UCL CENTRE FOR LANGUAGES
& INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
Course Units 2015-2016
Mandarin for Professional Purposes II
Prerequisite for entry
Successful completion of Mandarin Current Affairs and Culture (Social, Historical and Political) at the UCL CLIE, or
equivalent qualifications/experience.
Course duration
20 x 2-hour classes.
Self-Study
80 hours in total.
Course codes
LCMA6007, LCMAG007 and LCMAM007.
Aims and Objectives
The course is designed for very advanced level students requiring the language for professional purposes.
It comprises knowledge and understanding both of the structure of the language and its use in professional
environments, such as presentations, meetings and conferences. The course covers career development in the target
language countries, business culture and conventions, negotiating and interacting, reading specialist texts (i.e. in the
student’s main degree subject e.g. engineering), note taking and debates as well as other related topics. These areas will
be related back to the student’s degree subject. The course will enhance knowledge and use of linguistically complex
structures (a variety of styles and registers from a range of authentic material). Various transferable skills will also be
further developed.
Functions
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expressing specialised opinions, critical topic-related comments;
debating, commenting, negotiating;
describing, organisations, institutions;
defining specialised, professional concepts;
composing written pieces of information for professional purposes;
conducting presentations on complex professional topics;
summarising professional information from English to Spanish (and vice versa);
note-taking.
Course Content
Main topics/themes to be covered
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employment in business and industry;
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job applications and interviews;
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conducting meetings;
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business cultures;
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project management.
Skills
Reading
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reading for gist, scanning for specific information in professional sources;
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in-depth analysis of professional topics in relevant publications.
Writing
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CVs and formal letters;
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note-taking from presentations;
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writing up presentations.
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Professional reports;
Listening
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radio, TV, audio- and video-tapes;
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presentations;
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professional debates.
Speaking
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formal and informal discussions, debates, round table;
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presentations.
Linguistic Structures
Discourse Strategies
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analysing/comparing various professional sources (different text types, styles and registers);
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preparing oral contributions for different audiences;
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spoken versus written professional communication.
Main Aspects of These Strategies
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structuring (logical structures);
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linking devices (lexical, grammatical);
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stylistic levels and their usage;
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professional vocabulary.
Learning Resources
Handouts of advanced grammar and lexical materials will be given as necessary.
Materials for the course will be drawn from:
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Authentic written material from various sources, on the advice of the tutor;
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Authentic audio and audio-visual material.
In addition there is a wide range of language learning materials available for self-study in the Self-Access Centre.