Level Coordinators:

Elissa Austria Office  E-314 Phone:  Office: 908-965-6081 E-mail: austria@ucc.edu

Arlene Marcus Office  E-307 Office: 908-659-5138 E-mail: marcus@ucc.edu

 Prerequisites
ESL Placement Test or ESL 035
 

Course Description

Level 4 ESL is a full-semester 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 exams).  The purpose of this level is to teach intermediate listening, speaking, reading and writing skills in a context such as American history, civil rights, psychology, and business.  Emphasis is placed on extended reading and writing, comprehending level-appropriate listening selections and manipulating the language. 

 Students who are successful in passing this level move on to Level 5.  Students who need more time at the level must repeat the entire course.  In some cases a student may be able to skip to Level 6.

 

Course Objectives/Student Learning Outcomes

·   To demonstrate cultural awareness and knowledge of American history including civil rights and gender issues, and topics related to biographies, novels, and other texts used in class. 

·   To understand the main idea and details of conversations and informational narratives spoken at native speed and answer referential and inferential questions

·   To take notes with graphic organizers for response

·   To participate in discussions and respond to text and media with some control of fluency, accuracy, and pronunciation.

·   To comprehend fiction and non-fiction academic texts.

·   To apply reading strategies to identify main ideas, understand details, make inferences, make comparisons, summarize and use context clues.

·   To utilize an English dictionary for both meaning and word forms.

·   To write short narrative/expository essays that demonstrate control of content vocabulary and frequently used syntactical structure using basic essay organization

·   To write a variety of free-writing tasks that demonstrate fluency while analyzing and responding to situations and characters

·   To use basic editing strategies for grammar, punctuation, and format

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

·    To access level 4 software and to apply CALL strategies and use email with assistance

 

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, doing basic research with at least two print and/or electronic sources and incorporating these sources into an oral or written project.

 

  Requirements

• Midterm Exam – All students take a midterm exam which includes grammar, reading, writing and listening.
• Final Exam - All students take the same Level 4 final exam, which includes grammar,  reading, writing, and listening.
• In-class and at-home writing using some form of journals.
• Novels or biographies totaling 350 - 450 pages.  This may also include non-fiction readings and newspaper articles.
• 1 hour a week of computer lab.
• Frequent homework and quizzes.
• Communicating by email to the instructor. 

 Suggested

• Midterm conferences individually or in small groups.

 

Student Resources

 Required

• English In Action,  Book 4, - Foley & Neblett (Heinle & Heinle) OR

OR

Grammar In Context, Book 2  - Elbaum (Heinle & Heinle)

(Workbook and CD packets to accompany the texts are suggested)

• Linkages, Connerton & Reid (Heinle & Heinle)
• A choice of two books from the list of books and/or novels

 Optional

• Focus On Grammar Workbook, Intermediate (Pearson Education)
• English Alive by Fingado & Jerome (Heinle & Heinle)
• Azar Grammar Series
• Intermediate Grammar by Susan Kesner Bland (Oxford Univ. Press)
• Intermediate Listening Comprehension

CALL

Programs Available

·       DynEd

·       English Mastery

·       Focus on Grammar

·       Longman Interactive English

·       Perfect Copy

·       Skills Bank

 

Suggested Final Grade Calculation

Final Grade: The passing grade for the course is 75%; 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 5 work.   Pass = S; satisfactory    Fail = U; unsatisfactory   Stopped Attending = UF

 Suggested Final Grade Calculation

                        Midterm Exam                                                10%

                        Journal                                                            10%

                        Quizzes, Projects, Homework                         20%

                        Final Test on Reading Books/Novels              10%

                        Final Exam                                                      50%

Final Exam                                
Reading: 20 pts          
Grammar: 35 pts

Writing: 20 pts
Listening: 15 pts         

Speaking: 10 pts

           

Suggested Methodologies and Activities

 Speaking

Students will have opportunities to enter into discussion every class meeting.  By the end of the semester, students should be able to ask and answer questions with some degree of fluency.  They should be able to converse about personal experiences and the themes covered in class.

 Mini-presentations and short oral reports are required at this level; for example, presentations on the students’ native cultures, topics, themes and opinion polls based on the readings.

 Suggested listening activities

• Give students exposure to authentic speech through...

            a.  radio or TV broadcasts      b.  news, and   c.  movies

• Dictations

            a.  Dictate sentences from the grammar text or readings

            b.  Make up your own dictations

            c.  Have students dictate sentences to each other

• Lectures /Notetaking are recommended for this level.

 Reading

By the end of the semester, students will have completed 1-3  books and/or novels and academic readings.  They will have written about their reading on a regular basis.   Students are introduced to readings of an academic nature.  Students passing Level 4 should be able to read and write about full-length novels and academic articles in English.

 Suggested writing activities based on the reading

·       Reading journals (Double-entry journals or assigned topics)

·       Students write opinions about the action

·       Students write letters to the characters

·       Students write from the point of view of a character

·       Students relate the story to their own experience

·       Students write a new ending

 Library Assignments: 
Classes go to the Elizabeth or Plainfield campus library for supplemental research.  Students use CD-roms and/or the Internet to do research about the novel and oral reports about related reading topics

Writing

The expectation is to have students express their reactions to the reading and listening content, and narrate personal experience.  Compositions at this level show developing fluency and basic organization (i.e. introduction, paragraphs, conclusion).  Students write every week and complete a total of 10 writing assignments over the semester, including at least 3 double-draft essays.   By the end of the semester, in sixty minutes students should be able to write an in-class composition of two pages which is organized and supported.

 Suggested Writing Activities: 

·       Write summaries of the reading

·       Write about personal experiences based on topics in their texts

·       Write based on readings (See Reading section)

·       Write opinion papers with support

·       Utilize rewriting, revising, peer-review and simple editing strategies

·       Write journals including letters to/from characters in books

 Grammar

Grammar is taught in context, and the emphasis is on students’ being able to use the structures to express themselves in oral and written activities.  By the end of the semester, students should be able to recognize the structures covered and use them in controlled situations with some degree of accuracy.  Pair work and group work are essential and required.
 

  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.

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

  

ESL 042/043/044/045              Grammar/Themes Chart

 

Functions  (asking and stating)	Possible Contexts/Themes (related vocabulary and expressions)	Grammar Points (statement, question, and negative forms)
Comparing and contrasting   Giving suggestions and advice   Expressing opinions   Describing changes   Making comparisons	Significant life events   Schools and campus   Citizenship   American and US history (civil rights and gender issues)   Biographies   Modern inventions and technology   Work and careers   Test taking   Music	Primary:   Contrast of basic tenses   Present perfect/Present perfect continuous   Time clauses   Present Modals:   Past and present passive   Adjective clauses   Introduce: Subordination and Coordination ------------------------------- *Review of grammar points from previous levels

 To comprehend and produce the items in the grammar/theme chart with accuracy and

functional fluency in controlled situations.