FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS SOCIALES

DEPARTAMENTO DE LENGUAS Y CULTURA

ENGLISH 7

COURSE CODE - SECTION: LENG-1157 – 4

TYPE OF COURSE LANGUAGE X
COURSE LEVEL UNDERGRADUATE
CREDITS 2
YEAR - SEMESTER 2019-2A
PROFESSOR: JOSÉ MARIO MOLINA NAAR
CLASS SCHEDULE Mondays: Blended component
Tuesdays - Fridays (8:00 – 9:20 a.m.)
E-MAIL: j.molina@uniandes.edu.co
OFFICE: G-501
OFFICE HOURS Mondays, 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.; Tuesdays and
Thursdays, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 m.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The Academic English Support Program provides undergraduate students at Los Andes with the English
instruction they need to complete academic tasks in English within the university, as well as to use English
effectively in academic and professional situations outside the university. It is also designed to help students
acquire the strategies they need to continue learning English independently beyond the classroom. The Academic
English Support Program has eleven levels and two cycles: basic and intermediate/advanced. The purpose of the
basic cycle is to prepare students for an English-language academic environment and to be able to read
academic texts, which are required in their university classes. Successful completion of the basic cycle fulfills the
university’s English reading requirement, and prepares students to take cursos I. The purpose of the
intermediate/advanced cycle is to provide students with specific focused instruction in oral and written
communication, including aspects of both fluency and accuracy. Successful completion of the
intermediate/advanced cycle fulfills the university’s second language requirement.

English Fundamentals LENG 1150

English 1 LENG 1151

Basic English 2 LENG 1152
English 3 LENG 1153 Integrated Academic Skills
English 4 LENG 1154
English 5 LENG 1155
English 6 LENG 1156

English 7 LENG 1157 Intermediate Academic Speaking

 Intermediate English 8 LENG 1158 The Basics of Writing Academic English
English 9A Students LENG 1159 Writing for Science and Engineering

English 9B Choose One LENG 1160 Writing for Humanities and Social Sciences
Advanced
English 10A Students LENG 1161 Speaking for Academic Purposes

English 10B Choose One LENG 1162 Speaking for Professional Purposes

COURSE DESCRIPTION

English 7 is the first course in the skills cycle and has a specific topic: language learning, aspects of spoken
language, and academic communication. This topic is useful and interesting at this level because it helps the
student face the most common academic problems they will have to solve on campus, and it allows them to
understand why they have the difficulties they have in learning English, particularly in decoding and input. This
increased knowledge will allow them to develop some learning and communication strategies to help them
continue their English language learning outside class and after they leave the university.

Students who complete this 54-hour course are able to understand and participate in everyday conversations as
well as in class discussions about course content, including requesting and obtaining information, and responding
to questions. They will accomplish this not only because of general development of vocabulary and structures
but also because of their familiarity with some of the most important features of spoken English such as pausing
and the English sound system.

Students will develop conversation management tools that will permit them to ask for help, schedule
appointments, negotiate solutions, give and request opinions on familiar academic topics and course content.

In terms of pronunciation, interlocutors generally understand these students, although problems of intelligibility
may at times interfere with comprehension. Students should, however, be able to attempt self-correction of
pronunciation errors upon prompting by interlocutors.

Students can describe their speaking and listening abilities and difficulties in English. They have developed some
awareness of their main obstacles to intelligibility and begun to exhibit self-correction techniques upon prompting.
Students can identify independent techniques to improve listening and speaking ability and have kept a record of
their activity and progress in this area. Students make conscious use of other listening strategies as well, such as
predicting, inferencing, etc.

To complement the readings in the text book, students will watch videos (or other media) directly related to the
contents studied in class. Each video reinforces the topics studied in class and contributes to further discussions.

METHODOLOGY

English 7 is a workshop-like course, which embraces the program’s philosophy of learner autonomy. It provides
students with tools and opportunities for their development as language learners. However, it is ultimately the
learners who take the necessary steps to improve their command of English. In order to pass the course students
will be required to reach the course objectives. Since the primary opportunity to practice English is in the
classroom and since assignments are designed to give learners the necessary tools to achieve these goals,
regular attendance to classes is expected.
English 7 workshop is based on reflective learning and error identification that will require students to be
autonomous learners aware of their own weaknesses and strengths. The course provides resources that will help
students to analyze and improve their speaking skills. The teacher will be a facilitator and moderator who will
guide students to achieve the goals of the course. Both individual (on line lab voice threads) and group work
(class discussions) are important to achieve the goals of the course.

Blended Course
This is a blended course. This means that you will complete coursework both in class and online (Sicua), and your
instructor will hold you accountable for both. Each week, you will have 6 hours in class, and 1.5 hours online. Online
work is important to successful completion of the course, and classroom activities will often depend on doing online
tasks first. For this course, the blended portion consists of completing pronunciation exercises that will help develop
your listening and pronunciation of difficult sounds in English. This blended component is due at the end of Module
2 and is worth 10% of your grade.

Dictionary – All 9 exercises

Vowels – Half of the 26 exercises (students choose which ones)
Consonants – Half of the 44 exercises (students choose which ones)
-ed & -s endings – All 9 exercises
Word stress – All 5 exercises

Your instructor may set deadlines for this work. Note that this is NOT 'homework'. It is classwork that you complete
in your own time, separate from any homework that may be assigned.

