Course

Lower Intermediate Reading and Writing for English Language Learners

Important Notice

This course is not active. Please contact Department Chair for more information.

Faculty
Language, Literature & Performing Arts
Department
English Language Learning and Acquisition
Course Code
ELLA 0160
Credits
6.00
Semester Length
15 weeks
Max Class Size
18
Method(s) Of Instruction
Lecture
Tutorial
Typically Offered
To be determined

Overview

Course Description
This course is for students who wish to upgrade their reading and writing skills for personal, educational and/or employment purposes. The course is designed for students who have basic reading and writing skills, but limited experience in reading and writing for specific purposes. This course focuses on extensive reading and writing practice to improve confidence and to further develop reading and writing competence. This course emphasizes reading for main ideas and using new vocabulary strategies. Students will also generate and organize ideas into short compositions, proofread for basic errors, and improve grammar, sentence structure and vocabulary.
Course Content

Reading Skills

  1. To follow the ideas and information in readings
    • Follow written assignment instructions
    • Use pre-reading techniques to prepare for a reading task
    • Recognize topic, main ideas, key details
    • Follow sequence of information and ideas
    • Scan for specific information
    • Identify and distinguish between facts and opinions
    • Describe events and characters in short stories
    • Comprehend simple graphs and tables accompanying reading materials
    • Recognize the differences between supported and unsupported opinions
  2. To determine meanings of unfamiliar words in course materials
    • Use an English-English dictionary
    • Use prefixes to determine meanings and suffixes to identify grammatical uses
    • Use simple context clues such as definitions, synonyms and punctuation
  3. To find materials in the library
    • Use both digital and print resources  
  4. To use study skills
    • Take notes: mark and label text to make margin notes
    • Explain visual text material
    • Prepare for tests: T/F, completion, matching, multiple choice, and short answer
    • Learn content from text/class materials

Writing Skills

  1. To write informally
    • Write reflectively about personal experience and readings
    • Write messages and simple letters
    • Outline main ideas in own words
  2. To write paragraphs using the following strategies:
    • generate ideas from personal experience and readings
    • select and narrow topics
    • create paragraph frameworks
    • write topic sentences
    • develop unified, specific support
    • create coherence using logical order and transitions
    • revise with peer and instructor feedback
    • follow format instructions
    • edit and proofread
    • demonstrate an understanding of plagiarism by using own words and referring to sources
    • write with grammatical competence, coherence, clarity and conciseness

Accuracy

  1. For explicit instruction and evaluation
    • Correctly forms and uses verb tense and time markers to describe, to explain and to narrate(simple present, simple past, present continuous, simple future)
    • Demonstrates and applies knowledge of basic parts of speech and basic sentence parts for editing
    • Correctly forms simple sentences, compound sentences (using “and, but, or, so”) and complex sentences (using “because, before, after, when, who which, that”)
  2. Items to work on as need arises
    • Correctly forms and uses modal verb forms for polite questions, requests, permission and ability
    • Corrects number errors on plural nouns and verb phrase errors (helping verb/main verb/forms)
    • Correctly uses frequently-used time and place prepositions
    • Consistently and correctly spells irregular past verbs and applies word-ending spelling rules for  tenses (s, ed, ing)
    • Consistently and correctly applies capitalization rules to sentences, proper nouns and titles

Classroom Skills

  1. Takes responsibility for the following:
    • attendance and punctuality
    • class work and assignments
    • participation and teamwork, collaboration in groups and decision-making
  2. Follows instructions, communicates with peers and instructors and asks for clarification
  3. Shows an awareness of cultural differences and general features of their culture and the world
Learning Activities

Whole and small group instruction will be combined with individual assistance and student-directed learning.  Students will receive assistance with reading difficulties that arise from lack of familiarity with the structure, lexicon and cultural content of the reading passages, and the instructor will facilitate, observe and evaluate students’ participation in classroom activities.  Students will participate in the setting of goals by identifying their communicative and language development needs, and in the selection of learning activities. Students will discuss personal rights and social responsibilities in their area of study, intended occupations and personal life; this may depend on course materials used.

Means of Assessment
  1. Complete assigned skill-development tasks
  2. Prepare reading reports on assigned articles
  3. Write compositions that meet instructor specified criteria for content, organization, language use, accuracy and format. These assignments could include the following:
    • journals that describe personal experience and respond to ideas and information in readings             
    • brief, informal pieces of writing that  respond to ideas in readings
    • brief, informal pieces of writing that describe and respond to events and  characters in a story
  4. Use common software to communicate and to complete simple information management tasks, ie: to word process at least one assignment, send e-mails, sign in to MyDouglas or write a resume
  5. Write paragraphs of narration, description and explanation, personal experience or respond to ideas and information in readings.  Paragraphs should meet instructor specified criteria for content, organization, language use, accuracy and format.  
  6. In an in-class environment, plan, organize and write at least one paragraph that meets instructor specified criteria for content, organization, language use and accuracy, and format.    
  7. Complete quizzes, both skill and content-based.
  8. Maintain a journal to self-monitor progress in skills, language use and learning strategies.
  9. In student-teacher conferences, identify their own strengths and weaknesses as communicators.
  10. Complete at least one self-assessment of learning strategies, progress and classroom skills to be discussed with the instructor.

This is a Mastery Graded course.

Learning Outcomes

Overall Objective

Extend fluency and confidence in reading and writing for a range of personal, educational, and/or employment purposes.

Specific Objectives

  1. Read and understand short authentic material on relevant and practical topics to obtain and record information, learn about ideas and issues and expand vocabulary
  2. Use strategies to learn academic material
  3. Write reflectively
  4. Plan, write, revise and edit paragraph-length pieces of writing that meet specific communication needs within a practical and relevant context.
  5. Listen and speak to prepare for, support and extend reading and writing skills
  6. Monitor and apply strategies to improve accuracy in grammar, sentence structure and word choice to a specified level of accuracy
  7. Participate effectively in a college classroom.
  8. Assess progress
  9. Develop awareness of differences within personal, social and cultural activities.
Textbook Materials

Students may be required to purchase a textbook to be determined by the instructor

Requisites

Prerequisites

ELLA 0060, EASL 0060 or ELLA Assessment

Corequisites

No corequisite courses.

Equivalencies

No equivalent courses.

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

Course Transfers

These are for current course guidelines only. For a full list of archived courses please see https://www.bctransferguide.ca

Institution Transfer Details for ELLA 0160
There are no applicable transfer credits for this course.

Course Offerings

Summer 2024