Course
Discontinued
Yes
Course Code
EASL 0275
Descriptive
Composition for Upper Intermediate Students of English as a Second Language
Department
English as a Second Language
Faculty
Language, Literature & Performing Arts
Credits
3.00
Start Date
End Term
201520
PLAR
No
Semester Length
15 weeks
Max Class Size
18
Contact Hours
4 hours per week
Method(s) Of Instruction
Lecture
Tutorial
Learning 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. Students will discuss personal rights and social responsibilities as they affect their intended fields of study, occupations and personal life
Course Description
This course is for students who wish to upgrade their writing for personal, educational and/or employment purposes. It is designed for students who have some composition experience and intermediate listening and speaking skills. This course will provide practice in writing different types of expository paragraphs and short compositions. Students will generate and organize ideas into increasingly longer compositions and practice editing and revising. Exercises will help students clarify and elaborate supporting points, use grammar, sentence structure and vocabulary accurately, and proofread for errors.
Course Content
Writing Skills
- To write informally
- Write reflectively about personal experience and readings
- Summarize main ideas and key details in own words
- Summarize opinions, reasons, and supporting details
- To write compositions of one or more paragraphs using the following strategies:
- generate ideas from personal experience and readings
- select and narrow topics
- create paragraph outlines
- write topic sentences with specific controlling ideas
- develop unified, specific support and refer to support if used
- create coherence using logical order, transitions, and pronouns
- develop and support one idea in a multi-paragraph composition
- revise with peer and limited teacher feedback
- follow format instructions
- edit and proofread
- demonstrate an understanding of plagiarism by using own words and referring to sources
Accuracy
- For explicit instruction and evaluation
- Correctly form and use past continuous, present perfect and present perfect continuous tenses; use these tenses in appropriate ways (event before now with unspecified time, frequency and length of experience) using appropriate time markers (including prepositions)
- Expand the range of cause/effect, conditional, and comparison/contrast connectors to join ideas with correct meaning and punctuation (conjunctions, adverb clauses, subordinators, transitions, correctly form and use reduced adverb clauses (participial phrases).
- Expand the use of relative clauses (use of “whom, whose” + revision of “who, whom, that”), correctly form and use reduced adjective clauses (participial phrases)
- Identify and correct plural/singular errors with frequently used count and noncount nouns
- Items to work on as need arises
- All accuracy items specified for the 100 level
- Correctly form and use the following modals (present and past tenses): necessity, advice, obligation and possibility
- Edit simple, compound, and complex sentences for completeness and punctuation
- Edit for pronoun and verb tense shift errors
- Edit for article/determiner errors by applying simple article and determiner rules (e.g. second mention)
- Correctly spell specified connectors, frequently used content words, and irregular past participles
- Apply appropriate strategies to use computers in writing
Classroom Skills
- To take responsibility for the following:
- attendance and punctuality.
- class work and assignments
- participation and teamwork
- To follow instructions, communicate with peers and instructors, and ask for clarification
- To show an awareness of cultural differences and general features of own culture and the world
Learning Outcomes
Overall Objectives
Extend fluency and confidence in writing for a range of personal, academic and employment purposes
Specific Objectives
- Read and understand material to support writing
- Use strategies to learn academic material
- Write reflectively
- Plan, write, revise, and edit paragraph-length pieces of writing that meet specific communication needs within a practical and relevant context
- Listen and speak to prepare for, support, and extend writing skills
- Monitor and apply strategies to improve accuracy in grammar, sentence structure, and word choice to a specified level of accuracy
- Participate effectively in a college classroom
- Assess progress
- Develop awareness of differences within personal, social and cultural activities
Means of Assessment
- Complete assigned skill-development tasks
- Read instructor and self-selected material, both factual and issue-oriented, and write informal reports
- Write compositions that meet instructor specified criteria for content, organization, language use and accuracy, and format
These assignments could include:- journals that describe personal experience and respond to ideas and information in readings
- informal pieces of writing that summarize overall key idea, main ideas and key details in reading materials
- informal pieces of writing that identify an author’s opinion and supporting details
- informal compositions that describe plot, characters, and/or setting in a short story
- Write formal compositions of several types, including at least one cause/effect and one comparison/contrast, that describe personal experience or respond to ideas and information in readings. At least two of these formal compositions must be word-processed and at least one composition must be multi-paragraph
- In class, plan, organize, and write at least two compositions that meet instructor specified criteria for content, organization, language use and accuracy, and format
- Complete quizzes, both skill based and content based
- Complete at least one self-assessment of learning strategies, progress, strengths and weaknesses, and classroom skills to be discussed with the instructor
- Use common software to communicate and to complete simple information management tasks ie. to word process assignments, send e-mails, sign into MyDouglas or write a resume
A mastery model of on-going evaluation will be used. A student will reach mastery when s/he has demonstrated through satisfactory completion of exercises, assignments and other assessments that the course objectives have been achieved.
Where formal tests of specific skills are used, mastery will be defined as a score of 70% or more.
Progress will be monitored on a regular basis by the instructor in consultation with each student.
Textbook Materials
Students may be required to purchase a textbook to be determined by the instructor.
Corequisites
EASL 0265 recommended