COURSE OUTCOMES

At the end of the course students will be able to

 understand and effectively participate in everyday conversations as well as in class discussions about
course content
 summarize information from a simple academic texts
 describe speaking and listening abilities and difficulties in English
 develop awareness of main obstacles to intelligibility
 exhibit self-correction techniques upon prompting
 consult a dictionary and use knowledge of the conventions used there for the representation of
pronunciation
 demonstrate recognition of most meaningful vowel and consonant contrasts in English in isolation and in
short utterances
 identify errors in a recording of own speech that affect intelligibility or acceptability
 follow the main ideas and details of a simple recorded academic lecture adequately to answer questions or
summarize the content
 follow the essentials of lectures, talks and reports and other forms of academic/professional presentation
which are propositionally and linguistically complex
 write appropriate and effective emails to professors in order to solve problems common in academic life
 solve common academic problems through face-to-face conversations using appropriate register

CONTENT

Module 1: Academic Problem Solving

Speaking: Solving academic problems with professors and fellow students
Understanding and reflecting on learning strategies
Reading: Rebecca Oxford’s Language Learning Strategies
Listening: Videos: Language Learning Experiences
Pronunciation: The English sound system: vowels and consonants
Word stress: ten and teen numbers
Writing: Writing effective emails in academic settings
Strategies: Using the dictionary for pronunciation
Identifying and understanding learning strategies
Self-evaluating the pronunciation of English vowel and consonant sounds

Exam 1: Thursday, Week 3 (pronunciation and emailing)

Tuesday and Wednesday, Week 4 (speaking)

Module Two: We Are Language Learners

Speaking: Understanding and reflecting on learning strategies

Academic conversations, turn-taking
Listening: Video: Listening to English
Pronunciation: Pronunciation of –ed and –s suffixes
Tricky pronunciation patterns
Word stress
Strategies: Being aware of factors interfering in understanding spoken English
Predicting word stress based on parts of speech or suffixes
Asking for repetition or other collaboration in academic discussions
Self-evaluating the pronunciation of vowel and consonant sounds, word endings, and stress.
Self-evaluating the accuracy, relevance and delivery of speech

Exam 2: Thursday, Week 7 (pronunciation)

Tuesday and Wednesday, Week 8 (speaking)

COURSE MATERIALS

 Course Packet English 7 – Student Book (available in both ‘Copyestrella’ (formerly Fotocopiadora Eduardo)
and Fotocopiadora ‘Print & Copy’
 Suggested monolingual dictionary: The Newbury House Dictionary of American English. Heinle & Heinle

ASSESSMENT

Students’ work is marked on a scale of 0 to 5. 5.00 is the highest possible grade, and 3.00 is the lowest passing
grade. The final official grade is reported as either A (aprobrado/pass) for grades of 3.00 and above or R
(reprobado/fail) for grades below 3.00. Exams and coursework have the following values:
Module 1 – weeks 1-4 = 45% (exam = 30%, coursework = 15%)
Module 2 – weeks 5-8 = 55% (exam = 30%, coursework = 15%, blended component=10%)

NOTE: Please keep in mind that THERE IS NO LOS ANDES POLICY FOR AUTOMATICALLY ROUNDING
COURSE GRADES. The lowest passing grade is 3.00; any grade lower than 3.00 WILL NOT BE a passing grade.
IMPORTANT: Graded assignments and assessments submitted and/or received after the stated deadline will
receive a score of zero (0) unless you have discussed any issues with the instructor IN ADVANCE of the deadline
and the instructor has agreed to give you an extension. In the case of accepted excused absences, please refer to
articles 45 and 51 of the undergraduate student handbook (Reglamento de estudiantes de pregrado).

In the event that you wish to dispute a grade, please refer to the procedure explained in articles 64, 65, and 66 of
the undergraduate student handbook (Reglamento de estudiantes de pregrado).

ATTENDANCE

From the undergraduate student handbook (Reglamento de estudiantes de pregrado):

Artículo 43: Es facultativo de cada profesor controlar la asistencia de sus alumnos y determinar las consecuencias
de la inasistencia, si ésta es superior al 20%.

Artículo 44: Los parámetros para controlar la asistencia serán informados a los estudiantes el primer día de clases,
junto con el programa del curso, con el fin de que se comprometan a respetarlos desde ese momento.

All courses in the program will follow these regulations. Students who miss more than 20% of classes will fail the
course and will receive a grade of R (reprobado/fail). Instructors will inform students of the procedure for checking
attendance on the first day of class."

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Oxford, R. L., & Burry–Stock, J. A. (1995). Assessing the use of language learning strategies worldwide with the
ESL/EFL version of the strategy inventory for language learning (SILL). System, 23, 1–23.
Brown, H. D. (2002). Strategies for success: A practical guide to learning English. White Plains, NY: Addison
Wesley Longman, Inc.. pp 19.
Ellis, G. & Sinclair, B. (1993) Learning to learn English: A course in learner training. “Preparation for language
learning”. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (1: 16-17)
Freak, C., Reinhart, S., and Rohlck, T. N. (2009). Academic Interactions: Communicating on Campus. Michigan:
University of Michigan Press.
Kehe, D. & Dustin Kehe, P. (2004). Conversation Strategies. Pro Lingua Associates, Brattleboro, Vermont.
Grant, Linda (2000). Well said: Pronunciation and clear communication. Boston: Heinle and Heinle. 1:1-
Oxford, R. L. & Scarcella, R. C. Passages. Boston: Heinle and Heinle
Oxford, R. L. & Scarcella, R. C. Sound ideas. Boston: Heinle and Heinle
“Remembering and Forgetting.” http://www.learner.org/discoveringpsychology/09/e09expand.html”
Robertson, H. (1991). Bridge to college success. “Learning and Memory”. Boston: Heinle and Heinle.
Universidad de los Andes. (2017). “Learning Styles – Language Learning Experiences.”
Universidad de los Andes. (2015). “Listening to English.”