English B2+.2

This course aims to take students from a B2 level of English to B2+, working with authentic materials to develop students’ autonomous language learning skills as well as their actual language skills. A range of different text types and language varieties are used to consolidate strategies for improving the four language skills, vocabulary and grammar. Students will be encouraged to follow up their own interests in English, starting from themes connected with globalisation, technology, cultural integration and the role of tradition.

Four projects are designed to stimulate students’ interactions in real English. Two of them focus more on the written language, and the other two principally on speaking and interacting.
After an initial session in class, the media monitoring project takes place mostly outside the classroom. Similarly, the non-fiction book project is largely autonomous, but includes a final presentation. Both of these projects also include specific work on making good use of artificial intelligence and avoiding plagiarism.

Two or three debates will be held during the semester, with significant class time devoted to their preparation. A lot of class time is devoted to the ongoing discussion project. 

Materials and exercises of various kinds are exploited throughout the semester in relation to all of the projects. 

For each of the skills, an initial encounter with the difficulties of various authentic materials will lead on to a systematic development of students’ autonomous ability to continue to improve their knowledge and use of the language.

This course is designed for all students in the second year of the faculty of Communication, Culture and Society. It is also open to students beyond their second year who have not yet reached, the B2+ level, and to second year students who have already passed the exam. The objective is to move beyond studying the language itself to make use of English for real purposes, both academic and practical. 

Students who complete the course will have gained confidence in understanding spoken and written English as it is used in real-life contexts around the world, and will have taken the first steps towards effective academic communication in English in both spoken and written contexts.

In presence

Materials will be provided by the instructor during the course. They will generally be of topical relevance in addition to addressing the themes of the course, and will serve to illustrate the range of ways in which the English language is currently being used worldwide. A coursebook is also recommended, which will be used for extra practice.

For each of the skills, an initial encounter with the difficulties of various authentic materials will lead on to a systematic development of students’autonomous ability to continue to improve their knowledge and use of the language.

The course is assessed using the same exam as the B2 level, with a pass-mark of 75% (where 60% represents B2).

Students who follow the B2+.2 course are entitled to bonus points in that exam, up to a maximum of 10%. These points count in the written exam only, and are added to the student’s score in the exam after it has been calculated. No bonus points are added to the score in the oral exam; if the oral exam score is below 75%, the whole exam must be repeated in the next session. The bonus points from this course are valid in the three sessions held during 2026 (January, June and September), and will be added to the written score each time.

Up to 80 coursework points are potentially available, but only the first 40 points earned will be counted. The total out of 40 will then be divided by 4 and rounded to the nearest whole number to give the number of bonus points awarded in the exam.

There are four projects to be completed during the course, for each of which up to 20 points can be earned. It is recommended that each student should choose to complete three of the projects.

• Debating
• Ongoing discussion
• Media monitoring
• Report and presentation on a non-fiction book.

Bibliography

Materials will be provided by the instructor during the course. They will generally be of topical relevance in addition to addressing the themes of the course, and will serve to illustrate the range of ways in which the English language is currently being used worldwide.