COURSE INFORMATION Course Title: DEVELOPMENT OF READING AND WRITING SKILLS IN ENGLISH I

Code	Course Type	Regular Semester	Theory	Practice	Lab	Credits	ECTS
ENG 103	D	1	3	0	0	3	4

Academic staff member responsible for the design of the course syllabus (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature)	NA
Main Course Lecturer (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) and Office Hours:	M.Sc. Taqi Stojani tstojani@epoka.edu.al
Second Course Lecturer(s) (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) and Office Hours:	NA
Teaching Assistant(s) and Office Hours:	NA
Language:	English
Compulsory/Elective:	Compulsory
Study program: (the study for which this course is offered)	Bachelor in Electronics and Digital Communication Engineering (3 years)
Classroom and Meeting Time:	Wednesday:E/ B33, 13:45-16:30
Code of Ethics:	Code of Ethics of EPOKA University Regulation of EPOKA University "On Student Discipline"
Attendance Requirement:	Compulsory
Course Description:	Development and Writing Skills in English aims to help students develop as writers within the English-speaking academic community by raising awareness of, practicing, and reflecting upon the regulations, norms and written conventions of a standard piece of writing. The course will implicitly improve the overall English language mastery of students by utilizing scaffolding learning methodology of task- based assignments in a step by step learning process. The course will reinforce academic reading skills aiming to improve students’ reading and learning style towards more effective reading of professionally and scientifically intermediate/advanced English level texts. It also aims at developing critical thinking thus enabling students to respond to ideas in a cohesive and coherent and original, well-organized written style.
Course Objectives:	To equip students with the analytical/critical reading and writing skills needed to carry out academic endowments at Epoka University as well as in any other professional or academic English speaking environment . - to Acquire an awareness of and ability to use effectively the discourse patterns of academic English - to improve the reading and learning styles of students enabling them to think, read, reflect , analyse and write more effectively and coherently - To have the opportunity to develop writing process through generating ideas, drafting, peer evaluation and team work assessment - to sharpen reading, writing and public speaking skills through defending the written work convincingly through argument in verbal manner.

BASIC CONCEPTS OF THE COURSE

1	Critiquing the logic and evidence of arguments presented in text.
2	Students will have built up verbal interaction confidence in colorful discussions.
3	Drafting a well refined research paper related to a topic of their interest.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week	Topics
1	Introduction; My first essay, Process writing, (1-5) Understanding process writing, the writing method used in most English-speaking university classes.
2	Pre-writing: Getting ready to write, Sources (5-11) Learn how to choose and narrow a topic, gather ideas, and edit ideas.
3	Grammar: Tenses, Conditionals (Grammar in use 54-84).
4	The structure of a paragraph, The development of a paragraph (11-24) Learn the definition of a paragraph, the parts of a paragraph, how to identify and write topic sentences.
5	Grammar, Reported speech, Relative clauses, Conjunctions (Grammar in use 120-160).
6	Descriptive and process paragraphs, Grammar (25-32) Learn about descriptive paragraphs and reasons for writing them, organization, and writing a descriptive paragraph using adjectives and prepositions.
7	Opinion paragraphs, Grammar (33-40) Learn how to distinguish between fact and opinion, organize and write a paragraph that expresses opinions and arguments, use transitive words to express causation, use modal expressions to make recommendations.
8	Comparison / Contrast paragraphs, Grammar (40-50) Learn about compare/contrast paragraphs and reasons for writing them, how to organize compare/contrast paragraphs, linking words used to compare and contrast topics, how to write about the advantages and disadvantages of a topic.
9	MIDTERM
10	Problem / Solution paragraphs, Grammar (50-56) Write about problems and solutions, use real conditions, write a two-paragraph text with connecting phrases.
11	The structure of an essay, Outlining an essay, Introduction and conclusions, Grammar (56-63) Learn the definition of an essay, how to format an essay, how to write a thesis statement.
12	Unity and coherence, Grammar (78-95) Learn the importance of unity in essay writing, how to edit an essay for unity, the importance of coherence in essay writing, methods of creating coherence.
13	Present essays
14	Present essays; review for final exam; debrief semester.

