UNIcert IV/1 Englisch der Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften - Einzelansicht

This course is the FIRST part of a two-semester course leading to

UNIcert® IV English for Economics/Business Studies and Social Sciences

English language proficiency certificate

With the exception of accounting and traditional business finance, there is a natural fit between business and economics and the social sciences.  Consider that social science foundations are found in all other aspects of business: human resources, marketing, leadership development, motivation, compensation, sales, entrepreneurship. Even finance has reached out to the social sciences with the advent of crowdfunding.

It is not necessary to be enrolled in a Business Administration, Economics or Social Science degree program to participate in the course.

Below are RECOMMENDED SUPPLEMENTARY TEXTS.  These are not required texts, but familiarity with the texts below will help you excel in the course:

     THE CASE STUDY HANDBOOK. William Ellet. Harvard Business Review Press 2007. 978 1 4221 0158 2.

     ANALYZING A CASE STUDY. Vanessa van der Ham. Pocket Study Skills, Kate Williams, ed. Macmillan 2016. 978 1 137 56620 1.

     PRESENTATION ZEN (2d ed.) by Garr Reynolds.

     ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC RESEARCH.  Adrian Wallwork.  Springer 2013.  978-1-4614-4267-7.

     ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN USE (3rd ed.) by Raymond Murphy. Cambridge 2004. Third edition.

This course is supported by a course-specific E-Learning course as well as additional practice materials on "Moodle 2.UP". 

It is not necessary to be enrolled in a Business Administration, Economics or Social Science degree program to participate in the course.

To enroll in this subject-specific course, a student must either attain a score of 90% or better on the placement test OR have successfully completed a UNIcert III English language certificate course.

It is not necessary to be enrolled in a Business Administration, Economics or Social Science degree program to participate in the course.

Business and Economics students: Please be aware that a score of 90 – 100% on the placement test qualifies a student to take either UNIcert® III/2 English for Economics and Business Studies or UNIcert® IV/1 English for Economics/Business Studies and Social Sciences.

The number of credit points awarded for successful completion of each course is determined by the Course and Examination Regulations (StPO) of each student’s degree program.

Certificate: THIS course is the non-certificate course.  The certificate UNIcert® IV English for Economics/Business Studies and Social Sciences -- is awarded upon successful completion of the UNIcert® IV Certificate exam following the UNIcert® IV/2 course in the following semester.

UNIcert® IV/1 English for Economics/Business Studies  and Social Sciences

The aim of this course is to strengthen a student’s English language skills to the level of an extremely competent academic level, using business case studies developed by leading business schools as a platform to exercise reading comprehension and text analysis, as well as develop analytical and critical thinking abilities, reasoning skills (deductive reasoning), and rhetorical constructions in written and oral expression in either positing solutions to actual problems or critiquing an implemented solution.

Working in self-selected pairs and in a strict timeframe, each pair will choose a case study to analyze based on their expressed area of interest and then present possible solutions or critiques in an in-class presentation, giving evidence based on text analysis and independent research and discovery why their proposed solution or critique is optimal of possible alternatives.  

Following the oral presentation the student must submit a written case study analysis for critique.

Final Exam: The final written exam will test the student’s reading comprehension and written business case study analysis capabilities under supervised testing conditions and a very strict and limited time frame.

Students with advanced English language skills who wish to improve their academic writing, critical thinking, argumentation and presentation skills.

It is not necessary to be enrolled in a Business Administration, Economics or Social Science degree program to participate in the course.