Syllabus for part time 1st year semester 2

Year 1 – Semester II

4.11 EN 1201: Practical and Professional Writing II

Linking ideas: clauses and phrases

 Activities: Provide sentences with linking words such as: because, so, but, although, in spite of, otherwise, except that, apart from. Get them to underline the linking words. Discuss the function of linking words

 Provide more activities.

- Join the ideas in the two columns using linking words.

- Fill in the blanks.

(Ref: Language in Use: Intermediate, Workbook. Page 59)

Develop paragraphs: organizing ideas at inter-paragraph level

 Generate ideas using different techniques: brain storming, group/class discussions, reading, illustrations

 Guidelines on organization: beginning, developmental Pattern-content (two or three paragraphs), ending, register, key words

 Writing drafts, conference with the teacher, revising

Informative writing

 Text types: information leaflets, prospectuses, plans, description of places/people

 Focus: conveying information clearly. Consider what the reader wants to know and include relevant details only.

 Present materials clearly, appropriate layout, illustrations and organization

Practical writing

 Text types: CV writing, job applications, personal letters-mails

 Focus on particulars found in an application form, CV format is different from application form

- Personal letters: e.g. thanking a teacher who was helping your class to practice a drama (Collaborative group tasks),

- Language: We are writing this letter to…, Our drama came first in the…

Professional writing

 Memos-used for internal office correspondence. Provide a model to read and study the content (group work).

 Write memos e.g. you are the secretary of the sports club of your office. Write a memo to members informing about the annual picnic.

 Agendas of meetings-Provide a sample-usually follow the same pattern.

4.12 EN 1202: Advanced Reading Skills II

Reading skills: word attack skills

 Deducing meaning of unfamiliar words using context clues

- Using other words such as synonyms and antonyms in the same sentence or paragraph

- Using the meaning of the sentence as a whole e.g. The Indians cut their canoes out of tree trunks by using an adze. The meaning of adze can be deduced from the meaning of the whole sentence.

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 Using structural and morphological information

- Guessing the word class

- Understanding the way how suffixes and prefixes are used to build words

Text attack skills: interpreting grammatical cohesive devices-reference, substitution, elliptical expressions

 What is Cohesion? What are cohesive devices?

Cohesion helps a text to hang together. (Combine well). It expresses the continuity that exists between a part of a text and another part. Cohesive devices help in achieving cohesion. They are of two main types – grammatical and lexical.

 Grammatical cohesive devices:

- Reference: identifying the meaning of proforms such as it, he, our, these, those, which are used to avoid repetition

- Substitution: e.g. I have a red pen, but Nimal has a blue one.

Show the difference between substitution and reference.

- Ellipsis: leaving out a word/words from a sentence which the reader can understand from the surrounding text: e.g. They came although they were asked not to.(not to come)

(Ref. Nuttall page 90-92

Reading skills: previewing and predicting

 Make predictions based on the title, sub-titles, students‟ knowledge of the topic, the linguistic context, non-linguistic context such as diagrams, graphs, pictures, maps etc.

 Encourage to predict before reading, while reading, and after reading (a useful skill to increase students‟ reading speed and enhance their comprehension of the text).

Text attack skills

a) Interpreting lexical cohesion-synonyms, related words

b) Interpreting discourse markers

Provide students with activities to learn about the following.

 How the writer uses lexis or vocabulary to achieve cohesion

- Use of synonyms to avoid repetition. e.g. the writer might use „house‟, „home‟, „dwelling‟, and „residence‟ to refer to the same building.

- Use of related words: selecting two lexical items that are closely related. Interpretation of the second will depend on the first. e.g. She was seated under a huge mango tree. A leaf fell on her and then another. The interpretation of „leaf‟ depends on „mango tree‟.

 Identifying discourse markers (conjunctions) which help to achieve cohesion in a text and understanding their function. e.g. words such as but, although, and, then, after

 Types of activities: Rearranging jumbled texts

4.13 EN 1203: Listening in English II

Understanding planned monologues

 In planned monologues the language is carefully structured. Provide the students with a task sheet to be completed while listening.

