Courses & Examinations
Course Offerings
The UNIcert® III courses for students in the Natural Sciences, i.e. UNIcert® III/1 English for the Natural Sciences and UNIcert® III/2 English for the Natural Sciences, are offered every semester. Students with a placement test score between 80-100 points can take the UNIcert® III/2 English for the Natural Sciences course without having completed a UNIcert® III/1 English for the Natural Sciences (score of 65-79 points in the placement test) course beforehand.
Course Description: UNIcert® III/1 English for the Natural Sciences (6 CP)
The first part of this discipline-specific and theme-oriented course, which requires a result of 65-79 % on the placement test, prepares students for the UNIcert® III/1 English for the Natural Sciences exam (end-of-term examination/Kursabschlussprüfung) at the end of the semester.
The aim of this course is to strengthen the students' listening and speaking skills. Based on in-class input and your own research, students will deal with and exercise scientific communication models as in describing, reasoning, arguing, formulating hypotheses, giving short presentations, writing short texts on scientific topics such as nature and the environment, animals in danger, soils, plants and photosynthesis, living organisms, the atmosphere, good health, science and technology.
This course is supported by a course-specific e-learning Moodle 2.UP course offering a variety of additional practice materials.
Course password by instructor. For registered participants only.
Further information is available on PULS.
Course Description: UNIcert® III/2 English for the Natural Sciences (6 CP)
This is the second part of the discipline-specific and theme-oriented UNIcert® III English for the Natural Sciences Certificate course which requires a placement test result of 80-100% on the placement test.
The course prepares students for the UNIcert® III English for the Natural Sciences Certificate exam, which is an admission requirement for Master’s degrees, for completing an internship, studying abroad and pursuing your further career.
In addition to further developing the listening and speaking skills practiced in III/1, this course will continue to complete the preparation and practice of reading comprehension and scientific writing skills necessary to take the UNIcert III® Certificate exam at the end of the semester.
Based on in-class input and your own independent research, students will deal with oral and written models of scientific communication and document their analysis and argumentation in academic written style. Topics range from population development, Darwin's theory of evolution, the oceans, aquatic and terrestrial environments/habitats, the earth's movements, getting back to nature: organic food, digestion in humans, the circulatory system to nutrition.
This course is supported by a course-specific e-learning Moodle.UP course offering a variety of additional practice materials.
Course password by instructor. For registered participants only.
Further information is available on PULS.
UNIcert Examinations (Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking)
UNIcert® III examinations always take place at the end of the lecture period, or during the examination period after the respective UNIcert III/2 course, which includes intensive preparation for the exam parts. The language level attained – UNIcert III or C1 of the European Framework – and the scholarly character of the course are formally confirmed solely on the UNIcert® Certificates. Registration for the UNIcert® III exam is done in the language course that prepares students for the exam parts. Students will receive all of the dates and any other relevant information on course materials and examinations from their instructor.
Further Notes on Examinations
The UNIcert® III English for the Natural Sciences Certificate is awarded upon successful completion of the UNIcert® III certificate exam following the UNIcert® III/2 course.
Useful links for students of the Natural Sciences
BAWE – British Academic Written English corpus
a British Academic corpus of academic works written at universities in the UK. It represents a pattern of British Academic English with fairly evenly distributed disciplinary areas (Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, Life Sciences and Physical Sciences) and levels of study (undergraduate and taught masters level).The whole corpus consists of 2761 pieces of proficient assessed student writing with length in the range 500–5000 words.
https://www.sketchengine.eu/bawe-corpus/
On all sections of the IMRAD paper
A means of efficiently communicating scientific findings to the broad community of scientists.
https://ca.edubirdie.com/blog/how-to-write-a-scientific-research-paper
Writing in the sciences - Stanford University's open online course
This course teaches scientists to become more effective writers, using practical examples and exercises. Topics include: principles of good writing, tricks for writing faster and with less anxiety, the format of a scientific manuscript, and issues in publication and peer review.
https://online.stanford.edu/courses/som-y0010-writing-sciences
SkELL (Sketch Engine for Language Learning)
is a simple tool for students and teachers of English to easily check whether or how a particular phrase or a word is used by real speakers of English.
