English Programs
Pathway English
Pathway English is a non-credit course which aims to provide students with the English proficiency and academic skills needed to successfully study at VinUniversity in English. Pathway English Advanced is a course for students who have completed Pathway English Intermediate or for those who have an English entry proficiency level of CEFR B2 (IELTS 6.0 or equivalent). Students who study Pathway Intermediate in the Summer semester will study Pathway Advanced in the Fall and Spring semesters, alongside some introductory courses. At the end of the course, students will exit with an English proficiency equivalent to CEFR B2+ and meet the English language requirements for full admission to VinUniversity.
By the end of this course, students will have developed fundamental academic English reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills as well as increased their knowledge of prescriptive grammar, pronunciation, and academic vocabulary. Classes are active, utilizing a range of activities including group discussions, tasks, and online learning activities. The input provided for learners at this level is a blend of graded and authentic texts, including audiovisual texts. Students at this level are still provided with enough scaffolding strategies, diagnostic information, regular formative assessments, teacher check-ins, and out-of-class support to help them achieve optimal success.
Academic English 1
Academic English 1 is the 3-credit mandatory course for all undergraduates at VinUni, which is aimed at refining students’ language, communication, academic literacies, and critical thinking skills. Although this course covers a range of communication genres, there is a particular focus on formal academic writing to equip students with strategies for long-term success in university-level coursework. The course will give you an abundance of guided practice and independent production in following a process writing approach, which includes investigating, shaping, drafting, peer and teacher feedback, reflection, revision, and final product. This foundational framework will be adapted to the various types of academic writing functions. In addition to this, students will work in interdisciplinary groups on an extended group project throughout the course to discover more about authentic communication types, such as social media posts, emails, and other types, analyzing their purpose, audience, tone, and content and presenting their findings to peers.
In using an active learning approach, students will apply themselves in and outside of the classroom through hands-on activities to produce effective academic texts themselves and get multiple levels of feedback to improve and refine. Small groups will be used frequently to encourage students to communicate with the purpose for an audience and to give and receive valuable feedback, thereby fostering and applying their critical thinking and reflective skills on a regular basis. Students can do additional practice and get additional support on their writing in the Writing Lab in the library.
Academic English 2
Academic English 2 is the 3-credit mandatory course for all undergraduates at VinUni. It reinforces and expands the formal writing and academic skills developed in Academic English 1, emphasizing the synthesis of multiple sources, arguments, and research techniques. The principal aim of this course is to transition from the written essay to the research paper, augmenting your academic writing skills to prepare you for the type of writing that is essential to your university studies. After identifying a key academic question, through a scaffolded and multistage approach with varied peer and instructor support, you will demonstrate a diversity of writing skills to create a coherent research paper on an issue of global significance. You will further develop your academic inquiry skills, synthesizing and critically evaluating knowledge from various sources, creating new connections, and ultimately crafting your own original ideas. Academic English 2 will help you have a voice in the broader academic community and develop authority in communicating your ideas and experiences to a wider audience.
In addition to helping, you become a more critical reader and a more persuasive writer, there is a group project focused on researching and proposing solutions for a local community issue. In small groups, you will collaboratively select an issue which faces your local community, research about it and propose some potential solutions which will be presented to a wider audience through a formal presentation. This project will develop a range of 21st-century skills including evidence collection, creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, communication and collaboration, information literacy, productivity and accountability, and visual design.
Classes will be active with integrated hands-on activities. The peer feedback and instructor conferencing will be used throughout the course to provide opportunities to give and receive valuable feedback from varying perspectives, thereby fostering, and applying your critical thinking and reflective skills on a regular basis. You can get additional support on your writing in the Writing Lab and through office hours with your instructor.