2nd year 2nd semester syllabus

Year 2 – Semester II

4.33 EN 2201: Practical and Professional Writing IV

Writing skills: causes and results

 Focus: expressions used for describing causes/origins and expressions used for describing results. e.g. was caused by, has become, led to, resulted in, as a result of…

(Ref: Language in Use: Upper Intermediate-classroom Book page 80)

 Activities:

- Read and list the expressions used for talking about causes and results

- Write other expressions which could be used instead.

- Select a headline and expand it into a paragraph, using expressions you have listed.

e.g. Explosion Kills 20 people: leaking gas pipe-damaged when road was repaired- explosion -20 people killed.

More illiterate children-warns report: cuts in funds-fewer teachers-more children- unable to raise funds

Writing skills: joining ideas

 Showing what comes next. e.g. We arrived five minutes before the concert was due to begin. Surprisingly there were still very few people in the auditorium.

 Expression which denote continuation: fortunately, on the other hand, in fact. The contrary, surprisingly, not surprisingly (provide sentences)

 Activities:

- Choose suitable expressions to fill in the gaps.

- Write suitable continuations: The job isn‟t well paid. On the other hand…

Informative/descriptive/expository writing

 Text types: essays, newspaper reports, travel experience, interpret graphs/maps.

 Procedure: guided writing - Help in thinking ideas, ordering them, considering vocabulary and grammar.

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Imaginative writing

 Encourage students to create stories: Provide questions to stimulate writing. e.g. What if you see some aliens in your village?

 Involve students in writing and illustrating books.

 Writing based on pictures-creative dialogues / stories

Persuasive and argumentative writing

 Writing skills: balancing an argument / contrasting two different points of view - useful expressions: on the contrary, but, in fact, on the other hand

(Ref: Language in Use. Upper - Intermediate. Classroom Book. page 70)

 Activities: Write arguments for and against to the following opinions.

e.g. Women and men now have equal opportunities in society

Doing military service makes young people better citizens.

 Focus: develop logical arguments and cite evidence, use persuasive techniques and rhetorical devices.

Design and use a questionnaire to write reports

 Introduce the topic. e.g. Report about leisure activities

- build up words connected to the topic on blackboard

- design a questionnaire to find how people spend their leisure time (group work)

- collect information from classmates

- discuss and write the report

 Introduce features of report writing: structure - introduction, middle paragraphs, and conclusion

 Language focus: In order to find out how people…, One surprising fact that emerged was…, The results of our survey suggest that…

Analytic writing

 Focus: critical and evaluative views of texts, drama, films and issues.

 Take account of the student‟s familiarity with the topic. Guide students to form their own view taking into account a range of evidence and opinion and to organize their ideas and information distinguishing between analysis and comment

4.34 EN 2202: Advanced Reading Skills IV

Recognition of different styles of writing: descriptive, expository, narrative, argumentative

 Help students to

- Recognize the writer‟s attitude and tone

- Identify figurative language and other elements of narrative style (e.g. plot, character, and setting),

- How the writer tries to persuade or convince the reader and how the writer uses reasons, examples etc. to explain something.

 Activities: Read passages of different styles and answer questions based on them.

Reading and summarizing

 Focus: summarizing is a productive skill, but to be able to write accurate summaries requires accurate comprehension of the passage.

 Read each paragraph of a text and summarize the main points in one or two sentences

 Join the sentences with appropriate linking words or phrases to produce a coherent summary.

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Creative reading: going beyond the text

 This level of reading will be possible only if the students know the literal meaning of the text and have interpreted and evaluated the information; involves going beyond the text to seek out or express new ideas, to gain additional insights.

 Activities: Reading more on the topic and gathering information, writing responding to what is read.

Intensive reading

 Read short sections to understand or study information or language use in detail

 Activities: comprehension questions at different levels. Activities on vocabulary, grammatical and lexical cohesion

Integrating activities

Activities: Writing short stories based on news items, Dramatizing a comic strip series

Read orally

 Help students to read avoiding communication problems such as word recognition difficulties, poor phrasing, and improper use of punctuation. There must be a genuine audience, an opportunity to prepare, rehearse or practice.

