Academic management

This is an elective course taught during the second semester of the fourth year. It is part of the Module “Elective courses for the industrial engineering branch”, included in the degrees in Electrical Engineering, Industrial Electronics and Automatics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Chemical Engineering,  Industrial Technologies Engineering and Industrial Organisation Engineering, as well as of the Subject Matter, “Common general and specific courses”, which consists of a set of courses related to competences shared by all branches of industrial engineering. In addition, it is also one of the courses of Subject Matter 18, “Common elective courses”, of the degree in Technology and Telecommunication Services Engineering.

The main aim of the course is to develop communication skills in English for professional purposes. It focuses mainly on the development of speaking and writing techniques and strategies applied to communication environments that require different degrees of formality

In order to be able to follow the course it is strongly recommended that participants should have a B2 proficiency level of English. Students must be ready to take active part in the classes so as to learn how to communicate   properly in formal engineering settings.

The course is intended to help achieve the following competences and learning results

General competences for degrees related to industrial branch

• CG4, CG5, CG7, CG10, CG11, CG14, CG15:.

General competences for degree in Technology and Communications Services

• CG9

Learning results:

• . RTE-1/RA-18.49, RTE-2/RA-18.50, RTE-3/RA-18.51, RTE-4/RA-18.52), RTE-5/RA-18.53)

(see key for abbreviations in Spanish version)

1. Writing professional documents:

• Job cover letters and CVs
• Technical reports: Structure and language features

2. Taking part in socio-professional situations:

• Job interviews and CV presentations
• Debates, meetings and negotiations
• Speaking on the telephone

3. Making oral presentations:

• Structuring content
• Langue and signposting
• Visual aids and body language
• Voice and emphasis

The lessons will be held entirely in English. It is essential that course participants contribute to the development of the course by being actively involved in all class activities and thoughtful discussions, completing all assignments and meeting deadlines.

During the lessons, written and spoken materials collected from different sources will be used. As far as legally possible, those materials will be made available for students to read, listen to or download from the university Campus Virtual.

Exceptionally, to meet public health requirements, online activities may be included, in which case students will be informed of the changes performed. The use of microphone and video camera will be essential.

Ordinary call

In the dates that will be announced during the first week of the course, students will have to perform the following activities and evaluation tasks, whose weight on the final grade is in parenthesis

• Assessing structure, register and grammar in cover letters/emails (10%)
• Writing down a CV (10%)
• Attending a job interview (10%) 
• Taking part in a debate (10%)
• Elaborating a report collaboratively (10%)
• Individual assessment of language and content aspects of the group report (10%)
• Presenting innovations in engineering (20%)
• Taking listening comprehension tests (10%)

The above list accounts for 90% of the grade; the remainder 10% will be based on students’ participation in the small group sessions. A minimum 80% attendance to those sessions is requested for the participation to be evaluated.

There will be no final exam for students following this evaluation model.

Extra-ordinary call

Students will have to perform the following tasks on the date set by the Polytechnic School of Engineering:

• Submitting a brief report on the topic of “Innovation in engineering” (10%) and presenting that same topic orally (30%). The main features of these tasks, regarding length structure, etc. will be published in due time
• Attending a job interview (20%);
• Taking a listening test  (20%);
• Taking a test based on the writing activities carried out during the course: email, cover letter, report and CV writing (20%).

Part-time students evaluation model

To comply with art. 7.1 of the Evaluation Regulations of the University of Oviedo, students who apply to follow part-time course arrangement, after having obtained the approval of the School Committee, will be allowed to be assessed with the conditions of the extra-ordinary evaluation call.

NOTE. It is the students’ responsibility to check regularly both the email account provided by the university of Oviedo and the information published in Campus Virtual, where updated information and instructions for task performance will be detailed.

Exceptionally, to meet public health requirements, online assessment methods may be included, in which case students will be informed of the changes performed. The use of microphone and video camera will be essential.

BBC Learning English http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/

British Council. Business & work, Professional podcasts https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/es/professionals-podcasts

British Council. Learn English, C1 https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/category/language-level/c1

Downes, C. (2008) Cambridge English for Job Hunting. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Glendinning, H. (2008) Oxford English for Careers: Technology 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Grussendorf, M. (2007) English for Presentations. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Hancock, M. (2012) English Pronunciation in Use (Intermediate). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ibbotson, M. (2009) Professional English in Use: Engineering. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ibbotson, M. (2009) Professional English in Use. Technical English for Professionals. Cambridge University Press.

Naterop, B.J. & Revell, R. (2009) Telephoning in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.