a proposal for designing an academic reading and writing course
DESCRIPTION
This paper provides an academic reading and writing course design proposal for EFL students who are intending to continue their education in the U.S. This course design aims at developing better understanding of the complex nature of academic readings, improving students' writing skills and enhancing their critical thinking via using authentic samples of academic texts which are related to the American history and culture.TRANSCRIPT
Academic Reading & Writing Course 1
Running head: A PROPOSAL FOR AN ACADEMIC READING AND WRITING COURSE
A Proposal for Designing an Academic Reading and Writing Course
Final Course Design Project
Eman M. Eltukri
University of Southern California
EDHP 521- Course Design for Language Learning
May 07th, 2009
Academic Reading & Writing Course 2
A Proposal for an Academic Reading and Writing Course
With the growing number of Libyan students granted scholarships to study in the United
States, students in Libya need assistance in academic English reading, writing and thinking
skills. Furthermore, students are not familiar with most of the TOEFL and GRE readings
because they are more related to the history and culture of the United States.
Accordingly, I would like to design a course that qualifies those students to succeed in
their studying experience in the United States. I would like to design a course that aims at
developing better understanding of the complex nature of academic readings, improving their
writing skills and enhancing their critical thinking via using authentic samples of academic
texts which are related to the American history and culture.
My rationale as a teacher is integrating the four skills of language whatever the purpose of
the class was. I agree with Graves (2000) in that "the four skills are the channel or modes for
using and understanding the language" (p.47). Therefore, although the course will be
explicitly focusing on teaching reading and writing, attention will be also paid implicitly to
develop students' communicative competence and grammar.
I believe that when teachers are clear about their teaching plan; it helps them design
appropriate materials (Graves, 2000). From this perspective, this paper seeks to present a
proposal for designing a reading and writing course that is related to academic purposes
based on the needs of the prospective students. It will provide information about students'
population, place and purpose; highlight the assessment that will be used; the goals and
objectives that will be achieved and how the course will be organized. Course plan is subject
to change in order to meet the students' needs.
Context
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Population
The prospective students are adult Libyans who are either teaching assistants and/or
master's degree holders from different majors at the University of Garyounis in
Benghazi, Libya. They all have scholarships to study towards their different degrees in the
United States. Their levels of English proficiency are upper intermediate and their first
language is Arabic. There are four classes. Each has an approximate number of 20 students.
The classes consist of males and females whom ages range between 24 to 30 years. The class
is a two hour daily session for 5 weeks.
Place
The proposed course will take place in the city of Benghazi, Libya at the Garyounis
Language Center which is an extension of the University of Garyounis. It is located in
downtown Benghazi- separate from the University campus. It was remodeled recently. It
consists of about 100 classrooms, a huge library and a language laboratory. This center
provides different language courses such as English, Arabic, Italian, French, etc. The
teaching staff is either the University's professors or teaching assistants. There are two
different types of classrooms; halls and typical classrooms both of which are provided with a
whiteboard. The capacity of the classroom differs from one to another. The proposed class
will take place in a medium size classroom that has a capacity of about 25 students. Course
instructors can be provided with audio recorders. There is also a photocopier where you can
copy any number of pages.
Purpose
The purpose of this course is to help students who are going to pursue their higher studies
towards their doctoral and master's degrees in the United States be prepared academically for
reading, writing and thinking skills explicitly as well as speaking and listening implicitly. The
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reading and writing passages will be based on the American culture and history in order to
familiarize students with them.
Needs Assessment
In order for the students to benefit the most from the learning process, the following needs
assessment phases will be conducted (appendix I):
Pre- course needs assessment
Gathering useful information about my prospective students will help me design a course
that meets their interests and needs. Therefore, I will conduct a questionnaire (appendix II)
before the course begins to gather information about the students' background in English as
well as some personal information in order to know more about the learners, their level of
language proficiency, and their knowledge about the American culture. Moreover, I will
carry out extensive interviews with staff members and administrators in order to gather as
much different information as possible about the students and similar courses that had been
taught before .