 Types of activities:

- Produce their own news broadcast including local news, world news, sports, cinema, fashions, weather etc. and reading it.

- Reading a paragraph from a magazine, a poem,/story

4.35 EN 2203: Listening in English IV

Listening and comprehension at different levels

 Context questions (memory recall)

 Inference questions (interpretation, synthesis recall)

 Life experience questions (questions which are related to students‟ own life.

Summarizing: identifying important information

 Types of activities:

- Identify correct summary-sentence from several possible sentences

- Summarizing in note-form under given headings

- Students listen to the taped story / talk etc. read two or three summaries based on them and decide which one is correct.

Comparison of information

 Types of activities:

- Students listen to taped news broadcast (previous day‟s news)

- Read the newspaper reports,

- Discuss and find the differences in language and content.

Predicting

 Guessing or predicting outcomes, causes, relationships etc, based on information presented in a conversation, or narration

 Activities:

- Tape recordings of conversations, interviews, narratives etc. Cassette is stopped at stages and predicts what can be followed.

- Listen and talk about characters / possible situations / settings, etc.

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Follow-up activities

 Focus: Apply information the students have gathered through listening in other situations, encourage students to go beyond the text

 Activities: read more on the topic and write a composition / speech

Jigsaw listening

 Different groups listen to different but connected passages each of which supplies some points of what they need to know. Then they come together to exchange information in order to complete a story or perform a task.

4.36 EN 2204: Effective Communication Skills IV

Functional dialogues

 Express approval / disapproval, likes / dislikes, surprise / wonder / hope / fear / disappointment

 Focus: strategies for avoiding communication breakdowns and comprehension problems

 Activities: create and write their own dialogues and practice saying them (pair and group tasks)

Group/pair discussions: information gap activities

 Focus: asking and answering questions, using a conversational register and syntax.

 Types of activities: finding the differences in pictures / notices / invitations etc.

Role plays using role play cards

 Focus: speaking appropriately in different situations.

 Procedure: prepare role play situations and cues for the two persons. Give them time to prepare. Get them to enact the situation using the cues. Provide at least 4 cues.

e.g. situation; You have borrowed a friend‟s notes over a week ago and promised to return them the next day. You‟ve still got them. What do you say to him when you see him?

You must speak first.

Cue card:

- Say how you feel about not returning the notes

- Say why you couldn‟t return them

- Cue card to the friend

- Tell him not to worry

- Ask whether he copied the notes, etc

Dialogues/drama based on stories

 Read stories and write dialogues / plays based on them. Rehearse, and act them out.

Describe a process

 Focus: use linking words correctly when describing a sequence of actions

 Types of activities: how to operate a computer, describing an experiment

Making presentations - using the OHP and other media

 Focus: using facial expressions, body language, and other non-verbal cues and visuals to convey meaning, how to use a neutral or more formal style of speaking

 Procedure: brainstorm around a topic; organize the presentation, find necessary visuals-pictures, maps etc. make the presentation to the rest of the class.

 Suggested topics: Changing lifestyles of people, how „green‟ are you

4.37 EN 2205: Language Structure, Usage and Linguistics IV

Expanding the sentence: coordination- compound sentences

 Coordination: Two independent clauses are combined to form compound sentence using coordinating conjunctions - and, but, or, either .or, neither, nor,

 Types of activities:

- Join sentences using coordinating conjunctions

- Breaking a long sentence into simple sentences

Expanding the sentence: subordination-the complex sentence

 1n subordination there is an independent clause and one or more dependent or subordinate clauses. Subordinate conjunctions – when, while, till, before, after, because, as, if, unless, that, so that, etc.

 Three main classes of dependent clauses analyzed by structural types:

- Finite clauses: verb element is a finite verb phrase, e.g. I like John because John likes me.

