Getting to Know... Academic English
Along with expertise in the individual areas of study related to the programme of studies, students acquire advanced English language skills. This is the domain of Academic English. In Academic English courses, students receive support to improve language skills such as speaking, listening, reading and writing, as well as to develop your critical thinking and reasoning skills. The Academic English courses in the English Department place a strong focus on combining theory with practice, and students will be encouraged to use the English language as much as possible, in both written and spoken form. The courses are designed to make students a better, more independent learner who is able to continue your learning in the years to come.
Below you can find a teaser for the topics and concerns of Academic English, specifically the course "Language and Use" in the Basic Module, which is recommended for the first semester.
Structure and Clarity: Essay Writing in "Language and Use"
In the introductory Academic English course Language and Use, students are expected to critically read a primary source, create a research question to ask of this source, and respond to that research question in a well-structured, comprehensive essay.
The first paragraph of the essay, the introduction paragraph, introduces the general topic and the primary source, and it typically ends with the thesis statement. The thesis statement is an answer to the research question. The thesis statement is the main idea of the entire paper; it is usually 1-2 sentences long, and it is clear and concise. The paragraphs that follow, the body paragraphs, each deal with a specific supporting idea for the thesis statement.
Please read the following paragraph which is an example of a student's introduction paragraph:
When we think of learning a language, we often have the act of strictly learning rules in mind. For example, to conjugate a verb in the second person in French we learn that most of the time the verbs in second person end with the letter 's'. We think of language as being mostly well structured apart from a few exceptions. However, David Weinberger, an expert in his field, shows in his novel Everything is Miscellaneous (2008) that the theory and the actual usage of language’s neat categories deviate strongly from each other. Language is not as neatly organised as we might wish it to be. In fact, considering the organisation of language, language is indeed rather messy. To which degree this is the case will be shown through the following factors: Language having no Aristotelian definition, being organised in basic-level categories, these categories not having clear boundaries, and the prototype concept.
It's Your Turn Now!
True or False?
Once your have made up your mind, simply click on the statement to reveal the correct answer and additional information.
The student's thesis statement is "Language is not as neatly organized as we might wish it to be."
FALSE.
This is not the thesis statement, but rather a sentence leading up to the thesis statement. A thesis statement is clear and concise, and it is often followed by a preview of the supporting ideas that will come in the body of the paper.
"To what degree is language messy?" is the student's research question.
TRUE.
Although the research question is not always explicitly stated in the introduction paragraph, the thesis statement is the answer to the research question. That means that if the thesis statement is clear and concise, it should be possible to determine what the original research question was.
The thesis statement consists of the last two sentences in the introduction paragraph.
KIND OF.
Strictly speaking, the sentence "In fact, considering the organisation of language, language is indeed rather messy" is a clear and concise statement that answers the research question. The beginning of the following sentence ("To which degree this is the case") certainly relates to the research question, but the sentence also already previews the supporting ideas that will come in the body of the paper.
The body of this student’s essay will consist of four body paragraphs.
MAYBE.
The body of this essay has four supporting ideas, but it is not 100% certain that each supporting idea will fit into only one paragraph. It is possible that a single supporting idea will be so detailed and complex that it takes two or more body paragraphs to be fully developed.