ECTS credits ECTS credits: 6
ECTS Hours Rules/Memories Student's work ECTS: 99 Hours of tutorials: 3 Expository Class: 24 Interactive Classroom: 24 Total: 150
Use languages Spanish, Galician, English
Type: Ordinary Degree Subject RD 1393/2007 - 822/2021
Departments: English and German Philology
Areas: English Philology
Center Faculty of Philology
Call: First Semester
Teaching: With teaching
Enrolment: Enrollable
General.
• Students should acquire a C2 (CEFR) level of English in both productive and receptive oral language skills: listening, spoken interaction and spoken production.
• Students should develop theoretical and practical knowledge of the oral communication skills needed to participate effectively in a variety of everyday, academic and professional contexts.
Specific.
• Learning about the differences between spoken and written English.
• Learning about the importance of non-verbal communication in oral interaction.
• Acquiring skills to participate in informal conversations successfully.
• Developing interviewing skills.
• Acquiring language, listening and personal skills to participate in discussions and negotiations.
• Developing notetaking skills for academic purposes.
• Developing communication skills to participate in formal debates.
• Learning how to elaborate, organize and present content efficiently in academic presentations.
• Learning how to succeed in a job interview.
• Learning how to craft and give a successful elevator pitch, to sell a product, an idea, etc.
Instrumental.
Students should develop the necessary skills to effectively use a variety of learning, communication, collaboration and presentation tech tools.
Interpersonal.
Students should develop personal, negotiation and collaboration skills for effective oral interaction in academic, everyday life and professional situations.
INTRODUCTION
• Spoken language vs written language. The practical importance of oral skills. Key elements of effective public speaking.
- Aspects of non-verbal communication: body language and voice.
BLOCK 1. ORAL SKILLS FOR EVERYDAY PURPOSES
• Informal conversations. The structure of conversations. Turn-taking. Backchannels. Small talk. Storytelling. The importance of humour.
• Interviewing skills. Types of questions: yes-no, open, and follow-up. Best strategies to succeed in your interviews.
• Discussion skills. Individual and group attitudes for effective discussions. Active listening skills. Language for expressing opinions, agreement and disagreement, etc.
BLOCK 2. ORAL ACADEMIC SKILLS
• Notetaking skills. Preparing for notetaking. Some techniques to optimize your notetaking: active listening, shorthand writing, mental maps, etc.
• Participating in debates. Debate structure and participants. Brainstorming and research: arguments and evidence. Constructing arguments. Debating language. Introducing and concluding a debate.
• Preparing academic presentations. Selecting focus points/key ideas. Choosing the right supporting evidence. Using metadiscourse. Integrating graphs and tables. Using audiovisual aids efficiently.
BLOCK 3. ORAL SKILLS IN PROFESSIONAL CONTEXTS
• Promoting your product. Persuasion: definition and persuasion strategies. The elevator pitch: definition, structure and language.
• The job interview. Responding to the Tell me about yourself prompt in a job interview: general recommendations. Describing your educational and professional backgrounds. Effective language in job interviews.
There will be no set textbook for this module. Reference materials will consist in selected articles, videos and websites on the specific topics of the programme that will be regularly shared with the students through the LMS (Moodle) or the Teams tool.
CB1, CB2, CB3, CB4, CB5, CG1, CG3, CG6, CG7, CG9, CE1, (see Memoria de Verificación do Grao en Lingua e Literatura Inglesas at http://www.usc.es/export9/sites/webinstitucional/gl/servizos/sxopra/mem…).
The module will consist in a combination of presentations of various topics by the lecturer with all sorts of practical activities, individual and group activities, face-to-face and/or online.
The so-called expository lessons will often consist in a general introduction to one of the topics in the syllabus followed by related practical activities, such as watching and analyzing/discussing a relevant video. Some of the interactive lessons will consist in workshops, collaborative activities in small groups followed by a general appraisal and discussion, individual or group presentations on a given topic, debates, etc., all of which are aimed at training and consolidating the acquisition of various oral skills.
1) First opportunity.
Continuous assessment (100% of the final grade) of a wide range of in-class and online activities: individual and group presentations, participation in discussions, role-plays and other speaking activities, listening activities, quizzes and exams, etc. Class attendance will be checked regularly and will be valued proportionally with up to 1 point in the final grade. Students experiencing timetable conflict with other subjects MUST contact lecturers as soon as possible to make special arrangements. Class participation, is key to passing the subject, especially because most of the assessable activities will take place within the classroom or in relation to the content taught or worked on during class.
#Students with official dispensation.
Students with official dispensation from attendance must closely follow and participate in the activities that take place online, mostly the virtual campus: slide presentations, individual and group work, tests, assignments to be handed in, etc. In addition, lecturers may ask them to complete specific tasks to complete their mark and, if necessary, call them for a complementary face-to-face oral test. VERY IMPORTANT: Students who are planning to apply for an attendance exemption MUST contact lecturers at the beginning of the course period (or, if applicable, at the very moment they decide to apply for the exemption), without waiting to receive the official communication from the Dean's department, in order to discuss issues related to their participation in the course.
#Timetable conflict
In cases of timetable conflict with other subjects, teachers MUST be contacted at the beginning of the academic year to agree on measures to make participation in the different subjects compatible with the learning process. In any case, reasonable attendance and participation in this subject will be required (normally 50% of the teaching hours) and the completion of complementary compensatory tasks may be required (to be agreed with the teachers).