- Non-finite clauses:

to-infinitive: The best thing would be to tell everybody.

All I did was hit him on the head (infinitive without to)

-ing form: Leaving the room, he tripped over the mat.

-ed participle: Covered with confusion, we left the room.

Verbless clause: e.g. Although always helpful, he …….

Reported speech

 To report what somebody has said we can use either quotation marks (direct speech) or a that- clause (indirect speech)

e.g. He said „I need more money‟. He said that he needed more money.

 Certain changes are made in connecting from direct to indirect

- Change present tense to past tense.

- Change 1st and 2nd person pronouns into 3rd person

- Change pointer words (his, now, here etc.) into that, then, there, the next day, etc.

 Provide examples and activities.

 Indirect questions: a wh-clause is used instead of that- clause

e.g. Do you live here? She asked him whether (if) he lived there.

Cleft sentences

 With „it‟: we use cleft sentences to give emphasis to a particular part of the sentence. It does this by splitting the sentence into two halves and „highlighting‟ the topic by making it the complement of it + be.

e.g. The Americans landed on the moon, not the Russians.

It was the Americans who landed on the moon, not the Russians.

 Cleft sentences with „what or „the thing (that)

What I really enjoy is eating chocolates. The thing that I ……….

Questions

 Types of questions; yes-no questions, tag questions, Declarative questions, Alternative questions, wh- questions

 Making questions polite

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Bilingualism

 Characteristics of bilingualism

 Code mixing, code switching

Individual learner differences

 Learner variables: personality, motivation, learning style, aptitude and age

 The relationship between learner differences and second language acquisition.

4.38 EN 2206: Vocabulary Development IV

Collocation tasks: different combinations connected to verbs

 Adverb + verb – choose carefully, verb + verb - be free to choose , verb + preposition-choose between the things, verb+ adjective- keep something safe, adjective+ preposition- safe from attack

 Types of tasks:

- Matching tasks: e.g. adverbs in column A with an adjective in B

- Sentence completion: e.g. put one of the adverbs into each gap in the sentences.

Synonyms and their associations

 In order to avoid repetition, writers use words which have a similar meaning.

e.g. I could learn by heart - I started to memorize

He asked - He enquired

 Types of tasks:

- Read the text and find the synonyms

- Complete the sentences using a word that has a similar meaning to the word underlined.

Describing people: appearance and character

 Words used to describe:

- Height and build - a slim woman, a chubby baby,

- General appearance - stylish, elegant woman, well-dressed, unattractive,

- Intellectual ability- intelligent, gifted, clever, foolish

- Clever in a negative way - cunning, crafty, sly

- Attitude towards life / people - optimistic, sensitive, sociable, rude

- Face, hair, complexion - straight hair, round-faced, fair complexion

 Types of activities:

- Match the words with their opposite words.

- Write sentences to describe yourself, your neighbours, colleagues etc.

- Make a collection of descriptions of people from newspapers (advertisements by people seeking partners)

Antonyms: using prefixes and suffixes

 Focus: how to bring out negative qualities

 Procedure:

- Introduce negative prefixes - un-,in-, im-, dis-, and suffixes-, -less,

- Get students to write the opposites of the given adjectives. e.g. safe, kind, complete, etc.

- Identify adjectives with negative prefixes in a text.

Dictionary work: exploring a dictionary page

 Focus: Raising awareness of how a dictionary page can be exploited for language improvement

 Types of activities: Look at page 311 in Macmillan English dictionary for advanced learners.

- Which syllable has the primary stress: corollary, corona, coronary, coroner

- What is the word for a small crown?

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- What is the pronunciation of these words, corps (singular), corps (plural)?

- What is the ceremony at which someone becomes king/queen?

- Can the adjective „corporate‟ follow a noun?

Working with texts to develop vocabulary: Identify / guess meaning from context

 Focus: Using the natural redundancy of surrounding words, obtaining clues from grammatical structures, pronunciation and punctuation, activating background knowledge from a topic of a text.

e.g. My father is a workaholic; he works so long and so hard that we rarely saw him.

