International languages for cultural communication. English.

As its name indicates, International Languages for Cultural Communication: English was designed to help students practice and continue to improve their communicative competence in the English language. Students who participate actively in this required, three-ECTS-credit subject should observe progress in their knowledge of the English language, to a certain extent when writing, but more particularly when they are speaking in English. This subject is part of the Master in Cultural Services degree program which is meant, on a general level, to train and prepare students for the professional workplace and ensure their ability to serve as cultural liaisons in different types of activities involved in the management and promotion of services dealing with culture and cultural heritage, and, on a more specific one, to enhance their ability to do this successfully in the English language.

Thus, the central aim for this subject is for students to practice using and improve their knowledge, understanding, and use of the English Language as related to the field of culture and cultural heritage. The work undertaken in this subject will start at a B.2.1 level, or upper-intermediate level, as established by the Common European Framework of Reference (2001). In accordance with the indications therein, in this course, the students will be responsible for:

-- increasing vocabulary
--recognizing and using more native-like structures in their oral and written English,
--bettering their knowledge about how to speak in public
--bettering their level of oral production
--organizing a cultural event

This subject also functions as an ESP or (English for Special Purposes) subject, in which students will use the English language as a tool to work on specific content in the cultural industries and services field. Certain tasks will be undertaken to practice English such as: oral presentations and the planning of a cultural event in English.

CONTENT
Theoretical basis for planning and conducting an oral presentation.
Vocabulary and pragmatic strategies used to make oral production more efficient and effective.
Vocabulary and coherence in written documents that are used for the planning and execution of cultural events at a professional level.

Organization of cultural events.

Textbook for this course:
Powell, Mark. 2011. Dynamic Presentations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

ORAL PRESENTATION GUIDES IN ENGLISH:
---- Bradbury, Andrew. 2006. Successful presentation skills. London: Kogan Page.
---- Collins, Phillip. 2012. The art of speeches and presentation: the secrets of making people remember what you say. Chichester: Wiley.
---- Ellis, Mark, Nina O’Driscol e Adrian Pilbeam. 1985. Professional English: Communication skills for professionals working in business, industry and international organisation. Essex: London.
---- Locher, Miriam. 2004. Power and politeness in action: disagreements in oral communication. New York: M. de Gruyter.
---- Kushner, Malcolm. 2007. Public speaking & presentations for dummies. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, cop.
----Peck, John and Martin Coyle.1999. The Student’s Guide to Writing: Grammar Punctuation and Spelling. Houndmills: Macmillan.
----Strunk, William Jr. 2018. The elements of style. 1st Ed. Vancouver: Spectrum Ink Publishing.
----Zinsser, William. 2016. On writing well: the classic guide to writing nonfiction, 7th Ed. New York: Harper Perennial.

ORAL PRESENTATION GUIDES IN SPANISH:
---- Briz Gómez, Antonio. 1998. El español coloquial en la conversación. Esbozo de pragmagramática. Barcelona: Editorial Ariel, S. A.
---- Catta, René-Salvator. 1972. Cómo hablar en público. Bilbao: Mensajero, D.L.
---- Couto Rodríguez, Manuel. 2002. Cómo hablar bien en público: comunicar, persuadir y convencer con palabras. Barcelona: Gestión 2000, D.L.
---- Estulin, Daniel. 2000. Cómo realizar con éxito presentaciones en público. Madrid: Instituto Superior de Técnicas y Prácticas Bancarias, D.L.
---- Fernando de Manuel Dasí, Rafael Martínez-Vilanova Martínez. 2007. Habilidades de comunicación para directivos. Edición 3ª ed. rev. y act. Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid): Esic.
---- Guix, Xavier. 2005. Mientras me miran: hable en público sin perder la calma. Barcelona: Granica.
---- Janner, Greville. Cómo hablar en público: (incluye un compendio de modelos de discursos y de anécdotas para contar) Bilbao: Ediciones Deusto, D.L. 1993.
---- Jensen, Sonja. 2008. Cómo presentar para convencer: guía para cautivar e inspirar al público. Barcelona Bresca Profit.
---- Lucas, Adolfo. 2008. El poder de la palabra: técnicas para hablar en público. Barcelona: Ariel.
---- Palomares, José María. 2000. Hablar en público en una semana. Barcelona: Gestión.
---- Pike, Robert W. 2007. Presentaciones eficaces: [conozca los trucos y secretos para hacer de sus presentaciones armas de éxito en su trabajo]. Edición 2ª ed. Madrid: Fundación Confemetal.
---- Puchol, Luis. 2005. Hablar en público: nuevas técnicas y recursos para influir a una audiencia en cualquier circunstancia. Madrid: Díaz de Santos.