Initial needs assessment
For this phase, on the first day of our class meeting, I will hand a paper that contains an
open-ended question about students' expectations about the course, what they would like to
improve in particular in the area of academic reading and writing, what they already know
about the American history and culture, their learning preferences and any concerns or
thoughts that they might have. Through this writing activity, I will be able to gather
information about students' objective and subjective needs (Brindely, 1989 & Nunan, 1988)
as will as to diagnose their strengthens and weaknesses.
Ongoing needs assessment
As the course progresses, I would like to receive responses from the students about it.
This will be done through written reflections from the students and in-class discussions. Also,
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in order to track my students' progress and see the effectiveness of what we have already
done and make any adjustments if necessary, there will be quizzes after finishing every unit.
Goals and Objectives
Following the KASA framework (Grave, 2000), my main goals are that students develop
Knowledge about academic reading and writing; secondly, students gain Awareness of the
American history and culture; thirdly, students acquire the necessary Skills to approach an
academic text; and finally, students have a positive Attitude toward their academic writing.
The following lists my goals and objectives:
Goal 1. Students improve academic reading skills.
Objectives: By the end of the course, students will be able to:
1 .Comprehend texts through using a variety of reading strategies.
2 .Acquire a vast number of vocabularies.
3 .Analyze and critique texts .
Goal 2. Students will improve academic writing skills.
Objectives: By the end of the course, students will be able to:
1 .Compose essays, journal entries and short papers using appropriate structure ,
patterns and rhetorical devices.
2 .Summarize and paraphrase information learned from the reading passages.
3 .Take notes to prepare for tests and writing assignments .
Goal 3: Students will become familiar with relevant topics related to the American history
and culture.
Objectives: By the end of the course, students will be able to:
1. Expand their understanding of the American history and culture.
2. Demonstrate knowledge of issues that they might face in the American standardized
tests.
Academic Reading & Writing Course 6
Organization of the Course
The duration of the course is 5 weeks. The class will be meeting everyday of the week;
each class is a two-hour session. The units of the course will be organized
topically/categorically. The syllabus (Appendix III) will be consisting of 5 units each of
which contains 3 texts and different activities. Each unit contains topics that are important
issues today in the American history and culture like "Electing the President", "Freedom of
Expression", "Slavery: The Early History of African American", "A Country of Immigrants",
"\All Men are Create Equal", " Is the American Dream Still Possible?", "Fast Food" and
"English as a Global Language". Moreover, through reading those topics, students will learn
different reading and writing strategies such as surveying, speed reading, taking notes using
maps, scanning to find specific information and summarizing, understanding the text via
pictures, finding support for the main ideas and writing reflections.
As stated previously, my aim is to improve students' academic reading and writing
explicitly and their communicative competence implicitly. Accordingly, the approach that I
will be following is the Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) (Richards & Rodgers,
2001). The TBLT is "based on the use of tasks as the core unit of planning and instruction in
language teaching" (Richards & Rodgers, 2001, p.223). Students will learn a variety of
reading and writing strategies and skills as well as develop their communicative competence
through engaging in tasks where they work most of the time in pairs or groups.
Each lesson (Appendix IV) starts with pre-reading tasks such as discussion questions or
writing reflections that activate students' schema or surveying the content of the chapter, so
that they can get an overall idea about the topic and what they expect to learn. Then, students
engage in post-reading activities which are tasks that ask students to demonstrate their
understanding of the text in such ways as answering reading comprehension questions or
looking for the main idea .
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Course Text and Materials
The material choice for the course will be Academic Encounters: American Studies
Reading, Study Skills, Writing by Jessica Williams, CUP 2007. The book serves the goals
and objectives of the course.
The reasons for choosing this book is that it provides the students with a variety of reading
strategies via authentic academic reading passages that are related to the American history
and culture which might be of help for those students who are going to study in the US. Also,
the activities in the material prepare students to standardized tests such as TOEFL and GRE
readings and writings. Furthermore, the reading and writing are integrated in a way that
makes the writing practice based on the reading section. In other words, in both pre-reading
and post-reading activities, in addition to practicing reading strategies, students will have
different writing tasks such as summarizing, outlining, taking notes and writing reflections.
Moreover, there is a writing task after every post-reading activity in which students write
paragraphs or essays that are related to the topic of the reading passage.