Prerequisite(s):	Students enrolling to ENG 109 , Development of Reading and Writing Skills in English course should have taken advanced score B2 and/or C1 level at Aptis entry test held at the premises of Epoka University prior to course registration and students' enrollment.
Textbook(s):	Dorothy E. Zemach, Lisa A. Rumisek (2005). Academic writing from paragraph to essay. Macmillan.The Best of Socrates: The Founding Philosophies of Ethics, Virtues & Life. Berg Larry (2014) Dr. John Morley (2017)- The Academic Phrasebank Academic Writing for Graduate Students, 3rd Edition: Essential Skills and Tasks John M. Swales & Christine B. Feak (2012)
Additional Literature:	Raymond Murphy, Fourth Edition (2012). English Grammar in Use, Intermediate
Laboratory Work:
Computer Usage:	For research, writing, and presentations
Others:	No

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

1	Students will develop academic vocabulary in English
2	Students will be able to academically inform, describe, express their opinion, offer a solution to an issue in spoken and written English, while maintaining unity and coherence
3	Students will be able to critically read and discuss essays
4	Students will be able to interact using academic English

COURSE CONTRIBUTION TO... PROGRAM COMPETENCIES (Blank : no contribution, 1: least contribution ... 5: highest contribution)

No	Program Competencies	Cont.
Bachelor in Electronics and Digital Communication Engineering (3 years) Program
1	Engineering graduates with sufficient theoretical and practical background for a successful profession and with application skills of fundamental scientific knowledge in the engineering practice	5
2	Engineering graduates with skills and professional background in describing, formulating, modeling and analyzing the engineering problem, with a consideration for appropriate analytical solutions in all necessary situations.	5
3	Engineering graduates with the necessary technical, academic and practical knowledge and application confidence in the design and assessment of machines or mechanical systems or industrial processes with considerations of productivity, feasibility and environmental and social aspects.	5
4	Engineering graduates with the practice of selecting and using appropriate technical and engineering tools in engineering problems, and ability of effective usage of information science technologies.	5
5	Ability of designing and conducting experiments, conduction data acquisition and analysis and making conclusions.	5
6	Ability of identifying the potential resources for information or knowledge regarding a given engineering issue.	5
7	The abilities and performance to participate multi-disciplinary groups together with the effective oral and official communication skills and personal confidence.	4
8	Ability for effective oral and official communication skills in foreign language.	5
9	Engineering graduates with motivation to life-long learning and having known significance of continuous education beyond undergraduate studies for science and technology.	4
10	Engineering graduates with well-structured responsibilities in profession and ethics.	5
11	Engineering graduates who are aware of the importance of safety and healthiness in the project management, workshop environment as well as related legal issues.	4
12	Consciousness for the results and effects of engineering solutions on the society and universe, awareness for the developmental considerations with contemporary problems of humanity.	5

COURSE EVALUATION METHOD

Method	Quantity	Percentage
Midterm Exam(s)	1	30
Project	1	20
Final Exam	1	40
Attendance		10
	Total Percent:	100%

ECTS (ALLOCATED BASED ON STUDENT WORKLOAD)

Activities	Quantity	Duration(Hours)	Total Workload(Hours)
Course Duration (Including the exam week: 16x Total course hours)	16	4	64
Hours for off-the-classroom study (Pre-study, practice)	16	2	32
Mid-terms	1	5	5
Assignments	2	7	14
Final examination	1	6	6
Other	2	2	4
Total Work Load:			125
Total Work Load/25(h):			5
ECTS Credit of the Course:			4

CONCLUDING REMARKS BY THE COURSE LECTURER

N/A