The Open University Learning English for Academic Purposes
The Open University (OU) is the largest academic institution in the UK and a world leader in flexible distance learning, with a mission to be open to people, places, methods and ideas.
Improve your English listening, speaking, reading and writing.
This online course will give you an introduction to the academic language and skills that you will need to study at a university where the teaching is done in English.
You will develop four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) using tasks that a university student would undertake: listening to lectures, taking notes, spoken presentations, reading academic texts (including long sentences and visual information) and writing reports using proper academic words.
Throughout the course you will be able to share your practice work with other learners, to give and get feedback.
What topics will you cover?
- Developing strategies and vocabulary for reading and understanding academic texts.
- Finding, understanding, describing and evaluating information for academic purposes.
- Developing active listening and effective note-making skills.
- Building on language skills to describe problems and cause-and-effect.
- Gathering a range of information, using the skills learned, to integrate into your written report.
- Engaging in peer-to-peer feedback before finalising your report.
Learning on this course
You can take this self-guided course and learn at your own pace. On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.