Course details

Summary

Gain advanced English language skills in reading, writing, speaking and listening.

This will enable you to deal effectively and confidently with most situations in an English-speaking country. These English skills will also provide a basis for you to be able to progress into mainstream academic programmes from the National Qualifications Framework (Level 6 and above).

What skills will I gain?

By successfully completing this programme, you will have the English language skills to:

• understand the main ideas of complex spoken texts
• speak with fluency and spontaneity to communicate information, ideas and thoughts in extended discussions on a range of familiar and unfamiliar topics
• use appropriate skills and language to manage interactions in a wide range of formal and informal settings
• read and understand complex texts independently on familiar and unfamiliar topics
• summarise and synthesise information across a range of complex texts for a specific purpose
• write extended, crafted, logically-structured, coherent texts appropriate to audience and purpose
• be able to synthesise, evaluate and apply information and arguments from a range of sources.

Graduate employment opportunities

Graduates of this qualification will have the English language skills to work in positions that require:

• complex interpersonal communication
• understanding of complex, context-specific professional and/or technical texts
• writing of complex, context-specific communications
• full participation, interaction and initiative in a team.

This qualification is designed to equip you with the English language skills to enable you to seek professional registration with regulatory standard bodies.

Pathways into this programme

International students can study the New Zealand Certificate in English Language (Level 4) if they do not meet the entry requirements for this programme.

Further study options

This advanced certificate facilitates meeting the language requirements for:

• programmes/courses that are linguistically demanding and/or a specialised field of study

• most postgraduate programmes/courses, depending on the focus of the programme leading to this qualification.

Graduates of this qualification will be able to pathway into a coherent programme of study at Otago Polytechnic Auckland International Campus.

You will study

This qualification is made up of four courses in reading, writing, speaking and listening. All courses are compulsory and will be studied at the same time. Within each of these skills, complex grammatical structures, tenses and vocabulary for specific purposes will be utilised.

Reading (15 credits)

Gain and understanding of the organisation of academic/specialised texts in order to locate specific information, take notes, summarise and differentiate between fact and opinion.

Writing (15 credits)

Learn how to produce crafted texts for specified audiences in academic or professional contexts, including discursive essays, research reports and business cases.

Speaking (15 credits)

Discover how to speak on a range of academic/professional topics within academic and/or professional contexts and to be capable of sustaining discourse on a particular topic.

Listening (15 credits)

Demonstrate an understanding of spoken texts and learn how to process information for academic and/or professional purposes.

Entry criteria

You must:

• be 16 years of age or older on January 1st in the year that you enrol, unless approved otherwise by the Programme Leader
• reasonably expect to achieve the standards required for successful completion of the programme or course.

In addition, international students must hold either:

• NZCEL Level 4, OR

• IELTS Academic score of 5.5 with no band score lower than 5.0, or equivalent, from one test in the preceding two years.