Develop English Language Skills and Confidence

All undergraduate students complete UU114 English Language Skills for Tertiary Studies during the first year of their programme. This course is designed to help students gain confidence in listening, speaking, reading and writing in English at tertiary level, while also enabling them to develop new skills in academic research, reading and writing.

We acknowledge that students arrive at USP with different levels of English proficiency and with various levels of preparedness to complete degree programmes through English. UU114 is not a one-size-fits-all course that can meet everyone’s needs and it doesn’t attempt to be. Students who struggle to express themselves in spoken or written English or to understand Form 7 level texts may choose to take English courses through USP’s Preliminary and Foundation programmes before enrolling in 100-level. Conversely, students who feel completely confident working through English for academic purposes may be able to focus mainly on the elements of tertiary studies that are new to them.

This course was completely revised in 2022 to reflect a shift from English for Academic Purposes (students in this region have been using English for a range of academic purposes since primary school, so this title made no sense) to English Language Skills for Tertiary Studies (the key focus is the transition to tertiary studies from either secondary school or “the school of life”). The new course integrates the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing each week, while also building in vocabulary and grammar activities. Importantly, it integrates these language skills into meaningful academic content from topics of relevance to all students.

As one example of the way UU114 now connects with meaningful content, students get the opportunity to pitch ideas about how they think USP could be a healthier community as part of their unit on health and wellbeing. We have sent some of these ideas to Robert Oliver, celebrity TV chef and executive director of Pacific Island Food Revolution, and he has responded to our students. What better way to show students that they are communicating to real audiences for authentic purposes about things that matter to them?