To improve the spoken English of first-year students, to teach them basic presentation skills required for their studies and to improve their grammar and speaking skills.

The Introduction to the Study of English is a compulsory subject for first-year students. It consists of lectures and seminars. The seminars are held once weekly and account for 50% of the final grade.

The students are required to prepare for every lesson and participate in the seminars (10% of the grade). For every lesson, they are asked to read and learn 20 entries from the book English or Czenglish by Don Sparling. They are expected to be familiar with those entries and should be able to answer the questions in class. There will be two written tests based on these during the semester. The results from these tests will make up for 30% of the grade (15% each). Moreover, students will prepare 10-15-minute presentations in groups of 2 or 3 on a topic they will choose at the beginning of the course (Week 1). The presentation will be 30% of the final grade. For every lesson, students are required to complete homework based on the material covered the lesson before. The lessons will deal with different grammatical structures and will be aimed at improving the students’ language skills. Together with tests from English or Czenglish, students will write 2 tests from grammar. The results from grammatical parts of tests will make up for 30% or the grade (15% each).

Compulsory: Don Sparling - English or Czenglish (available in Moodle)

Recommended (available online):

Jason Blake – 101 English Tips; Jason Blake and Andrej Stopar – 102 English Tips

Raymond Murphy – English Grammar in Use

The overall grade consists of the grade from the lectures (50%) and the grade from the seminar (50%). If you fail one part of the evaluation, it will result in failing the subject as such.

Grade from the seminar:

Grading scale:

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to write me an e-mail (lucia.podlucka@uniba.sk) or visit me during my consultation hours on Monday from 13:00 to 14:00 in room G112A.