic skills
Students practice describing processes using appropriate style and language.
Students practice note-taking whilst listening to a lecture on Thin Layer Chromatography
Week 9
Students evaluate water treatment methods and make a table juxtaposing properties of acids and bases.
Students write a critical review of a published article following guidelines provided in class.
Week 10
Students explain the transition from electricity to electrochemistry and listen to an electrolysis experiment making mind-maps
Students notice tentative language in scientific articles and rate the degree of caution in sentences provided.
Students are given phrases and prompts in order to guess and write compound words in science: e.g. counterion = counter + ion
Students notice genre differences within the same discipline focusing on academic writing style.
Weeks 11 and 12
Student Presentations (Slides need to be in pptx or pdf format and students need to bring their file in a usb stick)
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Assessment modes
The assessment modes will be the following:
Written exam 50%
Student portfolio 35%
Oral presentation 15%
An average pass mark is necessary for you to pass (if you score, for example, 6/10 at the exam and 6.5 at the student portfolio and 01/10 at the presentation, you can still proceed.)
Written exam: Two-hour exam structure and content: This includes ALL listening tasks, and readings, papers and tasks in your textbook. Exam paper structure: Reading comprehension 10%, Vocabulary tasks 30%, Lecture note-taking and summary writing 20%, Essay writing (Synthesising information from given sources) 40%
Student portfolio: The student portfolio may include some of the following samples of work such as 1) a Venn diagram, 2) a mind map, 3) a summary of a video lecture 4) a summary of an article on Bio-printing (2020) with a video, 5) presentation slides [ with either a link to google slides or 8 slides in each A4], 6) write a paragraph with arguments for OR against [counter-arguments] an essay topic* [200 words], 7) a graph, 8) a report from a graph 9) the methods, results and discussion section of a lab report, 10) appropriate references and citations to essay paragraph and/or report, 11) a 500-word glossary with the vocabulary/terminology we have come across so far [in Greek and English], 12) provision of feedback to one of your peers essay paragraph or lab report following given criteria, and 13) a critical review of an article provided by the instructor.
Students who create a comprehensive portfolio (scoring 9 or 10 out of 10) will be exempted from the exam.
Class participation is very important as some of the samples of work that students will need to add in their portfolio will be completed in class with the teacher’s help. The platform Edmodo is used so that students can keep up with class announcements and tasks. Students will be notified of the class codes they need to use in order to register online in class.
Oral presentation: Mid December after a short presentation on “How to give effective presentations”, some senior students will present their work in order to provide a good model before this year’s students deliver their own. Attending this presentation is compulsory.
Kindly note that if students do not join Edmodo, they run the risk of failing the class as they will not always be able to find information about the course.
You can find some really useful documented Essay guidelines and a sample of student Presentation slides (PPTX, keynote or pdf)
If there are any students who struggle with English, extra support will be provided so please feel free to let your instructor know if that’s the case with you. For this purpose, you can call 2810-545152.
Nobody’s first language is “Academic English”! The main objective of this module is to learn scientific terminology as well as academic skills pertaining to formality, caution, legitimate paraphrasing, writing citations and synthesising sources, critical writing, synthesising sources, essay writing, providing peer-feedback, presenting measurable data and give engaging academic presentations.
I am so looking forward to seeing you in my class.
kind regards,
Kallia Katsampoxaki-Hodgetts
English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Instructor
katsampoxaki@uoc.gr
tel. 2810-545102
Administration Building 2, Office 202.
English for Chemistry & Materials Science 