Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia

Vicerrectoría Académica y de Investigación

English B2 Course presentation, code: 900005

Dear student, Welcome to our English course. Would you like to apply the
basics of the English B2 course in your profession and you don't know how?
So, read this information

The English B2 course, identified with the code 900005, belongs to the
Virtual Institute of Languages - INVIL and is transversal to several
programs offered by the university. The course will grant the student three
academic credits which are developed through three academic units.

The course´s academic purpose is to strengthen communication skills in

English language so the student is able to employ an intermediate - advanced
language on general topics in order to manage situations in different contexts
where the use of the foreign language is required. To achieve this purpose,
synchronous and asynchronous learning activities have been arranged where
everyday situations arise and students are able to apply and reinforce their
knowledge, productive and receptive skills.

The course is developed in three units: Future Events, Past Events and
Expressing Feelings. In the first and second units, emphasis is placed on
Future Continuous, Future Perfect, Past Participle, Passive Voice, Past Perfect,
Phrasal Verbs, Reported Speech and Expressing Habits in the Past. In the
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third unit Inversion with Negative Adverbials, Relative Clauses and Mixed
Modals will be studied.

The semaforized agenda is the schedule of the course that allows to visualize
the moments of evaluation with the respective academic activities; their
typology (individual or collaborative), opening and closing date, evaluative
weights and deadlines established for the tutor to inform the student about
the feedback. It is called “semaforized” because it emits time indicators for
the delivery of the activities through the colors.

The activities are carried out in different moments of the learning strategy:
In the initial evaluation the Pre-Knowledge task is carried out, which is an
individual activity. In the midterm evaluation 5 tasks are performed: Task 2
will be developed collaboratively, Task 4 and Task 5 are performed
individually and Tasks 3 and 6 are questionnaires, considered as automatic
activities. In the final evaluation the national exam is developed, which in the
case of the course is a closed objective test and must be solved individually.

The evaluation of the course is carried out in three moments: Initial

evaluation: related to the online task prior to thematic development.
Intermediate evaluation: the course units are evaluated by means of
proposed tasks. The initial and intermediate evaluation make up 75% of the
course. Final evaluation: a Closed Objective Test of the knowledge acquired
during the development of the thematic contents is performed. It is equivalent
to 25% of the course.

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In recent years, English has acquired a greater preeminence, as it is
considered as the language of business, science and technology, which is
spoken more among non-native speakers than native ones in relation to their
professional goals or in everyday life (Pica, 1992: 8). Therefore, this course
aims to develop communicative skills in English in order to apply this
knowledge in different work and everyday life contexts.

This course contributes significantly to the English language proficiency so

that UNAD professionals can participate in cultural exchanges, enable access
to education, and facilitate social, political and economic relations, among
others. Similarly, the importance of learning English is supported by the
general Colombian Education law, which highlights the ability to express
oneself in a foreign language from the first years of study.

The UNAD professional who successfully studies English in our courses is

characterized by mastering the foreign language within the four
communication skills in different daily scenarios and work contexts.
Therefore, we invite you to actively participate in the development of each of
the tasks proposed in the course in order to achieve your academic goals.
Welcome to the course!

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1. Evaluaciones de políticas nacionales de Educación. La Educación
superior en Colombia 2012© OCDE y el Banco Internacional de
Reconstrucción y Fomento/el Banco Mundial.
2. Proyecto Académico Unadista Pedagógico-PAP´s. Universidad Nacional
Abierta y a Distancia. Versión 3.0. Ediciones hispanoamericanas Ltda.