4.39 EN 2207: Practical Phonology IV

Connected speech: linking words-consonant + vowel

 Focus: help students cope with natural spoken language. Help with the comprehension problems caused by the blurring of the word boundaries in sentences where a consonant and a vowel meet, word borders tend to have blended sounds.

e.g. get out (ge -tout) the final consonant is treated as if it belonged to the 2nd word

e.g. She went out (t+ aw)

 Types of activities:

- Practice saying these pairs. Try to think the sounds which come together.

Red apple, wet umbrella, speaks English etc.

- Listen to the links between „r‟ and a vowel sound. Practice saying them.

Mother and father, after all, where am I? etc.

- Find the link between consonant and vowel sounds in these sentences.

The books are on the table in the corner.

It‟s a waste of money to buy lots of clothes.

Linking words: consonant + consonant

 Focus:

- Dealing with comprehension problems related to pronunciation.

Consonant + consonant: word borders tend to have a deleted or an unreleased final consonant. e.g. She is a good girl. [d+g]

- Identical consonants delete one of the consonants and blend the border together as one long consonant. e.g. I have a black coat. [k +k], Bob Brown is here. [b+b]

 Types of activities:

- Listen and practice: red dog, sit down, take back, desk top, good boy, phone bill, etc.

- Find links between words ending and beginning in a consonant sound in the sentences

e.g. Is it good luck to see a black cat?

The time is ten past two

Intonation: pattern of pitch changes in speech.

 Different pitch patterns can produce different meanings.

Consisting of different tones. Tones depend on the pitch of the voice. e.g. They arrived at EIGHT and left at TWO.. The focal point of the message 2 and 8 are called tonic syllables.

 Practice activities:

She‟s a doctor. – a statement or a fact. Here the intonation doesn‟t go up. We use a falling tone sounding friendly and polite.

She‟s doctor? - an echo question. It has a rising tone.

 Find the information focus in each sentence. Practice saying them as statements and questions. e.g. He left. He left?

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Intonation in question tags

 When you check information that you‟re not certain about, the intonation in the question tag doesn‟t go up.

 Types of activities: Complete the sentences with a question tag. Then practice saying them with correct intonation.

He‟s French, isn‟t he? This is the train to Kandy? etc.

Allophonic variations

 Different realizations of phonemes in speech, i.e. the phoneme is pronounced slightly differently in the company of different sounds or environments. e.g. „p‟ in „pot‟ is aspirated but the „p‟ in „spot‟ is not. In English these sounds are mainly „t‟, „d‟, and „h‟ when followed by a velar or labial consonant „k‟, „g‟, „m‟, or „b‟.

 Clear „l‟ (when followed by a vowel) e.g. believe, allow, and dark „l‟ (when followed by a consonant) e.g. help, milk, are allophones of the phoneme „l‟ - allophonic variations of ed: „t‟ after a fortis consonant except „t‟, lukt, „d‟ after a lenis consonant other than „d‟.

e.g. „b‟, „d‟, „g‟, „v‟, „z‟, „id‟ after „t‟ or „d‟

 Provide practice activities

Strong and weak forms

 Weak forms are the unstressed forms of function words

 Types of activities

Give examples of weak forms and strong forms

e.g. I swallowed a fly - schwa, You say a book, a child but an apple (strong forms) An alligator bit him (weak form)

4.40 EN 2208: English Literature IV

Teaching poetry

 Recommended text

English and American Poetry

- John Donne:1572-1630 Song; Sweetest Love I do not go

- William Wordsworth:1770-1850 Upon Westminster Bridge

- Robert Burns A Red, Red Rose

- John Keats:1795-1821 La Belle Dame Sans Mercy, A thing of Beauty

- W. B. Yeats:1865-1919 Wild Swans at The Coole

- Walter De La Mare:1873-1956 Estranged

- Rupert Brooke: 1887-1915 The Soldier

Sri Lankan and Post-colonial Poetry

- Jean Arasanayegam In the Month of July, Ruined Gopuram

- Anne Raqnasinghe Secretariat:

- Cecil Rajendra Song of Hope

- Wole Soyinka Telephone Conversation

 Consider the following aspects

- Genre: e.g. sonnet, lyric etc

- Background: age, cultural / social setting

- Form: e.g. 3 quatrains and a couplet

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- Structure: e.g. 1st 3 quatrains express 3 different ideas, each growing out of the preceding Idea; argument is tied up in the couplet.

