CURRICULUM SUMMARY
LEVEL 100 COURSE OVERVIEW DESCRIPTIONS*
ENGLISH CORE: GRAMMAR AND WRITING
Course Description
The focus of this course is on the production of well-written basic sentences and short, unified paragraphs. Students will be introduced to basic affirmative and negative statements and questions in the simple past, present, and future tenses. These structures will be practiced orally as well as in writing.
By the end of the session, students will be able to:
- produce basic affirmative and negative sentences and questions in the simple past, present, and future tenses
- assemble these into short, unified paragraphs
- recognize elements of the format of a basic paragraph (capitalization, punctuation, indentation, and the like).
READING AND VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT
Course Description
Students will read passages based on a 350-800 word vocabulary and answer objective questions about the content of the passages. Students will also respond orally and intelligibly to basic questions about topics read. Students will increase both their active and passive vocabularies.
By the end of the session, students will be able to:
- read passages based on a 350-800 word vocabulary and answer objective questions about the content of the passages; and
- increase vocabulary to the 800-word level.
LISTENING AND SPEAKING
Course Description
Students will learn to use appropriate English for survival situations in a communicative way, including the spelling, meaning and use of the practical vocabulary for these situations. Students will practice the grammar structures needed to express specified communicative functions and the basic sounds required to make the students' pronunciation intelligible.
By the end of the session, students will be able to :
- communicate in survival situations with a rudimentary level of correctness in pronunciation and grammar; and
- understand statements, questions, and answers relevant to a limited range of functions.
LEVEL 200 COURSE OVERVIEW DESCRIPTIONS*
ENGLISH CORE: GRAMMAR AND WRITING
Course Description
This course will focus on the production of short, simple paragraphs about a single topic using the vocabulary and grammatical structures learned. Students will be introduced to simple prefixes and suffixes. Students will ask and answer questions about selected topics and discuss those topics. They will be introduced to statements and questions in the past progressive and simple present perfect. Students will learn simple modals, basic information about noun phrases, and the comparison of adjectives and adverbs. Course emphasis is on practice of these structures orally as well as in writing.
By the end of the session, students will be able to:
- recognize and use a wider variety of grammatical structures such as modals, noun phrases, comparatives, and the present perfect and past progressive tenses;
- identify certain parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, preposition);
- recognize a narrow range of prefixes and suffixes; and
- produce short, simple paragraphs about a variety of topics.
READING AND VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT
Course Description
Students will read passages based on an 800-1500 word vocabulary and answer both objective and simple information questions about the passages, as well as identify the main idea. Students will ask and answer questions and briefly discuss selected topics. Students will increase their active and passive vocabularies.
By the end of the session, students will be able to:
- read passages based on a 800-1500 word vocabulary and answer objective questions about the content of the passages;
- identify the main idea of such passages;
- briefly discuss these passages;
- engage in reading for pleasure in English; and
- increase both active and passive vocabulary beyond the 1500-word level.
LISTENING AND SPEAKING
Course Description
Students will learn to use appropriate English for difficult survival situations in a communicative way, including the spelling, meaning and use of the practical vocabulary for those situations, the grammar structures needed to express such communicative functions, and the basic sounds and stress and intonation patterns required to make the students' speech intelligible.
By the end of the session, students will be able to:
- use appropriate English for difficult survival situations;
- recognize and make use of basic register differences;
- produce basic narratives;
- understand and respond to questions, conversations, and narratives based on a limited range of functions; and
- increase vocabulary in a variety of content areas.
LEVEL 300 COURSE OVERVIEW DESCRIPTIONS*
ENGLISH CORE: GRAMMAR AND WRITING
Course Description
The focus of this course is on the development of well-organized paragraphs and one-sentence summaries using the grammatical structures learned. Students will be introduced to basic adverb and adjective clauses, modals, the present perfect progressive, the past perfect and the basic passive forms. The major focus of the grammatical structures learned should be on adjective clauses and modals. Course emphasis is on practice of these structures orally as well as in writing.
By the end of the session, students will be able to:
- recognize and use grammatical structures such as progressive and perfect tenses, basic passive forms, and basic adverb and adjective clauses;
- identify the concept of rhetorical types (narrative, descriptive, and expository writing);
- write unified and coherent paragraphs on a variety of topics;
- summarize paragraphs in one sentence; and
- show control over format (indentation, margins, punctuation and capitalization, spelling and word divisions).
READING AND VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT
Course Description
Students will read passages based on a 1500-2500 word vocabulary and answer objective questions, infer the meanings of new vocabulary and determine the main idea(s). Students will discuss selected topics.
By the end of the session, students will be able to:
- read passages based on a 1500-2500 word vocabulary;
- make use of higher-level reading skills such as skimming and scanning, finding main ideas, summarizing, and understanding meaning of individual words from context;
- recognize a wider variety of prefixes and suffixes;
- make use of an English-English dictionary; and
- begin to work on increasing reading speed.
LISTENING AND SPEAKING
Course Description
Students will learn to participate in group discussions on selected topics. Students will master the concrete and abstract vocabulary for them to participate in these discussions. They will also learn to monitor their own speech and that of their peers.
By the end of the session, students will be able to:
- participate in discussions on selected topics;
- monitor their own speech and that of others for accuracy;
- produce accurately most vowel and consonant sounds, clusters, and stress and intonation patterns;
- engage in out-of-class activities to help augment their vocabulary and communicative ability; and
- take part in tape-recording and videotaping of class discussions and skits for later student evaluation.
