ENGL 080 Learning Academic English
This integrated ESL course prepares students whose first language is not English to read and write in college-level courses. It aims at improving and developing their English language skills to be at a level similar to native English speakers. This holistic course combines several skills both linguistic and cultural. So, students of this course will: learn to write correct standard English sentences and paragraphs; be able to read, understand, identify, and analyze information; be able to speak fluently and convey their ideas; and understand different cultural values that pertain to life in the United States, both academic and personal.
ENGL 080Learning Academic English
Please note: This is not a course syllabus. A course syllabus is unique to a particular section of a course by instructor. This curriculum guide provides general information about a course.
I. General Information
Department
English and Languages Academic
II. Course Specification
Course Type
{33F85C8E-F028-4EA1-B462-29A7236FE794}
Credit Hours Narrative
4 credits
Semester Contact Hours Lecture
60
Semester Contact Hours Lab
0
Semester Contact Hours Clinical
0
III. Catalog Course Description
This integrated ESL course prepares students whose first language is not English to read and write in college-level courses. It aims at improving and developing their English language skills to be at a level similar to native English speakers. This holistic course combines several skills both linguistic and cultural. So, students of this course will: learn to write correct standard English sentences and paragraphs; be able to read, understand, identify, and analyze information; be able to speak fluently and convey their ideas; and understand different cultural values that pertain to life in the United States, both academic and personal.
IV. Student Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, a student will be able to:
- Demonstrate, through conversation, understanding of native speakers’ utterances containing unfamiliar vocabulary.
- Demonstrate understanding of the essential points of a conversation in academic settings.
- Use appropriate reading strategies for understanding unfamiliar texts or materials.
- Apply the competency and fluency gained in basic reading to achieve academic success and test-taking success.
- Identify main ideas and key points in unfamiliar reading passages and use syntactic clues and other context clues to interpret complex sentences and unfamiliar words.
- Evaluate reading content for facts or opinions; make inferences by analyzing contextual and syntactic clues to interpret the author’s point of view.
- Apply a series of steps in writing process to develop essays of different organizations suitable for unique disciplinary expectations.
- Write summaries of reading passages, take notes from lectures, and write formally and informally to meet audience needs.
- Evaluate unique cultural situations and formulate appropriate responses when such situations differ from the learner’s home culture.
- Develop and demonstrate strategies for parsing and responding to cultural misunderstandings and differences.
V. Topical Outline (Course Content)
Speaking & Listening
- A. Pronunciation
- 1. Sentence stress, rhythm and intonation
- 2. Phrasal stress and thought groups
- 3. Emphasis patterns for content and structure words
- 4. Constrastive stress and intonation
- 5. Linking and reductions
- 6. Rate and volume
- 7. Evaluation and individualized instruction to meet each student’s pronunciation difficulties
- B. Listening
- 1. Understanding longer lectures and longer segments from broadcast media
- 2. Strategies for effective listening
- 3. Strategies for effective note-taking
- 4. Using context to aid comprehension
- 5. Drawing inferences and predicting information
- 6. Using sound patterns to aid comprehension:
- 7. Using sentence and contrastive stress
- 8. Intonation patterns
- 9. Recognizing reduced speech
- 10. Focusing on grammatical word endings for meaning
- 11. Listening to information given by instructor and other students in classroom discussion; evaluating its relevance
- C. Speaking
- 1. Planning, organizing, practicing and delivering longer oral presentations on academic topics using outside source materials
- 2. Participating in class discussions with native speakers
- a. Strategies for agreeing, disagreeing, interrupting, clarifying, etc.
- b. Leading small group and whole class discussions
- 3. Impromptu and planned speaking
- 4. Orally summarizing information
Reading
- A. The reading process, including pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading strategies
- B. Reading excerpts from authentic academic texts and textbooks in English for overall understanding and for detail
- 1. Identifying main ideas and details
- 2. Recognizing text structure
- 3. Identifying and using elements of textbook design to understand textbook content.
- C. Strategies for dealing effectively with unknown vocabulary met while reading, including context clues, word parts, dictionary use, etc.
- D. Recognizing and using an increasing range of vocabulary
- E. Locating information quickly in new as well as previously read material
- F. Recognizing and using an increasing range of vocabulary
Writing
- A. Writing paragraphs and essays of increasing length
- B. The writing process, including strategies for pre-writing, drafting, revising and editing
- 1. Peer- and self- revising and editing
- 2. Making effective use of peer and instructor feedback on writing
- C. Constructing sentences and paragraphs clearly and effectively
- D. Combining paragraphs into more sophisticated compositions with introduction, body and conclusion
- 1. Beginning to develop thesis statements
- E. Recognizing and following standard U.S. academic writing conventions
- F. Recognizing and using formal academic grammar and vocabulary
- G. Understanding and appropriately varying sentence structure in writing
- H. Beginning to integrate information from outside sources with personal ideas and experiences
Grammar
- A. Review of the sentence and its parts:
- 1. Parts of speech: Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions
- 2. Parts of sentences: Subjects, verbs and objects
- 3. Standard word order in statements, negative statements, yes/no and wh-questions
- 4. Subject-verb agreement
- 5. Common sentence problems (e.g., comma splices, fragments and run-on sentences)
- B. Conjunctions: Coordinating and subordinating conjunctions, conjunctive adverbs
- C. Verbs:
- 1. Simple, progressive, perfect and perfect progressive aspect in present, past and future tenses
- 2. Modal verbs, including phrasal modals and modal perfects
- 3. Passive voice
- 4. Real and unreal conditionals
- D. Clauses:
- 1. Adjective clauses
- 2. Noun clauses
- 3. Adverb clauses
- 4. Quoted and indirect speech
- 5. Participial phrases (reduced clauses)
- E. Nouns, Adjectives and Adverbs:
- 1. Count and non-count nouns
- 2. Articles, determiners, quantifiers, and possessives
- F. Dictionary and Grammar Reference
- 1. Understanding the different types of information in a dictionary entry
- 2. Locating and using information from a grammar reference
Cultural Awareness
VI. Delivery Methodologies