Level Coordinators:

Prof. Barbara Foley Office E-416 Phone: 908-659-5173 E-mail: foley@ucc.edu

Prof. Anne Bertin Office E-211 Phone:  908-965-2352 E-mail:  bertin@ucc.edu

 Prerequisites  

ESL Placement Test or ESL Level 2

 

Course Description

ESL Level 3 is a full-semester low-intermediate academic sequence designed for students whose native language is not English.  The course meets four days a week, 12 hours a week for 15 weeks including the final exams.  The purpose of this level is to teach low intermediate listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in a cultural context such as the environment, crime, health, and American geography.  Emphasis is placed on extended reading and writing longer passages, comprehending level-appropriate listening selections and manipulating the language.  Students are expected to do simple library research, give an oral presentation, and/or write a report.

Students who are successful in passing this level move on to Level 4.  Students who need more time at this level must repeat the entire course. In some cases a student may be able to skip to Level 5.

 

Course Objectives/Student Learning Outcomes

·   To demonstrate cultural awareness of  health issues, jobs, current events, U.S. geography, and issues related to novels and other texts being used in class.

·   To understand short conversations and narratives about familiar contexts spoken at native speed and restate main ideas and details

·   To take notes with graphic organizers

·   To demonstrate oral competence in simple discussions and narratives of self with basic fluency, accuracy, and pronunciation

·   To understand fiction and authentic texts, such as news articles.

·   To apply reading strategies to separate main ideas from supporting details, make inferences and predictions.

·   To make sensible guesses about unfamiliar material that is contextualized

·   To write narrative paragraphs and short compositions that show control of content vocabulary and basic syntax patterns

·   To write simple free-writing tasks that demonstrate developing  fluency and that respond to situations and characters

·   To comprehend and produce the items in the grammar/theme chart with accuracy and developing fluency in controlled situations.

·   To access Level 3 software in UCC labs/ALC and apply basic CALL strategies.

 

Information Literacy

By the conclusion of the semester, all students who pass this course will demonstrate, in at least one graded project, familiarity with the research process. This should include attending a library orientation, obtaining at least one library source and incorporating those sources into an oral or written project.

 

  Requirements

• Mid-term Exam - All students take a midterm exam which includes grammar, reading, writing, and listening.
• Final Exam - All students in level three take the same final reading, grammar, listening, and writing exam. 
• Reading - two to three books, e.g. two novels and one biography, total 250 - 300 pages
• In-class and at home writings
• Frequent homework and quizzes
• 1 hour a week of computer lab
• All students are required to buy their own textbooks.

 

Suggested

• Midterm conferences with each student and instructor

 

Student Resources

Required

• English in Action, Book 3 (text, workbook, and CDs), - Foley & Neblett (Heinle &

    Heinle)     Note:  with English in Action, no listening text is required

or

• Grammar in Context, Book 1, 3^rd edition –Elbaum (Heinle & Heinle)

            If classes are using Grammar in Context, choose one of the following for listening:

• North Star – Focus on Listening and Speaking Basic (Addison Wesley)

            or

• Now Hear This – Foley (Heinle & Heinle)
• Two novels or one novel and one biography from the reading list

 Optional

• Ready to Write, 2^nd ed, Blanchard and Root
• The Basic Newbury House Dictionary

 CALL Programs available:

• Longman Interactive 2
• Focus on Grammar
• DynEd
• English Mastery
• Internet sites, e.g. esl-lab

 

Suggested Final Grade Calculation

To pass the course and go to Level 4, a student must receive 75% as an overall final average for the semester; however, students who achieve a combined final grade of 70 – 74% may also pass if the instructors feel that the student is ready for Level 4 work.  Student work for the complete semester will determine the final grade.   Possible final grades are: Satisfactory (S) , Unsatisfactory (U) or Stopped Attending (UF). Students who receive a U or UF must repeat the entire course.