Apart from the objectives provided above about the practice of the English language and the students’ own personal progress in their use of the English language, the official study program for the Master in Cultural Services, lists the specific skills that students should acquire as follows:


CON10: Know and understand the characteristics of academic language and the standard norm in written and oral production, of one of the three international languages present in the curriculum, with focus on the field of cultural management.

COMP07: Competence to use local and world languages instrumentally in the field of cultural management, both in the design of written materials and in oral communication.

COMP08: Ability to read, interpret, and produce academic texts of a certain complexity that are relevant to the field of cultural management, in local and world languages.

For this 3 ECTS subject, 10 theoretical face-to-face teaching sessions have been programmed as well as 6 hours of synchronous online class.

As part of the theoretical explanation, during the face-to-face theoretical sessions, the professor will provide short presentations about the content for this subject. Students will be physically present for these class sessions held at the programmed times and dates. Students may make use of the materials and resources used in these class sessions since they will be available in the on-line classroom. The students will then do practice activities such as: analysis and commentary of assigned readings, oral presentations in the classroom, group work, and the preparation of a written dossier, among other tasks. The synchronous online sessions will be carried out in the same way so that students may physically attend or connect via streaming.

The professor will also assign complementary activities to be done outside the classroom on those linguistic aspects which require more intense practice with other teaching methods such as: individual pronunciation practice, as well as other activities on aspects of communication related to the topics presented in class. The tasks mentioned above should help the students to practice their English as well as the communication strategies considered.

In order to carry out the activities done outside the classroom the USC online platform will be used to access certain digital resources such as the assigned readings, as well as to turn in assignments and access feedback and grades. Thus, the online classroom of the USC Virtual Campus will be the main platform for the learning process. The tasks and practical activities planned for continuous assessment must be turned in as instructed in the virtual classroom. It may also be used as an additional means of evaluation and tutorials for students.

On their part, students should carefully plan and organize the time they dedicate to this subject each week; along those lines, they should access the online classroom regularly so as to keep track of the work assigned in a constant and continuous manner.

Students will be able to participate in synchronous online tutoring since it will be carried out in person or via MS Teams. These tutorials will provide quality time for the professor and students to maintain direct contact. This, in turn, will permit the evaluation of students’ progress during the course, including their level of interiorization of the content and the skills focused on in the classroom, and provide an opportunity to ask for and give personalized advice that will allow each student to better reach the course goals. The tutorials will be done in groups or individually via Microsoft Teams during the semester; e-mail may also be used depending on the individual needs of each student. In this case, the professor should respond within 48 hours (during the work week) of reception except for when special leave permission has been granted. The professor may also use the tutorials to confirm that the students have carried out the assigned complementary tasks that have been planned for study outside the classroom.

Finally, the coursework carried out in this degree program is a way to better prepare students for their professional future and professional work ethics will be implemented for the work done in this subject. For this reason, all written activities should be double-spaced and typed. All of the activities which are turned in should include the bibliographical and digital sources that were consulted, as per an established academic method of bibliographical citation. Therefore, ALL WORK MUST BE TURNED IN ON-TIME IN ORDER TO RECEIVE CREDIT FOR IT.

Assessment will be based on (1) the continuous evaluation of the student throughout the semester, in the classroom or in the online classroom, and on (2) the evaluation of the Final Project which will be presented at the Faculty of Humanities*, and in accordance with the following examination periods.
The Final Course Grade will be assessed as follows for both of the examination periods.