Although I believe the book I chose meets the needs of the course, I would like to
supplement the course with other materials such as realia like newspapers and magazines,
internet recourses, as well as handouts that clarify specific areas which students might need to
improve like punctuations or certain grammatical rules.
Assessment Plan
There will be different ways for assessing students' learning. I will be assessing
specifically the students' ability to approach academic reading and writing which is the
goal of the course. In addition to class activities and home assignments, there will be
reading and writing quizzes at the end of each unit (Appendix V, VII). This will help me
in assessing students' progress and see whether there is improvement in the students'
reading and writing skills, if not, see what areas they still need to work on.
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For the evaluation part, by the end of the course I will be conducting a summative
assessment (Grave, 2000) to have an overall view about the students' achievement and the
evaluating the course. The types of the summative assessment that will be carried out are oral
and written feedback at the end of the course about the quality of the course, materials and
activities used and any other suggestions. The results of the evaluation will enable me to
retain the effective parts of the course and make necessary adjustments and changes for the
ineffective areas for future courses.
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References
Brindly, G. (1989). The role of needs analysis in adult ESL progeamme design. In R. K.
Johnson (ed.), The second language curriculum. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press.
Graves, K. (2000). Designing language courses: A guide for teachers. Boston: Heinle and
Heinle.
Nunan, D. (1989). Syllabus design. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Richards, J. and Rodgers, T. (2001). Approaches and methods in language teaching. New
York, USA: Cambridge University Press.
Williams, J. (2007). Academic Encounters: American Studies Reading, Study Skills, Writing.
USA: Cambridge University Press.
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Appendix I
Stakeholder Data Collection Procedure Table
When? What data? How?By
whom?From whom? Purpose?
Pre-course
Personal Information and students' language background
Questionnaire Teacher Students To develop some knowledge about students' personal life and language background
Information about similar courses
Interviews Teacher Faculty andAdministrators
To gather information about how similar courses are conducted
Initial
Students' expectations and writing proficiency
Writing Activity
Teacher Students To understand students' expectations, learning preference and diagnose their writing proficiency
Ongoing
Students' viewpoints about the course
Reflections and In-class discussions
Teacher Students To make any necessary adjustments
Students progress
Quizzes Teacher Students To determine students' learning and the effectiveness of the course
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Appendix II
A Sample of "Needs Assessment" Questionnaire
1. Name _______________________________
2. Major _______________________________
3. Age ________________________________
4. Degree ______________________________
5. Interests _____________________________
6. Have you ever been to the U.S.? Why? How long? When? Yes - No
_____________________________________________________________
7. Have you ever taken an academic English course before? If yes, where and for
how long?
______________________________________________________________
8. How do you rate your English language skills on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being
the lowest and 5 being the highest:
Reading 1 2 3 4 5
Writing 1 2 3 4 5
Speaking 1 2 3 4 5
Listening 1 2 3 4 5
9. Are you familiar with the American history and/or culture? Yes - No
10. What do you hope the outcome of this course will be?
_______________________________________________________________
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Appendix III
A Tentative Course Syllabus
Week 1
Unit 1: Laws of the LandText(1) From Colonies to United StatesText(2) Electing the PresidentText(3) Freedom of Expression
Surveying Speed reading Building new vocabulary Proverbs In-class essay "comparison"
Week 2
Unit 2: A Diverse NationText(1) America's First PeopleText(2) Slavery: The Early History of African AmericanText(3) A Country of Immigrants
Understanding the text via pictures Finding support for the main ideas Building new vocabulary Reflection
Week 3
Unit 3: The Struggle for EqualityText(1) All Men are Create EqualText(2) The Legacy of the Civil WarText(3) The Women's Movement
Taking notes using maps Scanning to find specific information Building new vocabulary Summarizing
Week 4
Unit 4: American Values Text(1) The Roots of the American ValuesText(2) The American WestText (3) Is the American Dream Still Possible?