- Theme: futility of war, love, beauty of nature, etc.

- Techniques: e.g. use of imagery, repetition, simile, etc.

 Types of activities:

Select tasks which match the cognitive level of the students, which is more developed than the language level. Activities which assist in understanding difficult language will bridge the gap between language level and text level. Activities should aim at developing the following aspects with regard to each poem.

- Understanding the meaning: pre-text task, Introduction to key words, Prediction activities, reorganizing / matching / comparing / scanning activities.

- Understanding the context:

- Learning to empathize: power of understanding and imaginatively entering into another person‟s feelings‟ character / events / scenes

- Learning to appreciate the poem: figurative language, theme, genre, words, sounds

- Learning to be creative express feelings / mood / tone, describe characters / events / settings

Teaching short stories

 Recommended tex

- Maurreen Seneviratne Mirage,

- Jhumpa Lahiri: Mrs. Sen‟s

- O’Henry The Purple Dress

 Draw attention of the students to the following aspects

- Setting: How does the writer establish social / cultural background?

- Plot: how does the writer develop the plot / organize incidents / develop the problem or conflict as the story progresses / the climax of the story / what happens after the climax.

- Characters: How are the characters developed? What does the story tell us about their appearance / qualities? How do they contribute to the development of the plot and to present the theme?

- Structure: Point of view, narrative, use of dialogue etc

- Language: the kind of language the writer has used

- Techniques: symbolism, stream of consciousness, flashbacks etc.

Teaching the Novel

 Recommended text

- George Orwell: Animal Farm or,

- Charles Dickens: The Tale of Two Cities

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 Consider the following aspects

- Narration: 1st person, 3rd person

- Structure: descriptive, narrative, dialogue, length of the novel

- Plot and parallel plots, sub-plots

- Themes: Unlike a short story a noel will deal with many themes

- Characters: central, major, minor

 Create awareness of the following

Knowledge of the author, period in which the novel was written / the period of time the novel is focusing

 Type of activities:

- to understand the plot: arranging a list of jumbled events in order, summarizing a chapter

- to understand the themes: select from a number of themes etc.

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- to understand literary devices and their effects: analyze selections of texts to identify literary devices

- to express learner‟s views: presentations on issues related to the novel, writing appreciations, dramatization

- to identify character traits: identify relationship between the characters and the development of the relationships

Teaching Drama

 Recommended text

- William Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice or, Romeo and Juliet

 Draw attention to the following aspects

- Background to the drama

- Genre: Comedy, tragedy

- Theatre conventions: props, structure, props, lighting, costume, sounds, asides, soliloquy, chorus

- Themes

- Development of the plot: exposition, initial incident, rising action / growth / complication, the climax / crisis / turning point, falling action / resolution / denouement, conclusion or catastrophe

- Development of the characters

- Significance of language: blank verse, poetry, colloquial

4.42 EN 2210: English Language Teaching Methodology II

Handling learner errors

 Which errors to correct? Difference between errors and mistakes, global errors which cause misunderstanding) and local errors (relate only to a part of what is said)

 How to find a balance between correction and encouragement

 How to respond to errors during different activities

Language teaching techniques: Teaching a lesson

Techniques which could be used in different stages of the lesson: introduction, presentation, practice, application, evaluation

Handling primary text books-Let’s Learn English

 Overview of the package-theme, vocabulary, structure.

