Course Syllabus for Beginner Students

Course Description and Objectives:

This course is designed to teach students the language necessary to interact with community members and meet immediate needs on a daily basis. The course within the curriculum has integrated, multi-skills syllabus that links grammar, communicative functions, and topics.Each lesson includes activities that reinforce the theme through a situation where the target language will be used, a function that will be needed, or a skill that will be put into practice.

The lessons are designed to maximize the potential for second language acquisition in two ways. First, the lessons in each section integrate all four learning modalities; speaking, writing, listening, and reading. Second, the lessons are communicative, interactive, and cater to learners of all styles; kinesthetic, visual, audio, and tactile. Each involves students in real-life communication tasks that cause them to want and need to read, write, speak, and listen to English. The tasks, therefore, are usually arranged around themes relevant to learners such as family, relationships, survival in a new country, educational systems, friendships, politics, marriage, and love. Grammar is seen as an important component of language competence and is presented communicatively with a focus on both accuracy and fluency, thereby linking grammatical form and communicative function. Fluency is achieved through pair work, group work, and role plays. Throughout the course, students have the opportunity to personalize their own knowledge and to express their ideas and opinions. Writing and speaking rubrics are included in order to assess students during each lesson. Each class is three hours in length and each program is about 10 weeks.

Required textbook: Stand Out Basic Grammar Challenge, 2^nd Edition by Rob Jenkins and Staci Johnson.

Grading Criteria:

Class attendance and participation	10%
Test	30%
Final	30%
In-class activities/exercises	30%
Total	100%

Requirements for successful completion of the course:

At a minimum, students must achieve the following:

-       A passing grade of C or above

-       Completion of all required tests

-       Submission of and participation in all in-class exercises

-       Adherence to the attendance policy

Attendance Policy:

Attending every class is mandatory according to the rules and regulations from the Institution. Absences for which a medical or court excuse is provided will be recorded but not figured into the attendance grade. There are no absences, late arrivals, or early departures accepted without the professional courtesy of an email sent to the instructor prior to the start of the class of the class session.

Classroom Rules of Conduct:

The classroom should be conducted in a safe and positive learning environment. Any acts of disrespect or negative critique will not be tolerated and students’ overall performance will be affected. Students are expected to fulfill the required readings before class in order to fully participate in class discussion. Students are expected to be on time and prepared. Students must turn off mobile devices when entering class.

Please work hard and honor your classmates with your best! 

Course Policy: Plagiarism

Teachers cannot tolerate the misrepresentation of work as the students’ own. This often involves the use by one student or another student’s work. In the event that plagiarism is evident and documented, all students involved in the conscious decision to misrepresent work must receive an F as the grade for the project.

Goals:

Reading: Students will be able to read and comprehend basic text and signs. Students will be able to read newspapers or magazine article with vocabulary help and a little support.

Speaking: Students will be able to hold a basic conversation on a variety of common topics. Students should be confident enough in their speaking ability to ask questions entirely in English and to communicate on a basic level with a variety of people. Students should be able to speak in sentences and use correct intonation.

Writing: Students will be able to write complete sentences, compose paragraphs, and write a short note or letter. Students will be able to write on the topics or themes covered in the course and should be familiar with basic written formats in English. For example, students should use correct punctuation when writing essays or letters.

Listening: Students should be able to complete the listening exercises and be able to comprehend the utterances and conversation they hear.

Grammar: Students will have a basic understanding of English grammar. Students will learn verb tenses, irregular verbs, the correct use of the verb “to be,” plural forms, and sentence structures.

Vocabulary: Students will gain new vocabulary words on all of the topics covered in the course. They should be able to pronounce new vocabulary words and use them correctly in a sentence. Students will be able to understand word definitions without translations.

Content:

Week one:	-       Student program and orientation -       Students assessment and evaluation -       Introduction: class activity
Week two:	-       Listening comprehension: introduction, phrases, small conversations, listen to songs and video clips -       Reading: vocabulary -       Writing: dialogue -       Speaking: role plays, pronounce the alphabet, dialogue presentation
Week three:	-       Vocabulary -       Numbers and letters -       Identifying information -       Speaking activity
Week four:	-       Reading comprehension: read the passage, discussion, reading activity -       Spelling and grammar
Week five:	-       Writing: ARMS, fill out job and library card application, short paragraph/story -       Vocabulary and phrases -       Midterm/test
Week Six:	-       Vocabulary -       Prepositions: location -       Asking/giving instructions/directions using graphs, maps, drawings, etc
Week 7:	-       Grammar: descriptions of people, places, and things -       Pronunciation
Week 8:	-       Review grammar -       Pronunciation
Week 9:	-       Listening comprehension: listen to conversations, songs, clips -       Writing: short descriptive paragraph -       Vocabulary
Week 10:	-       Wrap-up activities -       Writing assignments -       Final exam