Course Name Intensive English
Course Information Course Code Course No. Course Level Credit Hours Prerequisite(s)
1703-102 First 3
Course Track

Course Description:

This (beginning to low-intermediate) course focuses on improving students’ abilities in reading comprehension, building spelling and vocabulary skills, and writing well-formed and well-organized paragraphs. Attention is also paid to listening and oral communication skills.

In reading, students will be taught how to find the main idea and major details of a paragraph and skim, scan, and read a text for main ideas and specific information. Students practice reading skills such as pre-reading/surveying texts, adjusting their speed and reading style to different skimming and scanning requirements. Reading and vocabulary go hand and hand, and vocabulary work focuses on words in context.

In writing, students will learn how to edit for capitalization and punctuation; write complete simple and compound sentences; recognize the parts of a paragraph; brainstorm, outline, and write a basic formal paragraph; and use transitional phrases in paragraphs.

In communication skills, this course will help students improve their basic interpersonal communication skills through extensive conversation and speaking practice and by means of a variety of learning techniques, including group and pair exercises, role plays, interviews, etc. The course will also help students improve their listening skills and expand their vocabulary while they develop and practice their pronunciation.

In grammar, students will practice basic and intermediate grammar structures in various contexts. Instruction will aim to increase students’ confidence that they can use the grammar in real life situations as opposed to only knowing it as a school subject. There will be consideration of functional aspects of grammar in the language, and of grammar in context, as well as of grammar’s connection with other language aspects (in particular, pronunciation, reading, writing).

Course outcome:

1. Recognize and use reading strategies; e.g. skimming, scanning, guessing meaning from context, inferencing, etc.
2.Recall and reproduce information from listening.
3.Converse about daily and leisure activities and personal interests.
4.Identify or use appropriate language for informational purposes (e.g., to identify, describe, ask for information, state needs, command, agree or disagree, ask permission.
5.Write short, well-organized paragraphs about a variety of topics integrated with the reading material.
6.Recognize and use basic and intermediate grammar structures in various contexts.
7.Recognize and derive meaning from written and oral texts.
8.Interpret information about a variety of topics related to the topics covered in the textbooks.
9. Demonstrate self-learning ability.
10.Respond to class discussions.
11.Distinguish main ideas from details

Assessment Policy Assignment 10% Quiz 50% Lab --- Project ---%
Midterm ----% Final 40% Others -
Textbook 1. Bitterli, et al (2014) Ventures 2: Student's Book. New York. Cambridge University Press.
2. Bitterli, et al (2014) Ventures 2: Workbook. New York. Cambridge University Press.
3. Bitterli, et al (2014) Ventures 3: Student's Book. New York. Cambridge University Press.
4. Bitterli, et al (2014) Ventures 3: Workbook. New York. Cambridge University Press.
References 1. Ventures Student Arcade:
http://www.cambridge.org/us/esl/venturesadulted/venturesarcade/