Universidad de Guanajuato

Unidad de Idiomas campus León

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Materia: Inglés (EFL) CLAVE Inglés N-4
Área: Lenguas extranjeras Prof.: Salvador Ramírez
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AIM: The aim of this course is to help students to develop as intermediate English speakers in compliance with
the Common European Framework (CEFR) level B1. Students will develop the basic knowledge on the basics of
written and spoken communication in English.

PRE-REQUISIT: A2

PROCESS: Each week, for 16 weeks, the student will have 5 hours of active class with a variety of activities
aimed to help them develop their listening, reading, speaking and writing skills. There will be 2 periods of
evaluation in the semester: one in the middle (midterm) and one in the end (final).

CLASS GRADE:

In order to approve the semester, it is required:

• To achieve 80% of the total attendance. This means to successfully complete 65 hours of class (the self-
learning hours are not included in the absentism rate).
• To complete 20 hours of self-learning. The student is required with creating a portfolio of his/her self-
learning process. These hours can be completed in different formats:
o CAADI – You can attend to any of the CAADI of our network of self-learning facilities. In order to
demonstrate your self-learning process, you will have to attach the activities you performed in
the CAADI. CAADI representatives won’t be signing anything anymore.
o Online – There is a wide variety of web sites dedicated to the learning of a second language,
especially English. You can fill your portfolio of activities performed in those webpages.
o Real life activities – You can include activities of your routine that allow you to develop in the
learning of English language. Examples of those activities are: watching TV/Online streaming in
English, reading in English, having conversations with acquaintances from foreign countries via
social media, etc.
o All of the above – Your portfolio can be filled with a variety of activities taken from the three
previous options.
This self-learning portfolio is to be created in Google Drive, and to be shared via Google Classroom.
• To achieve the “promoted” status in the section of “Speaking”
As to be promoted in the section of speaking the student must be able to:
o Establish basic communication of workplace type, like assisting/scheduling meetings.
o Talk about family-related topics.
o Describe accidents, talk about wounds, diseases, and request for medical attention.
o Participate and socialize in events of the social and business type, welcome guests and make
acquaintances.
o Talk about and participate in games as well as to explain, understand and follow rules.
• To achieve the “promoted” status in the sections of “listening”, “reading”, and “writing”.
As to be promoted in these sections, the student must be able to
o Listening: recognize vocabulary of high frequency use in the English language and phrases in
topics as daily routine, family, myself, business, immediate surroundings, etc. as long as the
message is presented in a clear fashion.
o Reading: identify words of high frequency use in the English language in a text. Understand
simple syntactical sentences in texts, independently of the length of the text.
o Writing: Write with accurate spelling words of high frequency use in the English language.
Accommodate words in an accurate fashion in short and long sentences. Write complete short
and middle-length texts, like postcards, fill in forms with personal details, create posters, etc.
▪ From these three areas, the student may fail only one and still be able to be promoted.

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 Universidad de Guanajuato
Unidad de Idiomas campus León
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Materia: Inglés (EFL) CLAVE Inglés N-4
Área: Lenguas extranjeras Prof.: Salvador Ramírez
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▪ If the student fails the “speaking” section, he/she will automatically fail the semester.

Traditional grading will not be used anymore. At the end of the semester, depending on the performance, the
students might be given one of the two options:

o Promoted: Passed three out of the four areas to develop (of which speaking is mandatory to
pass), accomplished the minimum attendance during the semester, and completed the 20 hours
of self-learning. To pass the areas evaluated in the semester (speaking, listening, reading and
writing), the student could be promoted because of averaged performance, or well because of a
satisfactory improvement. It means that if the student fails the first partial in any of the areas, he
can still pass the same in the final examination by showing a satisfactory improvement.
o Failed: To fail the semester, the student could have fallen in one (or more than one) of the
following: 1. Failed two areas of evaluation. 2. Failed speaking. 3. Failed to comply with the
minimum of attendance. 4. Failed to comply with the 20 hours of self-learning.

FIRST PARTIAL:

Online Exam: This will evaluate reading, listening and writing. The exams will be posted in my website (which
address is provided a few lines below). The grading of these are working as follows:
❖ Above expectations: It represents the higher score, and the observations of the greatest
learning/improvements.
❖ Meets expectations: It represents that the student has learned appropriately and can keep
developing his/her learning.
❖ Average: It represents the basic score to “pass” the evaluated area. This one would represent a
risk for the student, since it indicates a low level of learning and development.
❖ Below expectations: It represents a fail in the area evaluated. The student didn’t show
progression towards developing the skill, as well as knowledge.
❖ Needs improvement: It represents a fail with the lowest score. A student with this is in the risk
of not showing progression or very slow development for the upcoming
classes/sessions/partial/semester.
Oral Exam: This will be evaluated by presentations before group. The student is responsible of developing a
presentation including visuals where he/she demonstrates the advances in vocabulary, grammar, fluency, and
pronunciation. No reading will be permitted during the presentations, as well as memorization is not
recommendable at all. Any symptom of memorization will severely impact the score of the entire presentation.
Each area will be evaluated as follows:

❖ Grammar: Above expectations. ❖ Fluency: Above expectations.

