Course Description
This course is designed for students wishing to upgrade their language skills for purposes of: 1) participating in day-to-day personal and social situations; 2) improving their employment opportunities; 3) preparing for further education or training. Students will practice strategies for listening, speaking, reading and writing to meet their personal, social, employment and/or educational needs. Course activities will include listening and speaking in a variety of communicative situations. Students will also complete both functional and skill-based reading and writing exercises. This course is offered at 4 levels. See attached appendix.
Course Content
- Language Functions
- recognizing and using a variety of language functions (e.g. identifying, reporting, clarifying,)
- recognizing and using a variety of structures to express each language function. (e.g. "Hi," "Hello," "Good morning," "How are you doing?")
- Conversational Signals
- Appropriate Speech
- informal (colloquial) speech
- formal speech
- Cultural Appropriateness
- recognizing aspects of communication which are affected by cultural expectations
- communicating in accordance with cultural expectations
- Reading Skills
- extracting information
- developing reading strategies
- developing vocabulary: (1) using word analysis, (2) guessing meanings from context
- Writing Skills
- expressing information
- developing and combining sentences
- developing vocabulary-diction
- Grammar and Sentence Structure
- grammatical elements (e.g. nouns, verbs)
- parts of speech (e.g. subjects, adjectives)
- correct grammatical form (e.g. tense)
- sentence patterns (e.g. declarative)
- sentence types (e.g. simple)
- punctuation
Learning Activities
The instructor will facilitate, observe and evaluate students' participation in class activities. Whole and small group instruction will be combined with individual assistance and student directed learning. Students will participate in the setting of goals by identifying their communicative and language development needs, and will participate in the selection of learning activities.
Means of Assessment
Students will be marked on a "Mastery/No Credit Granted" (MAS/NCG) basis. Mastery will be granted to students who achieve 70% on the following:
| In-class assigned learning activities |
25% |
| Out-of-class assigned learning activities |
25% |
| Mid-term assessment |
25% |
| Final assessment |
25% |
| |
100% |
Learning Outcomes
Within relevant personal, social, employment and educational contexts, students will improve their ability to:
- understand speech.
- use the language fluently and accurately.
- recognize and use formal and informal speech appropriately.
- communicate in culturally appropriate ways.
- use reading skills.
- use writing skills.
- understand and use grammar and sentence structure.
- develop and use vocabulary.