 Examine content of the text books, grade 3-5, the content of workbooks, suggested teaching procedure and assessment procedure

Micro-teaching: primary material

Select the sections to be taught, prepare lesson plan, teach to a small group, critique of the lesson, re-teaching

Secondary material

 Overview of the package: syllabuses, text books, workbooks, examine rationale, underlying principles

 Examine content and suggested teaching procedure in the Teacher‟s Guides.

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 Writing lesson plans to handle dialogues, different reading texts, writing, grammar, listening and speaking.

Micro-teaching: secondary materials

Follow the same procedure as for the primary teaching

4.43 EN 2111: Business English II

Business meetings

 Discuss different types of meetings: informal / formal, large group / a meeting of 4-5 of the people involved/one-to- one meeting

 Types of activity: Look at the problems and decide what kind of meeting is the best way of dealing with each one, e.g. 1. The board required a report on your department‟s long-term plans over the next 10 years, 2. There is to be a company picnic next month and everything has to be planned and organized. You are a participant of the meetings discussed above. What would you say: to express your point of view, make objections, ask for opinion, to end a meeting?

Writing reports, summaries, notes

 Summarizing a business conversation: discuss different ways of summarizing,

 Listen to a conversation recording of a meeting between two people. Answer questions based on it. After understanding the conversation, draft a summary

 Using notes to write a report

e.g. Your managing director has asked you to investigate the health and safety provisions in your offices and to make recommendations for improvement. These are the notes you have made. Write a report expanding the notes into paragraphs.

Advertisements and commercials

 Cut out your favourite advertisement from a newspaper. Prepare a short presentation covering the following points. Target customers, how it works in terms of promoting the product-attracting attention, arousing interest, creating a desire, encourage to take prompt action

 Describe favourite TV commercials to your partner. Say why you think they are effective

Selling and buying products

 Simulation:

- You work in the buying department of your company. Decide at what terms, price, condition, etc. you are prepared to buy a product, make notes, negotiate with the seller

- You are the chief buyer for a company. Find out from a salesman the following;

About a product: wholesale price, recommended retail price, how quickly the goods can be shipped, how each item is packed, where the produce is manufactured,

 Procedure: Look at the new words in a dictionary. Practice the necessary expressions. Write the necessary notes before enacting the situations

Travelling on business

 Making reservations-flights and at a restaurant. Speak over the phone, send a fax

 Meeting or being met: role play- e.g. a foreign business person arriving at the local air port and the other person is waiting to welcome him. Role play: the whole scene up to leaving the airport.

 Write a list of advice which might be given to foreign visitor.

 Tell a visitor about office routines in our country: working hours, holidays, relationships between the boss and employers, recreational and sport facilities for staff

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 Arrange a program for an important visitor who is coming to your firm to meet other officers. 1. Make a telephone call to colleague in another department, inquiring whether you can bring the visitor to see him/her, 2. Write a memo asking your boss to give the visitor a brief explanation of your firm‟s activities, 3. Draft a fax to the visitor informing the date and the time you propose for the visit / phone her / him

Practical component

 Design a questionnaire to be used to interview persons in a company / hotel.

 Collect information about their work, daily routine, etc

 Present your findings to your colleagues Organize the information and write a report

4.44 EN 2112: Journalism II

Language and style of writing

Studying the language and the style of writing in different items in a news paper: editorial, feature articles, reviews, letters to the editor, sports column, and cartoons, using a checklist. Presentations followed by whole class discussion.

Use of illustrations

 Examine the suitability of illustrations in news papers: how they help to make the writing / message more meaningful / interesting

 Types of illustrations, their characteristics, and purpose

 Write a feature article and illustrate it appropriately

Writing articles/news stories

Getting information through different sources, note-making, expanding notes to make an interesting piece of writing (group work)

Writing articles: reviewing, editing, proof reading

Peer-editing: groups exchange their writings and edit and give feedback, re-drafting, and proof reading

Practical component: designing and producing a college magazine

Planning what type of articles to include, crafting the articles, selecting, and editing, and re-drafting, using illustrations, proof-reading the articles.