LEVEL 400 COURSE OVERVIEW DESCRIPTIONS*
ENGLISH CORE: GRAMMAR AND WRITING
Course Description
In this course, students make the transition from writing well-organized paragraphs to writing well-organized (albeit simplistic) expository essays. Students will learn to write one-paragraph summaries. Students will complete their learning of tenses, both active and passive. They will be introduced to gerunds and infinitives and expand their knowledge of dependent clauses. The focus of this course is on tenses and on adverbial and adjectival clauses. Course emphasis is on practice of these structures orally as well as in writing.
By the end of the session, students will be able to:
- use effectively all verb tenses as well as gerunds, infinitives, and adverbial and adjectival clauses;
- recognize and avoid certain errors in writing (run-ons, sentence fragments, and comma splices);
- produce multi-paragraph essays and one-paragraph summaries;
- incorporate ideas from class discussions into their writing
READING AND VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT
Course Description
In this course, students will read fairly lengthy paragraphs and essays and be able to distinguish major and minor supports, infer basic information and respond to questions in short answers. Students will discuss topics read about and studied with some grammatical accuracy. Students will also read a simplified novel.
By the end of the session, students will be able to:
- read lengthy paragraphs for main ideas, supporting details, specific factual information, and inferences;
- read a simplified novel and produce a book report, chapter summaries, descriptions of characters, etc.; and
- improve reading speed while recalling information, skimming for main idea, and scanning for specific details.
LISTENING AND SPEAKING
Course description
Students will learn about several cultural topics and build confidence in speaking by participating in class projects and by paying continuous attention to grammatical accuracy and pronunciation. Students will increase their knowledge and use of concrete and abstract vocabulary items.
By the end of the session, students will be able to:
- improve their confidence in speaking in class before an audience;
- discuss class topics with greater accuracy in pronunciation and grammar;
- learn about several cultural topics of relevance to their presence in the U.S.
LEVEL 500 COURSE OVERVIEW DESCRIPTIONS*
ENGLISH CORE: READING AND WRITING
Course Description
In this course, students will work on improving their ability to write a well-organized essay. Students will write formal summaries and be able to outline and paraphrase a passage. Students will write a basic documented cause-and-effect essay which will incorporate paraphrased and quoted material. Students will be able to distinguish fact from inference and connotation and will be reading faster under appropriate circumstances. Students will express and discuss their ideas and opinions about new topics with reasonable grammatical accuracy.
By the end of the session, students will be able to:
- write a well-organized essay using the cause-and-effect rhetorical pattern;
- produce clear thesis statements for their essays;
- recognize the value of outlining prior to writing;
- distinguish fact from inference in academic texts, and write a formal summary of a short text; and
- read both intensively for information and extensively for enjoyment in unabridged material.
GRAMMAR
Course Description
Students will practice a variety of ways to express their ideas and improve the sophistication of their writing through the use of more formal and complex structures and vocabulary. Students will refine their use of compound and complex sentences. The emphasis of the course is on practice of these structures for academic writing.
By the end of the session, students will be able to:
- practice both orally and in writing the structures contained in a broad overview of the verb, modal, clause, and article systems of English; and
- become fairly proficient in self-editing.
LISTENING AND SPEAKING
Course Description
Students will explore in depth several topics pertaining to American culture, and others like Health, the Environment, Business, Innovations, and Comedy. They will work on gaining proficiency and confidence when speaking. They will give one speech.
By the end of the session, students will be able to:
- explore in depth several significant topics as detailed in the Curriculum, and speak proficiently and confidently before an audience on these topics;
- recognize and use most register types;
- listen to and understand most television programs; and
- listen to and take notes on simulated academic lectures.
LEVEL 600 COURSE OVERVIEW DESCRIPTIONS*
ENGLISH CORE: READING AND WRITING
Course Description
In this course, students will work on improving their abilities to write a well-organized, thought-provoking essay which incorporates paraphrased, summarized and quoted ideas from other sources. Students will be introduced to the rhetorical pattern of cause/effect and achieve mastery over the pattern of comparison/contrast. Students will be able to read a passage critically and understand most inferences. When responding in depth to open-ended questions, students will be able to produce written or oral statements with better than average grammatical accuracy.
By the end of the session, students will be able to:
- write in a well-organized and interesting way, incorporating quoted material, paraphrases, and summaries into their writing;
- add to their repertoire of rhetorical patterns that of cause and effect;
- critique an article in terms of its validity, information, and persuasiveness;
- read articles outside of class and summarize them clearly; and
- produce a term paper to demonstrate mastery of the above.
GRAMMAR
Course description
Students are introduced to various complex structures designed to make their writing more sophisticated. Students practice these structures orally as well as in writing.
By the end of the session, students will be able to:
- demonstrate increased sophistication in writing thanks to a mastery of many complex structures as detailed in the Curriculum; and
- discuss and correct any grammar problem that occurs in their speech or writing, or that may be evident to the core teachers.
LISTENING AND SPEAKING
Course Description
The focus of this course is on the continued improvement of aural/oral skills. The projects for this course may include the production and delivery of original skits, both serious and comical, a court trial, and/or a formal debate. Students will also learn to make information speeches in preparation for a visit to an American elementary classroom.
By the end of the session, students will be able to:
- explore and correct and pronunciation, grammar, or register errors in their own speech;
- understand unhesitatingly native speakers in an informal context;
- understand guest lecturers and summarize their talks;
- express fluently their own thoughts and opinions on a wide range of topics of contemporary interest; and
- convincingly express themselves in a skit, courtroom or debate setting, or visit to an American elementary classroom.