#Exchange students
Same rules apply as for local students at all opportunities.
2) Second chance.
Whenever possible, students may (re)submit work that they have not done or on which they have not achieved a pass mark during the course with a view to improving their continuous assessment mark. These re-submissions must be made before the official date of the second opportunity (see official exam calendar). In addition, if deemed appropriate, the teaching staff may summon the student to an extraordinary oral exam to complete their grade.
In the case of students who have official dispensation from attendance, the same method will be applied as in the first opportunity.
#FRAUD
In cases of fraudulent performance of exercises or tests, the provisions of the ‘Regulations for the evaluation of students’ academic performance and review of qualifications’ shall apply.
Depending on your current English level, you will have to devote more or less time to this subject, to attain the expected level of English by the end of the course (see aims above). As a rule of thumb, you will have to devote between 4-5 hours per week of your out-of-class time to revise the week’s class content and do various activities, be that preparatory work for the following week (reading, watching videos, etc.), practical exercises, quizzes, final project, etc. You should also allow time, between 1 and 2 hours, for reinforcement tasks such as speaking in English and viewing and listening to materials (see next section) that you deem necessary outside of the course syllabus.
- Active participation in all the individual and group activities organised throughout the course is key both for successful learning and for passing the course.
- It is important to know how to use the different functionalities of the Virtual Campus (Moodle) and MSTeams. In particular, it is important to know how to use both tools to follow a lecture class, to participate in a tutorial with the teacher, in collaborative tasks, debate, evaluation, etc. and to hand in academic work.
- Group work. In general, it is important to show a positive, open and honest attitude towards others, in particular, to give constructive criticism, and to know how to accept and integrate it in order to improve.
- It is advisable to have note down important content and ideas both in and out of class - if you don't write it down you won't be able to get back to it when you need it!
- Active language practice both inside and outside the classroom is, of course, key to the acquisition and improvement of the student's oral competence in English. In particular, participation in language exchange activities, such as tandem or conversation groups, listening to radio (BBC, NPR, etc.) podcasts, TED presentations or watching documentaries, films, etc. is highly recommended.
#Contact with teachers
You can contact your teachers at the end of classes, in office hours (prior appointment recommended) (in our offices: 307, 406), or via email: xabier.fernandez [at] usc.gal (xabier[dot]fernandez[at]usc[dot]gal); mario.cal [at] usc.gal (mario[dot]cal[at]usc[dot]gal).
LAPTOP COMPUTERS, TABLETS, MOBILE PHONES AND SIMILAR DEVICES may be used during the development of the classes ONLY FOR THE PERFORMANCE OF TASKS RELATED TO THE LEARNING OF THE SPECIFIC CONTENT THAT IS BEING TAUGHT AND IN NO CASE SHOULD IT DISRUPT THE DUE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TEACHING AND LEARNING AT THE TEACHER'S DISCRETION.
NO FOOD CONSUMPTION IS ALLOWED IN THE CLASSROOM DURING THE CLASSES.
Francisco J. Fernandez Polo
Coordinador/a- Department
- English and German Philology
- Area
- English Philology
- Phone
- 881811898
- xabier.fernandez [at] usc.es
- Category
- Professor: University Lecturer
Mario Cal Varela
- Department
- English and German Philology
- Area
- English Philology
- Phone
- 881811858
- mario.cal [at] usc.es
- Category
- Professor: University Lecturer
| Monday | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 09:00-10:00 | Grupo /CLE_01 | English | C12 |
| Tuesday | |||
| 10:00-11:00 | Grupo /CLIL_02 (F-L) | English | D07 |
| 11:00-12:00 | Grupo /CLIL_03 (M-Q) | English | D07 |
| 12:00-13:00 | Grupo /CLIL_04 (R-Z) | English | D07 |
| 13:00-14:00 | Grupo /CLIL_01(A-E) | English | D07 |
| Wednesday | |||
| 11:00-12:00 | Grupo /CLIL_01(A-E) | English | D08 |
| 12:00-13:00 | Grupo /CLIL_03 (M-Q) | English | D08 |
| Thursday | |||
| 11:00-12:00 | Grupo /CLIL_02 (F-L) | English | D04 |
| 12:00-13:00 | Grupo /CLIL_04 (R-Z) | English | D04 |
| 01.22.2026 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLE_01 | C07 |
| 01.22.2026 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLIL_01(A-E) | C07 |
| 01.22.2026 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLIL_02 (F-L) | C07 |
| 01.22.2026 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLIL_03 (M-Q) | C07 |
| 01.22.2026 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLIL_04 (R-Z) | C07 |
| 01.22.2026 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLE_01 | C08 |
| 01.22.2026 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLIL_01(A-E) | C08 |
| 01.22.2026 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLIL_02 (F-L) | C08 |
| 01.22.2026 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLIL_03 (M-Q) | C08 |
| 01.22.2026 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLIL_04 (R-Z) | C08 |
| 06.17.2026 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLIL_04 (R-Z) | C11 |
| 06.17.2026 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLE_01 | C11 |
| 06.17.2026 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLIL_01(A-E) | C11 |
| 06.17.2026 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLIL_02 (F-L) | C11 |
| 06.17.2026 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLIL_03 (M-Q) | C11 |