 Types of activities: weather reports, news readings

Understanding unplanned monologues

 In unplanned monologues which are usually crated on the spot in response to an initial question there is a lot of pauses, redundancy and fragmentary utterances.

 Types of tasks:

- Identify the meaningless speech, list them, and compare with others

- Comprehension questions

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Transfer information

 Listen to the tape / teacher and fill in the chart.

 Types of activities: tracing the route on a map, completing tables/ charts/forms

Retaining relevant points: note taking

 Focus: identifying relevant points-rejecting irrelevant information

 Types of activities: listen to a short text (speech / dialogue) and take down important points. Writing and speaking tasks based on them

4.14 EN 1204: Effective Communication Skills II

Fluency based activities

 Focus: how to maintain fluency in a conversation avoiding excessive pausing, breakdowns and errors in grammar and pronunciation. Involve students in talking about a range of topics which engage their interests, experiences and opinions.

 Types of activities: Use pictures, newspaper headlines cartoons as stimuli. Provide necessary language (structures, words).and discussion questions, e.g., Do you agree with what the woman in the picture is saying?

Functional dialogues

 Asking for help / permission / directions

 Exponents: Can I ask you a favour, May I…, Could you please…, Would you mind if I …, I would like to… I wonder if I could…

 Types of activity: Role plays the model dialogue. Prepare their own dialogues. Perform them before the class.

Interaction in ‘service’: Job interviews, business transactions

 Focus: Strategies for opening and closing conversations, how to use a neutral

 Style of speaking-polite and clear speech

 Procedure: job interviews –provide a model. Get students to read it and practice

 With a partner. Assign different interview situations for different groups. Students prepare the interviews and practise them.

Office talk: over the phone, face-to-face

 Focus: how to provide information, manage interaction, negotiate meaning

 Types of activities:

- Read the advertisement for a product and provide information to the purchasing officer of the company

- Place a catalogue order, take an order and fill out the order form

e.g. your partner is a sales person. Look at the catalogue page, select two items you want to buy and give your order. Make sure your partner takes down the order correctly by confirming the information.

4.15 EN 1205: Language Structure, Usage and Linguistics II

The noun phrase

 Structure of the noun phrase: head word, pre-modifiers, post modifiers

 Word classes that can function as pre-modifiers-determiners, enumerators, adjectives, modifying nouns

 Word classes that can function as post modifiers-mostly prepositional phrases

 Functions of the noun phrase-subject, direct object, indirect object, complement, apposition, adverbial. (provide examples)

 Activities: analysis of noun phrases, expanding the noun phrase using pre and post modifiers.

Varieties of English

 Geographical and national varieties

 Varieties according to medium: written / spoken

 Varieties according to attitude: formal / informal

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Language learning and language acquisition

 The difference between the two in language learning (Krashen‟s theory)

 Implications for the language classroom

Verbs

 Types of verbs: lexical, auxiliary-primary and modal, regular, irregular, transitive, intransitive, stative, dynamic, finite, non-finite,

 Verb forms: base, -s form, past, -ing form, -ed participle

 Activities to be familiar with verb forms

Active and passive voice

 Construction-be+ past participle

 Negative and question forms

 Passive sentences with and without „by‟ – when we want to say who or what was responsible for the action we use „by‟.

We were stopped by the police.

The visitors were driven to the airport.

4.16 EN 1206: Vocabulary Development II

Homonyms: homographs and homophones

 Homographs: words written in the same way, but have different meanings and may be pronounced differently.

e.g. I live in Kandy.

Your favourite star is performing live on TV to night (write the two words in phonetic script and show the difference in pronunciation)

 Homophones: words with the same pronunciation but with a different spelling and pronunciation

e.g. Read this aloud.

I allowed him to go out.

Come here, I can‟t hear you.

 Activities:

 write the homophones of these words and use them in sentences

There, red, been, sail, by, etc.

Write the words according to the vowel sound. e.g. „u‟ = two

Word collocation

 Focus: the way words combine in English to produce natural-sounding speech and writing.

e.g. adjective+ noun: strong / bright light

Verb+ noun: give / provide / shed light

Preposition + noun: by the light of the moon

 Types of activities:

- Matching items- adjectives and nouns, etc.

