1. Departmental History       

Department of English was established on 28^th November 1998. The Department was run by Daw Yin Yin Aye from 15-3-1999 to 18- 10-2019. Now, Daw Kyi Kyi Htwe is the head of the department. She has been assigned to the post 3-12-2019.

2. Departmental Objectives

By the end of the course, the learner will be able to:

1. apply basic academic English language skills (listening, reading, writing and speaking) and English language knowledge required for successful completion of academic studies
2. apply basic professional communication skills (listening, reading, writing and speaking) and some basic specialist English language knowledge required to function in English at a simple level in common nursing contexts
3. apply some appropriate English language learning strategies and independent learning skills to support their ongoing academic and professional (nursing) development

3. Undergraduate courses

       1. First year B.N.Sc (Generic) Course

       2. First year (Diploma), Nursing Training School Course

4.First Year B.N.Sc (Generic)

Course content

1. Macro skills (listening/speaking and reading/writing)

• Listening skills
• Understanding basic function and purpose of spoken discourse in a range of common nursing contexts (e.g. discussion of patient progress)
• Recognizing different stages of spoken communication and common discourse markers (e.g. structure of professional conversations)
• Understanding gist, specific information and details as appropriate to context and listening purpose in spoken communication
• Using simple strategies to understand and construct meaning in context (e.g. understanding aspects of pronunciation, guessing meaning from context)
• Understanding a range of accents (native and non-native)
• Understanding and making a record of academic/professional spoken information (e.g. completing patient information)
• Understanding and acting on relevant information in common nursing contexts (e.g. following a sequence of instructions)
• Speaking skills
• Initiating, sustaining, maintaining, repairing and extending spoken discourse (academic and medical) at a basic level appropriate to purpose and audience needs (e.g. asking for clarification, providing repetition and further information)
• Using appropriate basic spoken communication sequence and discourse markers (e.g. for giving instructions)
• Using intelligible pronunciation, stress and intonation patterns to ensure comprehensibility
• Planning, drafting and rehearsing for formal spoken communication (e.g. brief oral presentations)
• Participating in professional and academic contexts (e.g. group discussions)
• Reading skills
• Understanding function and purpose of range of basic academic texts (e.g. nursing textbooks) and common nursing text types (e.g. medical charts, patient notes)
• Understanding basic text organization and discourse markers (e.g. introduction, main points, cohesive devices)
• Understanding gist (skimming), specific information (scanning) and details (intensive reading) as appropriate to text type and reading purpose
• Using strategies to understand and construct meaning in simple texts (e.g. re-reading, identifying a specific area of confusion, guessing meaning from context)
• Identifying and interpreting relevant information in simple texts (e.g. diagrams/graphs, instructions)
• Understanding and making a record of relevant written information (note taking, highlighting etc.)
• Writing skills
• Producing relevant basic academic text types (e.g. discursive writing, giving opinion, argument for and against)
• Producing a range of common nursing text types (e.g. process description, instructions)
• Planning, drafting and editing simple texts
• Addressing the context, purpose and audience
• Organizing texts and forming paragraphs (topic sentence and supporting points) and using cohesive devices appropriate to text type
• Using register, content and language appropriate for basic academic texts (e.g. presenting and supporting an argument/point of view)
• Using register, content and language appropriate for common nursing text type (e.g. patient charts)

1. Micro skills (grammar and vocabulary)

• Accurate and appropriate understanding and use of grammar including:
  • Verbs
    • Tense formation and use
    • Expressing modality
    • Expressing conditionality
    • Use of active and passive voice
  • Quantifiers
  • Articles
  • Prepositions
• Accurate and appropriate understanding and use of vocabulary including:
  • A broad range of general vocabulary
  • Specialist vocabulary relevant to nursing and academic contexts
  • Common medical terminology and prefixes/suffixes and abbreviations relevant to nursing contexts

[Note: macro/micro skills and learning strategies/independent learning skills are integrated in individual lessons (i.e. not taught discretely) to reflect the nature of language and language learning]

Teaching-Learning Strategies

• Intensive and extended language practice
• Group/pair/individual activities (teacher monitored)
• Class presentations and discussions (with teacher and peer feedback)
• Individual and group written assignments (teacher and peer feedback) 

Teaching-Learning Aids

• Personal computer/laptop computer
• Range of authentic and/or simplified written and spoken text types (academic and nursing professional)

Evaluation

• Mid-term examination                       50%
• Final examination                               50%