Prerequisite(s):
ESL IV or High Intermediate placement test score
Textbook: NorthStar: Listening and Speaking High Intermediate, 2nd
ed., 2004 (or comparable text).
Course Description: A fifth level ESL course that introduces high intermediate students to a higher level of difficulty and fluency than ESL IV requiring more compound tenses, more extensive vocabulary, and more compound and complex sentences organized into longer oral and written presentations.
Objectives: By the end of the course, students should be able to listen, speak, read, and write using compound and complex sentences and more extensive vocabulary than expected of ESL IV students.
Instructional Methods:
An integrated cumulative skills development methodology increases
language retention and fluency by stimulating students to make meaning from a
new language through active learning activities. Recorded listening passages build on vocabulary
and ideas from background material and exercises. Students work individually, in pairs, and in
small groups on guided, linked activities built around each unit's theme. Instruction
will be supplemented with ESL audio and video material keyed to textbook units
Grading: The final grade is based on the following:
|
Class Participation |
25% |
|
Assignments |
50% |
|
Exams |
25% |
|
Total |
100% |
The grading scale is: A=90-100%, B+=85-89%, B=80-84%, C+=75-79%, C=70-74%, D=65-69%, F=60-64%
|
Weeks |
Topics |
Assignments and
Tests |
|
1-3 |
Review of NorthStar method. NorthStar Unit 1 Theme: Media Communication Focus: making predictions, summarizing points,
making inferences and interpreting data, expressing and defending opinions. Grammar Focus: passive voice. Unit 1 Video Sequence. |
NorthStar unit exercises. Student video activity
sheet. |
|
4-5 |
NorthStar Unit 2 Theme: Overcoming Obstacles Communication Focus: making predictions; analyzing narrative
techniques in an essay; hypothesizing another’s point of view; analyzing
sensitive language (pertaining to disabilities); inferring meaning not
explicit in the text, comparing and contrasting (life histories); framing
contrasting points of view; using synonyms, parallelism, and prepositional
phrases to enrich a narrative Grammar Focus: gerunds and infinitives Unit 2 Video Sequence |
NorthStar unit
exercises. Student video activity sheet |
|
6-7 |
NorthStar Unit 3 Theme: Medicine Communication Focus: making contrastive statements with
appropriate intonation, interrupting politely to clarify or confirm
information, interpreting a cartoons and a quotation, comparing and
contrasting Grammar Focus: present unreal conditionals Unit 3 Video Sequence |
NorthStar unit exercises. Student video activity
sheet. |
|
8 |
Review, Units 1-3 Drafting, editing, and
re-writing essay. |
Write an essay based on
topic assigned by teacher Bi-monthly Exam |
|
9-10 |
NorthStar Unit 4 Theme: Natural Disasters Communication Focus: using
context clues to guess meaning, analyzing a speaker’s emotions, inferring meaning
from context, hypothesizing another’s point of view, making judgments,
supporting opinions with information from reports, sharing personal
experiences and fears, expressing reactions to news Grammar Focus: adjective
clauses Unit 4 Video Sequence |
NorthStar unit exercises. Student video activity
sheet. |
|
11-12 |
NorthStar Unit 5 Theme: Conservation Communication Focus:
interpreting quotations, drawing conclusions, supporting generalizations with
examples, analyzing symbolism in a poem, reading or reciting a poem aloud Grammar Focus: advisability in the past using past modals Unit 5 Video Sequence |
NorthStar unit
exercises. Student video activity
sheet. |
|
13-14 |
NorthStar Unit 6 Theme:
Philanthropy Communication Focus: making judgments, identifying personal
assumptions (about philanthropy), correlating abstract principles with
concrete examples, comparing and contrasting information, asking for
clarifications using tag questions, using gambits to indicate priorities Grammar Focus: tag questions Unit 6 Video Sequence |
NorthStar unit exercises. Student video activity
sheet. |
|
15 |
NorthStar Unit 7 Theme:
Education (1st half of unit) Communication Focus: defining notions of intelligence,
identifying and analyzing assumptions (about intelligence), connecting
principles (of emotional intelligence) to specific behaviors, analyzing past
encounters according to principles (of emotional intelligence), using opening
gambits to restate information for clarification or emphasis, restating
quotations Grammar Focus: direct an indirect speech |
NorthStar unit exercises. . |
|
16 |
Review, Units 4-7 (partial
unit 7) Drafting, editing, and
re-writing short essay. |
Write short essay based on
topic assigned by teacher Bi-monthly Exam |
|
17 |
NorthStar Unit 7 (2nd
half of unit) Unit 7 Video Sequence |
NorthStar unit
exercises. Student video activity
sheet. |
|
18-19 |
NorthStar Unit 8 Theme: Food Communication Focus: identifying and analyzing (food) trends,
relating general factors to specific behaviors, comparing traditional and
contemporary (food) practices, comparing and contrasting (restaurants),
inferring situational context Grammar Focus: phrasal verbs
Unit 8 Video Sequence |
NorthStar unit exercises Student video activity sheet |
|
20-21 |
NorthStar Unit 9 Theme: Immigration Communication Focus: recognizing personal assumptions, inferring
meaning, analyzing language usage, comparing and contrasting (2 immigrant
experiences), proposing solutions, practicing gambits to hesitate in response
to a questions, asking and answering questions about data, Grammar Focus: present and past—contrasting verb tenses Unit 9 Video Sequence |
NorthStar unit exercises. Student video activity
sheet. |
|
22-23 |
NorthStar Unit 10 Theme:
Technology Communication Focus: interpreting
cartoons, comparing opinions (about technology), analyzing paradox (in a
poem), making judgments, drawing conclusions, defining a problem and
proposing a solution, discussing probable future outcomes, practicing gambits
to express frustration Grammar Focus: future perfect and future progressive Unit 10 Video Sequence |
NorthStar unit exercises. Student video activity
sheet. |
|
24 |
Review, Units 8-10. Drafting, editing, and
re-writing short essay. |
Write short essay based on
topic assigned by teacher Bi-monthly Exam |