 Suggested Final Grade Calculation

             Midterm exam:                                    20%

            Final exam:                                         50%

            Speaking:                                            10%

            Quizzes, Projects, Homework             10%

            Tests on novels                                   10%

 

Final Exam

Grammar:        35 points           

Reading:          20 points

Writing:           20 points

Listening:        15 points

Speaking:        10 points

 

Suggested Methodologies and Activities

 Speaking

Students will be given opportunities to participate in discussions at every class meeting.  By the end of the semester, students should be able to speak about their lives, experiences, and textbook themes with limited fluency. 

 Students will practice in pairs and groups to enhance speaking practice.  Students will give mini-presentations and very short oral reports of one to two minutes.  For students who have difficulty in speaking, there are conversation groups available in the ALC. 

 Listening

At this level students listen to simple narratives and conversations.  Students can also be exposed to authentic speech from video, television, and radio clips. 

 Suggested listening activities:

• Take simple notes about the listening passage.
• Retell information in students’ own words
• Take dictation of sentences from the grammar text, readings, or listening passages

 Reading

During the semester, the students will read two short novels or one novel and one biography.  Students will also read a variety of short, simple articles related to classroom themes, such as those in each unit of English in Action 3. 

 Suggested reading activities

• Keep a reading journal
• Maintain a vocabulary notebook of new words
• Answer questions about the story and characters
• Role-play situations in the novel
• Write letters to the characters or the author

 Library assignment:   Students go to the library for supplemental research.  Consult the librarian to plan an orientation for your class.  Possible assignments:  Choose an easy-to-read book for additional reading; find specific information about a classroom topic; locate information about a state or country; locate specific reference books in the library.

 Writing

Level 3 students write about their personal experiences and the novels they are reading.  Compositions at this level should show some degree of developing fluency.  Students are introduced to the writing process including rewriting, revising, and simple editing.  Students write weekly compositions.  By the end of the semester students should be able to write an in-class composition of one page.

 Suggested Writing Activities

·       Write summaries of listening passages

·       Write about personal experiences based on topics in the texts

·       Keep reading journals

·       Write about the characters in the books read in class

 Grammar

Grammar is taught in context, and the emphasis is on students' being able to use the structures to express themselves in communicative activities.  Students practice in pairs and in groups.  By the end of the semester, students should have some control of  contrasting basic tenses and other grammar points of the level. 

 Suggested grammar activities

• Using pictures to elicit structures
• Conducting classroom surveys, information gathering, and “Find someone who . . .  activities”
• Writing sentence completion and combination activities
• Preparing and acting out dialogues
• Retelling stories using appropriate grammar
• Giving opinions and suggestions about common problems and health issues
• Comparing schedules, families, neighborhoods

 CALL/ALC

Students will use networked and Web software in the computer lab with their classes once a week. Students are encouraged to spend additional time using the programs in the Academic Learning Center (ALC) labs.

 Suggested strategies

·       Students will learn the mechanics and help features of the CALL programs.

·       Students will keep journals of their CALL work and the strategies they use, copying sentences that they would like to remember or that they have questions about.

·       Students will complete CALL software assignments in the ALC independently.

  

Level 032, 033, 034, 035                  Grammar/Themes Chart

 

Functions (asking and stating)	Possible Contexts/Themes (related vocabulary and expressions)	Grammar Points (statement, question, negative forms)
Describing routines and schedules   Describing processes   Asking for and giving advice and assistance   Narrating events and experiences   Explaining plans and making predictions   Making comparisons   Describing obligations and responsibilities	Classroom and campus   Computer laboratory and library   Health and health resources   Holiday  and cultural traditions   Family and work/personal duties and responsibilities   Current events   U.S. history   World geography	Primary: Simple present   Contrast of basic tenses   Time clauses   Modals –could, should, may, might, must, must not, have to, don’t have to   Comparatives with as…as, not as…as, and superlatives   Count and non-count and quantifiers (much, many, few, less)   Adverbs of frequency     *Review of grammar points from previous levels

 To comprehend and produce the items in the grammar/theme chart with accuracy and developing fluency in controlled situations.