Skimming Note-taking Building new vocabulary Building new vocabulary Writing academic texts to describe group of tendencies
Week 5
Unit 5: Global Transformation Text(1) Fast Food
Text(2) Hip-Hop: The Culture and MusicText(3) English as a Global Language
Visualizing the main ideas Understanding the function of different parts of the text Building new vocabulary Outlining
Appendix IV
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A Sample of a Lesson Plan
DATE ------------
LESSON NO. 26
UNIT 4
CHAPTER 7
TIME 2 hours (20 min break)
Topic(s) American Values from the Past: (2)The American West PAGE 150
Lesson Objective
1)Students understand the content of the topic from pictures2)Students learn reading to find support for main ideas3)Building students' vocabulary
Students write reflectionsTeaching Aids Blackboard, book
Teaching Procedures Time
Preparing to read:1. Students examine the pictures on page 149 from the American West.2. Students discuss in groups of four the following questions:
- What do these pictures make you think of?- Have you seen films or television programs that use similar images?- Do you think these pictures show what life was really like in the old
American West?3. Now, students read the text "The American West" on page 150.
Post-reading Tasks:1. Teacher discusses the reading and new vocabulary2. Students reread the text to find support for the main ideas.3. Individually, students highlight evidence in the text that supports each of the
following values (then each student checks with a partner):(1)Self-reliance(2)Optimism(3)Taking risks(4)Egalitarianism
Writing:1. Students review the diary entries in the boxed text on page 151.2. Students write reflections on what they think life was like for pioneer
families:(5)For men(6)For women(7)For children
3. Teacher collects the papers and provides feedback.
Assignment: * Students write the new vocabulary in their vocabulary notebook.
30 min
40 min
30 min
Appendix V
Academic Reading & Writing Course 14
A Sample of Reading Assessment
Student's Name ________________________________________________
1 .Skim the following reading for one minute to answer the two questions below:
What is the topic about?
What two businesses does it discuss?
THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY MARKETPLACE
American business has changed a great deal since the days of Andrew Carnegie
and John D. Rockefeller. Monopolies are prohibited, and the government has
passed laws to make sure that workplaces are safe. Trade unions continue to
protect workers' rights, although these unions are not as strong as they were in the
past. Some in the business world argue that these changes have made it more
difficult for entrepreneurs to be successful. Yet there have been many examples of
extremely successful entrepreneurs in recent years. Surprisingly, the factors in their
success are not very different from the factors in the success of the business
leaders in the past. The founders of these modern businesses all had good ideas for
a new product or service or simply a new and better way of running an old business.
They combined their ideas with a good education, hard work, and an understanding
that their business would have to adjust constantly to changes in the market and in
technology. Not surprisingly, many modern success stories involve technology .
Three modern entrepreneurs
Larry Page and Sergey Brin met when they were students at Stanford University in
the 1990s. They realized that many of the Internet search engines that were
available at that time did not deliver the information that people were looking for.
They also realized that the most popular Web pages were usually the most useful.
Therefore, they created a new system: They put the Web sites that people visit the
most first on the search results page .
Page and Brin worked out of a friend's garage and borrowed money from friends
and family to develop their business. In 1998, they formally introduced their search
engine, Google. When it began, Google got about 10,000 inquiries a day; the
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number of inquiries quickly grew to more than 200 million a day. Today Google is
the most successful search engine in the world, and it performs an enormous
variety of searches in dozens of languages. It has also begun to offer other
services, such as shopping guides, news, satellite maps, e-mail, photo sharing,
translation, and even help with dating .
Sam Walton's success story is different. Walton did not even have a specific product
or service to sell. He had a concept - discounting - which he applied to a huge variety
of products. With this concept, he created Wal-Mart, a discount retail chain. Walton
also used new business practices: He bought products in such large quantities that
he could demand very low prices from his suppliers; he bought directly from
manufacturers all over the world; he built enormous stores that sold everything from
toys to light bulbs at such low prices that smaller stores could not compete. Finally,
Wal-Mart was one of the first retail businesses to completely computerize its
operations, significantly increasing efficiency. The only computer system in the
country that is larger than Wal-Matt's belongs to the U.S. Department of Defense. Wal-
Mart was so successful that Sam Walton became one of the richest men in the country.
Many people say that Wal-Mart has hurt small businesses and has not always treated
its workers and suppliers fairly; however, it very successful in the United States and
around the world .
