Universidad de Jaén

Unit 1. AGE

• Grammar / Function: Modal verbs and related phrases; Future perfect and future continuous; Persuading; Clarifying ideas; Informal style in an email.
• Vocabulary: Age;  Word building: prefixes;  Optimism and pessimism;  Collocations
• Pronunciation:  Connected speech: elision;  Weak forms: auxiliaries;  Intonation: persuading
• Reading:  Early and late successes;  Emails making arrangements
• Listening:  Letters to your future self;  Life's milestones;  How to live to 101.
• Speaking:  Different ages and generations;  Your future ; The right age for different things;  Holding a debate
• Writing:  An informal email;  A forum comment.

Unit 2. Media

• Grammar / Function: Quantifiers; Reported Speech; Linkers of Contrast; Adding Emphasis; Making Guesses.
• Vocabulary: Television; Multi-words verbs with more than one meaning; Reporting verbs; The press; When things go wrong: phrases for retelling a news story.
• Pronunciation:  Final consonants and initial vowels in connected speech; Stress to add emphasis.
• Reading:  Five 'must to see' TV programmes; Truth; Topics that keep the tabloids in business; A man who traded a paper clip for a house.
• Listening:  Hoax photographs; Recent news stories; The funny side of the news.
• Speaking: TV watching habits; Celebrities and the media; The press; retelling a recent news story.
• Writing:  A discursive essay; a newspaper article.

Unit 3. Behaviour   

• Grammar / Function: Conditionals; Infinitive and -ing form; Informal style in an article; Handling an awkward situation; Softening a message.
• Vocabulary: Collocations connected to decision making; Feelings phrases; Idioms connected to time; adjectives of manner; Phrases to talk about a family or cultural ritual.
• Pronunciation:  Weak form in conditionals; Sentence stress and weak forms in verb phrases; Sentence stress and intonation when handling a difficult situation.
• Reading:  Behaviour in tough situations; Are you a morning or an evening person?; A Family Ritual.
• Listening:  Attitudes to time; People's daily rhythms; Talking through an awkward situation; The human animal: body language.
• Speaking:  Difficult decisions; Attitude to time; Handling awkward situations; Describing a family or cultural ritual.
• Writing:  An informal article; A family ritual.

Unit 4. Trouble 

• Grammar / Function: Infinitive and -ing form with different meanings; Past modals of deduction; Avoiding repetition; Reporting an incident; Rephrasing.
• Vocabulary: Crime; Synonyms for verbs connected to scams; Verbs + dependent prepositions; Verb phrases for incidents; Survival items; Phrases to negotiate agreement.
• Pronunciation:  Silent letters in connected speech; Connected speech in past modals of deduction; Sentence stress.
• Reading:  Memory; Crime; How to avoid trouble in a holiday; Strange reasons people call emergency services; A lucky scape.
• Listening:  Getting tricked; Reporting an incident; 999: a sea rescue.
• Speaking:  Being a good witness; Acting in difficult situations; Speculating about how scams work; Reporting an incident; Items to take on a life raft.
• Writing:  An advice leaflet to help visitors to your city; A story about a lucky scape.

Unit 5. Culture

• Grammar / Function: Relative Clauses; Writing descriptively; Particle Clauses; Giving a tour; Expressing estimates.
• Vocabulary: Adjectives to describe films; The Arts; Two-part phrases:  dos and  dont's, pros and cons; Dimensions; Phrases to describe art; Phrases to discuss options.
• Pronunciation:  Intonation in non-defining relative clauses; Connected Speech in two-part phrases; Intonation in phrases adding interest.
• Reading:  A film review; An insider's answers to popular culture questions; Forum entries about the arts.
• Listening:  A film review on a radio programme; Tours of two different places; The one show: a famous graffiti artist.
• Speaking:  Films; Popular culture and arts experiences; Showing a visitor around part of your town; A new artistic project for your town.
• Writing:  A film review; A description of a favourite work of art or building

NOTE: The five topics correspond to units  6 -10   of the course book: Eales, F. & S Oakes.   2011.   Speakout Upper Intermediate. Students' Book with Active Book . Harlow: Pearson Education.

This is a course with a clearly practical orientation. There is one weekly whole-group session, when theoretical aspects will be studied and discussed, and three small-group practical sessions.

English will be the communication tool in class. Students are encouraged to be active participants in all the sessions. Oral and written skills will be practiced throughout the course.

Students with special educational needs should contact the Student Attention Service (Servicio de Atención y Ayudas al Estudiante) in order to receive the appropriate academic support

The examination (50% of the final mark) consists of two parts, a written examination and a listening comprehension test. As to oral expression, its assessment is entirely based on the oral presentations done throughout the course, which are compulsory.

Continuous assessment includes attendance and participation (20%) and the submission of written assignments and/or students' oral presentations (30%).

The correspondence between assessment procedures, competences and learning outcomes is the following:

S1: E.01, G.03, G.06, G.08 - R.21, R.35, R.37

S2: E.01, E.16, E.26, G.08 - R.41, R.37

S3: E.01, E.16, E.26, G.03, G.06, G.08, G.09, G.11 - R.41, R.21, R.35, R.37, R.38, R.39