The curriculum covers the following headings:

Oral Presentation Skills                     Pronunciation      

Reading and discussion                     Advanced academic writing

Critical thinking                                Reading critically

Reading and summarising                 Understanding and avoiding plagiarism

Citation practice                                Exercises for common grammatical errors       

The course weaves two streams through the curriculum:

•  general academic English in which students not only improve their language skills, but also learn about the expectations of Australian academic culture in terms of critical thinking, referencing, plagiarism and so on; and
• English requirements from students' own study areas, to cope with the specific language demands of their own disciplines.

Assessment in the course consists of:

30%        A 1,500-2,500-word essay or report in the student’s own discipline area

30%        A 10-minute seminar presentation in the student’s own discipline, after which students lead a class discussion on the topic

30%        Regular homework tasks including:

• short exercises (200 - 400 words) in academic writing organisation, style and flow;
• writing a paraphrased summary (500 words) of a 2,000+word article from their own discipline;
• writing a comparative summary (500 words) of two 1,000+word articles

10%        Participation in in-class activities.

Note:     

1. Students are required to submit each writing assessment task twice:

• a first draft, which is then given coded feedback by the teacher;
• a second draft, corrected by the student according to the coded teacher feedback from the first draft.

1. Assessment in discipline-specific assignments relates only to language and generic academic skills, not to content.
2. Overall course grades are awarded using the ANU system.

The course runs for one semester, with two two-hour classes per week, all in seminar style (not traditional lecture/tutorial mode). The maximum class size is around 14. This enables each student to receive individual attention from the class teacher. There is a considerable amount of pair work and group work.

EUE is available for ANU credit only to:

• undergraduate international students with an entry IELTS score of 6.5 or 7.0; or
• undergraduate exchange students who are identified by Visiting Students Program staff as requiring additional English language learning; or
• any undergraduate student (international or domestic) who successfully applies to the university for  Linguistically Diverse Background status; or
• international students who have already completed at least one semester of study at ANU, and has been formally identified as being “at risk” on the grounds of insufficient skills with English language and/or academic culture; or
• undergraduate international students recommended to the course by a course advisor or by Student Services, ASLC, or similar.

A full 100+-page student workbook has been developed for the course, with a mixture of materials both specifically developed for this course, and adapted from other sources.