Meets expectations. Meets expectations.
Average. Average.
Below expectations. Below expectations.
Needs improvement. Needs improvement.

❖ Vocabulary: Above expectations. ❖ Pronunciation: Above expectations.

Meets expectations. Meets expectations.
Average. Average.
Below expectations. Below expectations.
Needs improvement. Needs improvement.

After observing the development in the four areas, the teacher will assign “Promoted” or “Failed” in compliance
with his experience as an English speaker, as well as a trained English teacher.

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 Universidad de Guanajuato
Unidad de Idiomas campus León
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Materia: Inglés (EFL) CLAVE Inglés N-4
Área: Lenguas extranjeras Prof.: Salvador Ramírez
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FINAL: The final exam will follow the same methodology as the first partial evaluations. By this period, the
student must also turn in his/her completed self-learning portfolio. Any incomplete portfolio will not be
considered, which will represent a “Failed” in that area of evaluation. This means failing the entire course for
the student.

Additional to the evaluation methodology, the teacher reserves the right to exempt students from any of the
areas to evaluate, as well as to all of the areas to evaluate. As to be exempted, a very active participation during
classes is required. This, in terms of all skills of language. When the teacher diagnoses a satisfactory
improvement in any of the areas, he will contact the student directly to let him know he is exempted.

MATERIALS: It is recommended to the students to have something to write on and something to write with to
make notes during class of all that they might consider needed to keep record of. It is; however, not mandatory.
In the case of using handouts, those will be shared via the following website:

http://alanlms.weebly.com

The student must bring the material printed, unless the teacher indicates differently.
The students will need to have an active google account, of which the e-mail and cloud service will be of use for
the class (Gmail and Drive).

Due to the flow and dynamics of the class, the students are required with also having the following apps in their
phones:

o Google Classroom.
o Google Chrome.
o A QR code scanner (whichever you prefer).
o Google Drive.
o PDF reader (whichever you prefer).
o Chatango.

In the case of being given an assignment, the students will deliver via Classroom by Google.

Each assignment will have specifications (title of the work, subject of the e-mail, folder where to upload it, word
counting, etc) which will be discussed in class for each assignment, as those may vary. It is important to pay
attention to those specification, since failing to comply with them might represent the rejection of the delivered
work.

NO LATE WORK WILL BE PERMITTED!! Please note that students are NOT permitted to skip a single
assignment without penalty.

ATTENDENCE: Absence is not recommended; however, we have a tolerance policy. The attendance is taken in
an hour basis. The tolerance policy covers a total of 14 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds. Reaching the 15
hours of absence will cause the student to fail the semester.

No hours can be recovered. In case of reaching the limit, there is no way to justify those absence hours.

In the case you need to be absent because of an emergency, let the teacher know to see if he can offer you a
work around. The solution will depend of the situation the student is presenting, and the very judgment of the
teacher.

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 Universidad de Guanajuato
Unidad de Idiomas campus León
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Materia: Inglés (EFL) CLAVE Inglés N-4
Área: Lenguas extranjeras Prof.: Salvador Ramírez
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COMING LATE AND LEAVING EARLY: Tardiness is not permitted. Coming late three classes/hours to class
will be considered the same as an absence. Likewise, any student who leaves early without express permission
from the teacher will also receive an absence.

SYLLABUS: Please note: this syllabus is a work in project and is subject to modifications/removal/addition of
topics, all of which may happen during the ongoing semester.

Dressing styles, fashion and personalities Personal relationships

• Names of clothing and accessories. • Meet people.
• Prices. • Accept and reject invitations.
• Shopping. • Meetings and parties.
• Describing personalities. • Ask and tell the time.
• Talk about friendship. • Internet.
• Social networks.
Job and occupation Leisure time and entertainment.
• Professions. • Personal interest.
• Workplace. • Hobbies.
• Describe jobs. • Games.
• Job interview. • Sports.
Health and wellbeing Past and experiences
• Body parts. • Every day expressions.
• Hygiene. • Description of past habits.
• Accidents and diseases. • Grammar of the past.
• Health care. • Simultaneous activities in the past.

CLASSROOM POLICIES:
➢ Participation is of major importance. The lack of participation in classes will have negative
consequences in the final grade of Speaking section.
➢ Be engaged in presentations, discussion, and other activities. Don’t be distracted and don’t
distract your classmates.
➢ Dare to challenge your own thinking and open yourself to the way other people see the world.
➢ Ask questions when you don’t understand.
➢ Be open about the language, the way it is, its purpose and how it works. As you can see, we will
be working out of the traditional Mexican English class paradigm.
➢ Don’t wait for the teacher to tell you what to note and what to copy. Keep your own records
according to the way you feel you better learn.
➢ Don’t be late, and don’t expect the teacher to accept any late work.
➢ Cellphones, tablets, and/or computers will be required for some activities. It doesn’t mean you
can use your gadgets at any time you want. Keep them down when it is not requested for an
activity.
➢ Food is permitted during classes. However, this has its exceptions. Any “stinky” food (tacos,
quesadillas, gorditas, enchiladas, and so on) are not permitted. You are allowed to eat (and
share) nuts, chips (again, just make sure they are not stinky), candies, lollipops, sodas, etc. Just
make sure you put the empty bottles in the bin.