​ ​The course aims to enable students to acquire advanced English for the workplace and develop the skills needed to communicate clearly and appropriately in professional contexts.

​The course covers:

​​- Advanced English for professional communication, both spoken and written: style, text cohesion, sentence structure, grammar and vocabulary

​- Genres and conventions in professional contexts

- ​​​Some text types commonly encountered by engineers in the job application process, such as CVs, cover letters and self-presentations ​

- Topics relating to communication in international workplaces, such as cultural and linguistic diversity, inclusive language, accessibility and English as a lingua franca.

​Upon completion of the course, students should be able to:

1. ​identify and analyse different types of communication in English-language professional contexts, with a particular focus on the characteristics of formal and technical communication and intercultural communication 
   
   
2. ​adapt language to the audience and purpose, and explain and justify their choices, in various types of work-related communication in English, including via digital channels 
3. ​write clear and effective texts with technical content in English 
4. ​with a particular focus on the job application process, describe one’s academic background, professional experience, strengths, values and future plans, and capture the recipient’s interest 
5. ​apply some basic negotiation techniques to effectively reach consensus in negotiations and other meetings.​

In the seminars, students explore different aspects of workplace-related communication. Students prepare for the seminars at home by e.g. watching videos, reading texts and working on their assignments.

The course has six 2-hour sessions on Campus. See KTH Schedule for rooms each week. 
Seminars 1 and 5 are scheduled on Tuesdays with the full group. For Seminars 2, 4, 3, and 6, the group is split in two and students have seminars either on Tuesdays or on Wednesdays.

To see what to prepare and submit each week, see Canvas and the weekly Module. 

Do I need to prepare anything for the first class?

Yes! Before the first class, please

1. read through the course information (emailed to all students or provided in the Course information Module on Canvas) to understand how the course works, and what the assignments and attendance requirements are.
2. find a job advertisement in English for an open position related to your area of studies that you may be interested in applying for. Download it as a PDF (or take a screenshot) and keep it on your laptop for the sessions. You will use this job advertisement for Assignment 2 and for other tasks during the course.
3. Introduce yourself in the Discussion forum on Canvas.

No specific literature required. All material (videos, explanatory texts, links to articles etc.) will be made available on Canvas.

Students at KTH with a permanent disability can get support during studies from Funka:

Funka - compensatory support for students with disabilities

• INL2 - Hand in assignment, 4.5 credits, grading scale: A, B, C, D, E, FX, F
• SEM2 - Seminar, 3.0 credits, grading scale: P, F

Based on recommendation from KTH’s coordinator for disabilities, the examiner will decide how to adapt an examination for students with documented disability.

The examiner may apply another examination format when re-examining individual students.

If the course is discontinued, students may request to be examined during the following two academic years.

Detailed grading criteria are made available on Canvas at the start of the course. 

There is no opportunity to raise an approved grade via renewed examination.

Students may miss up to two out of the six seminars, and still be able to complete the course in the current semester. Compensatory work (specified in Canvas) will be assigned for each missed seminar.

If a student misses more than two seminars, they can complete assessment module SEM1 by preparing for, and actively participating in, those seminars the next time the course is given.

• All members of a group are responsible for the group's work.
• In any assessment, every student shall honestly disclose any help received and sources used.
• In an oral assessment, every student shall be able to present and answer questions about the entire assignment and solution.

- The assessment module TEN1 (the oral exam) has been removed. Instead, INL1 is worth 4.5 credits (instead of 4.0) and SEM2 is worth 3.0 credits (instead of 2.0). This means that there will be some obligatory tasks related to the Seminars, as part of SEM1 - for instance, Quizzes and additional Preparation Tasks.