- Choose the items which collocate with each verb. There can be more than one item.

e.g. To appeal - the slow student

Against the judge‟s decision

To encourage - him to learn from his mistakes

To my friend for help

Cloze exercises

 Focus: Guess the missing words from the context

 Procedure: students are asked to complete the gaps in a text by guessing the meaning from the context. Words or phrases can be taken off the text.

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Compound words: compound adjectives

 Compound adjective has two parts. The second part is often a present or past participle

 Focus: a large number describe personal appearance (broad-shouldered). Others describe person‟s character. (good-natured, warm-hearted)

There is another group which has a preposition in the second part (worn-out shoes)

There are other useful compound adjectives such as: air-conditioned, time-consuming

 Types of activities

- Write as many first parts as possible for the following: - minded.

- Describe yourself and your classmates using compound adjectives.

4.17 EN 1207: Practical Phonology II

Speech practice :Pronunciation exercises: reduced and full forms

 Focus: Function words (articles, prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions) which serve to express grammatical relationship in a sentence, can have a full vowel sound or a reduced form according to the context.

 Types of activities:

- The words underlined have the sound, but they have a full vowel sound when they come at the end of the sentence. Practice saying them.

e.g. Is it for you? What‟s it for?

I‟ve bought some bread. Can I have some?

- Complete the sentences with given words. Mark the words that have the sound

Pronunciation practice: Initial and final clusters

 Write words with initial and final clusters and practice them.

e.g. schools, tricks, bricks

Phonetic script

 Focus: Pronouncing and writing words and sentences in phonetic script

 Types of activities:

- Look at a dictionary page. Practice the correct pronunciation of words

- Read sentences written in phonetic script.

Syllable-stress and word stress

 Focus: Draw attention to the number of syllables in words.

Learn where the main stress falls in English words.

 Types of activities:

- How many syllables are there in these words?

e.g. sports-1 syllable, evening-2 syllables

- Note the stress in the following words and add more to the list. Check in a dictionary.

Enter-stress on 1st syllable, advice- 2nd syllable, entertain – 3rd, disinformation-4th

- Write the words you listed in phonetic script and mark the stress.

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4.18 EN 1208: English Literature II

Teaching poetry

 Recommended text

English and American Poetry

- William Blake: 1757-1827 The Tiger:

- P.B. Shelley : 1792-1822 Ozymandias:

- H.W. Longfellow: 1807-1882 The Slave‟s Dream

- Robert Frost: 1874-1963 Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening:

Sri Lankan and Post-colonial Poetry,

- Daya Dissanayake Kite, Interview

- Yasmin Gooneratne Words to a daughter:

- Rabindranath Tagore Unworthy Gift;

 Consider the following aspects

- Genre: e.g. sonnet, lyric etc

- Background: age, cultural / social setting

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

- 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 text

- Shantan The Cuckoo‟s House

- Nadin Gordimer The Defeated

 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

- R.K. Narayan The Guide or

- Ediriweera Sarathchandra: The curfew and the Full Moon

 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

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- 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.

- 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

4.10 EN 1210: Computer Assisted Language Learning I

Computer literacy, computer competency

 Computer literacy: general knowledge of what computers are used for and some general experience in using them. List the purposes in using computers

 Computer competency: ability to use the computer as a tool for particular purposes

A general introduction-email, conferencing programs (written and spoken), word processing programs, language archives (written and spoken)

Principle roles: tutor, tool

 Introduce the difference between the two.

Tool: enabling device, providing a means of completing a task more efficiently, does not set the task or evaluate e.g. a grammar checker

Tutor: used to practice certain aspects of language (vocabulary, grammar etc.), to evaluate learner input, extend and enrich the language learning opportunities.

Reinforcement of classroom material

Using text books accompanied by CD-Rom disc, which has practice exercises, self-check tests, extra reading material.

Speech processing

Access to speech recognition programs, simple exercises in pronunciation, feedback graphs showing accuracy of learner‟s control of phonemic and prosodic elements.

Peer-editing of compositions

Students exchange diskettes or material on networked computers for peer-editing of drafts of compositions. Teacher monitors the progress and provides guidance on an on-going basis.