Australian Study & Presentation Skills

Instructor Sandra Elsom

Course Objective

This course provides students with the opportunity to develop presentation skills in English while learning about a different culture, and comparing and contrasting that culture with their own. The course introduces students to a number of basic sociology topics.

Course Outline

Module 1: Introductions, Identity, Culture
Module 2: Australian popular culture, Presentation Skills
Module 3: Class presentations/The (Mis)representation of history
Module 4: Class presentations/Class & inequality
Module 5: Difference, deviance & crime
Module 6: Australian political systems
Module 7: Academic research and writing skills
Module 8: Racism
Module 9: Cultural diversity
Module 10: Indigenous Australia
Module 11: Presentation skills
Module 12: Student presentations

Teaching Method

The course will be delivered in interactive lecture format, with active learning exercises. Students will be presenting in class on a regular basis. The language of instruction is English.

Prerequisites

Formal requirements:Full-time student in the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences

Content requirements: Fluency in English.

Assessment

Oral presentation and academic writing skills will be taught in this course, in the context of Australian social and cultural issues. There are three assessments in this course, two of which include oral presentations. The third assessment is an academic essay.

Set Book

There are no set texts for this course.

Recommended Rreadings

Readings will be provided weekly. Content is drawn from a number of text books including:

Holmes, D, Hughes, K & Julian, R 2011, “Australian sociology: A changing society”, 3rd edn, Pearson Australia, Victoria.
Germov, J & Poole, M (eds), 2011 “Public sociology: An introduction to Australian Society”, 2nd edn, Allen & Unwin, NSW.
Lopez, M 2000, “The origins of multiculturalism in Australian politics 1945-1975”, Melbourne University Press, Victoria.
Nash, G 2013 “A guide to university assessment”, Wiley, QLD.
Singleton, G, Aitkin, D, Jinks, B & Warhurst, J 2013 “Australian political institutions”, 10th edn, Pearson Australia, NSW.