FIRST PERIOD OF ASSESSMENT (JANUARY)**
--Active participation in (class or) the virtual classroom and preparation at home: 10%
--Continuous evaluation of work carried out: 40%
--Written dossier for Final project: 15%
--Final project oral presentation *: 35%

* Students must be physically present at the Faculty of Humanities in order to carry out the final oral presentation which will take place on the official final exam date for this subject as per the official calendar published by the Faculty.
Furthermore, all the activities turned in for grading must include the consulted bibliographic sources used in the documentation of the work and be cited according to academic standards for bibliographic and digital citation. See the IMPORTANT NOTICE below.

**In any case, for all exam periods, students must pass each of the sections listed above in order to receive a passing final grade for this subject.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: In the USC Rules for Academic Performance (DOG 21 from 21 July, 2011, Art. 16)1 presenting fraudulent academic work for any type of final evaluation is penalized with a “Fail” in the corresponding exam period. Turning in this type of work may also result in a disciplinary process for the offender. Hence, any detection of plagiarism in any of the academic work turned in for grading in this subject will be penalized with a “Fail” in this subject, even when the student has passing marks in other areas of evaluation. As “plagiarism” we understand when an academic paper includes any partial or complete copy, in literal form or not, of content, or ideas published in other academic papers or in any other type of published format (paper or Internet), and where the student does not cite the source from which the said content or idea was taken. Students who fail because of plagiarism will not be allowed to take part in the second chance exam period.

SECOND PERIOD OF ASSESSMENT (JUNE)
Students who have passed a section of the course before the first period of assessment may retain it for this exam period, in which case the evaluation system is the same as above. This means that all students must have previously passed the continuous evaluation section before they present their final project.

STUDENTS WHO NEED TO RETAKE THIS COURSE
Students who need to redo this course, and who have passed the continuous evaluation part of the course from the work done in class during the academic term may keep this part of their mark accordingly.

As specified in the official study program for this degree program, this three-ECTS-credit subject will require 75 hours of work by the students. Apart from the class sessions, tutorials and exams, 51 hours of self-directed study should be done outside the classroom (about 3-4 hours a week and about 25 hours to carry out the final project).

The work carried out for this subject should be done according to the standards and specifications set out by the professors. Since this course is part of students’ preparation for their professional future, all assigned tasks must be completed as instructed and turned in on time.

The approximations that appear in this course syllabus as far as hours of study and individual work are concerned may differ slightly; this will depend on the level of English proficiency of each individual when the course begins. The time needed to properly prepare and present these activities was calculated for people who have a B.2.1. level, or upper intermediate level of English, as established by the Common European Framework of Reference (2001). In this course students will carry out work on a B2.2 level (CEFR), thus, students who have not attained a B.2.1 level, might find this course to be more difficult. Assigned tasks will be graded on both content & written quality. Students will be penalized for writing that is of poor quality (e.g., incorrect grammar, misspelled words, incorrect pronunciation, and such.

In order to participate in this subject, students should have a B 2.1 level, as established by the Common European Framework of Reference (2001). In this course students will carry out work on a B2.2 level (CEFR).

Students seeking to successfully complete this subject should not falter in attending to the assigned work and should participate actively in the assigned activities as well as to the tasks undertaken in either the classroom or the online classroom. In addition, a certain amount of dedication to the tasks and application in the hours of personal study indicated above will be necessary in order for students to interiorize the lexicon and the pragmatic strategies that should help them to prepare for and successfully speak in public.

Furthermore, the completion of a M.A. Degree is seen as a step to complete in order to prepare for one’s professional future. Thus, to contribute to the students’ preparation for their professional careers, the work done in this course should be done according to work ethic norms; thus, ALL WORK MUST BE TURNED IN ON-TIME IN ORDER TO RECEIVE CREDIT FOR IT. All written work must be typed and double-spaced and should cite all sources according to academic standards for bibliographic and digital citation.

If plagiarism/cheating is detected, in either the activities or the exam, the sanctions laid out in “Normativa de avaliación do rendemento académico dos estudantes e de revisión de cualificacións” will be applied. See the IMPORTANT NOTICE above in the “ASSESSMENT SYSTEM” section.