All course materials, discussion and lectures for the SMC course will be given in English. Below is the information you will need to make sure that you reading, writing and listening skills in the English language are on par with your colleagues'.
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Speaking Skills
Students with English as a second language may still speak hesitantly, and misunderstandings may frequently arise due to limited vocabulary and inaccuracies in grammar and pronunciation. However, with repetitions and circumlocutions, he/she should be able to speak well enough to be generally understood.
The student, in face-to-face conversations, should be able to:
- Obtain and give information concerning own area of work or daily personal needs;
- Participate in conversations asking and answering questions and giving personal reactions on work-related matters, personal life or familiar current events;
- Give instructions, explanations or suggestions related to own area of work.
In addition, the student should be able to make him/herself understood when asking for or reporting straightforward information on the telephone.
Writing Skills
Basic sentence patterns have been mastered, but complex sentences may still present difficulties. Writing may be loosely organised and generally using only simple cohesive devices. The student may frequently use inaccurate or incorrect vocabulary and may make grammatical and spelling errors. However, generally most writing is comprehensible.
The student should be able to:
- Take down telephone messages in a familiar context;
- Fill out forms giving work-related or biographical information;
- Write simple letters related to work matters or survival needs, if a model is provided; and
- Write brief paragraphs related to personal or work history, daily life or survival needs.
Listening Comprehension
The student may have some difficulty understanding native speakers who are speaking very fast or using slang, colloquialisms, regionalism or a non-standard dialect. He/she may not understand highly specialized or technical language or language spoken or broadcast when noise levels are high. He/she should be able to detect some emotional overtones and make some inferences, but still may have trouble with irony and humour and may miss subtle nuances and shades of meaning.
The student should be able to:
- Understand face-to-face conversations with one or more native speakers or conversations between native speakers spoken with normal clarity and speed in standard language on general subjects or subjects related to personal expertise;
- Understand telephone conversations concerning general or familiar subjects and explanations or detailed instructions on work-related matters;
- Understand essential information in speeches, meetings or presentations in non-technical areas of personal expertise; and
- Understand the substance of broadcast materials on general subjects or subjects of relating to personal expertise.
Reading Comprehension
The student may have difficulty understanding complex material on subjects outside his/her personal experience. He/she may still have difficulty with colloquialisms, regionalism, irony, humour, figurative language, subtle nuances, unusually complex structures or complex argumentation. The student will probably read at a slower rate than in his/her own first language and will have to rely on dictionary for unfamiliar vocabulary when meaning cannot be predicted.
At the advance stage, the student should be able to:
- Understand United Nations reports and documents related to his/her area of work;
- Understand articles in newspapers or periodicals on non-technical topics addressed to a general audience;
- Understand technical articles in newspapers or periodicals on subjects in personal area of interest or expertise;
- Understand work-related messages;
- Understand general work-related correspondence (letters, memoranda, telegrams);
- Understand work-related announcements or notices or instructions;
- Understand forms and questionnaires; and
- Understand abbreviated materials, such as headlines, signs, and advertisements.