Superstores versus small business
Until recently, stores in the United States were small stores. Even after the success of
big business in the time of Carnegie and Rockefeller the majority of businesses
remained small. Often a family owned a small store, and it was passed from the
parents to the children. In smaller cities and towns, the owners often knew all their
customers. Large stores like Wal-Mart are relatively new, but their numbers have
grown quickly. Today there are many of these "superstores," such as Best Buy, Home
Depot, and Office Max. These kinds of stores are different because of their size and
the relatively low cost of their products. Many of them follow Wal-Mart's example of
buying in large quantities so they can offer low prices. Unlike Wal-Mart, many
specialize in one particular kind of product, for example, computers, products for pets,
or office supplies.
Superstores are convenient for customers because they can find everything they
need in one place. However, they do not offer the personal connection between the
salespeople and the customers that was common in the days of small, family-owned
stores. The small stores' have struggled since the appearance of superstores because
small stores cannot compete. They cannot match the prices or the variety of the
products in the superstores. Many shoppers have gradually stopped going to the small
stores, and as a result, many of these business have had to close. Some Americans
regret these changes, and today there are communities that have decided they do not
Academic Reading & Writing Course 16
want superstores. They prefer the personal connection and service they get at small
stores, even if the prices are higher .
2 .Name three important factors for success in the twenty-first century marketplace.
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
3. Give two reasons why customers prefer Wal-Mart over small stores.
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
4. Reading for details: read the phrases in the left column. Put a check (√ ) under the name of the company that the phrase describes. In some cases, the phrase applies to both companies.
Google Wal-Mart1. started with a good idea2. pioneered new business practices
3. began in a garage with borrowed money
4. uses computer technology
5. can help you find a date6. has been very successful
7. has many stores
8. is used more than 200 million times a day
9. offers services in many languages
Appendix VI
A Sample of Rubric for the Reading Assessment
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Reading Test Key Answers
(Max. 15 Points)
1. What is the topic about? (1 point)
It is about extremely successful entrepreneurs in recent years.
What two businesses does it discuss? (1 point)
Google and Wal-Mart.
2. Name three important factors for success in the twenty-first century marketplace. (5 points)
Good education.
Hard work.
Understanding that the business would have to adjust constantly to changes
in the market and in technology.
3. Give two reasons why customers prefer Wal-Mart over small stores. (3 points)
Customers can find everything they want in one place.
Low cost and variety of products.
4. Reading for details: read the phrases in the left column. Put a check (√ ) under the name of the company that the phrase describes. In some cases, the phrase applies to both companies. (5 points)
Google Wal-Mart1. started with a good idea √2. pioneered new business practices √
3. began in a garage with borrowed money √
4. uses computer technology √
5. can help you find a date √6. has been very successful √
7. has many stores √
8. is used more than 200 million times a day √
9. offers services in many languages √Appendix VII
A Sample of Writing Assessment
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Student's Name ________________________________________________
Theme chosen _________________________________________________
1. Choose one theme of the following to write about
Equal opportunity
Self-reliance
Optimism
Hard work
Risk taking
Individual achievement
Basic equality of all individuals
2. Write a four-paragraph essay (introduction, body, conclusion) answers the following
question: "In what areas of American life and history has the theme you chose had a
strong influence?"
3. Choose two examples of evidence that can help you illustrate the influence of your theme.
4. Start each paragraph with a topic sentence that connects your theme with your example.
5. Include some details to support how your examples show the importance of the theme.
6. Make sure to provide…
a) an introduction that states a claim, or position statement and provides the examples you will explain,
b) two body paragraphs, each with different examples of evidence to support your position,
c) an appropriate topic sentence for each of the two supporting paragraphs,
d) a concluding paragraph that restates your claim and summarizes the main points as well as your opinion,
e) accurate grammar, transitions, punctuations and correct spelling.
Appendix VIII
A Sample of Rubric for the Writing Assessment
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Writing Test
Name: ______________________________________ Final Grade___________ :
5 = Excellent 4 = Very Good 3 = Good 2 = Needs Improvement 1 = Poor 0 = Missing
Content Total
1 .Introduction :____Hook
____Relevant to topic
____Thesis statement
2 .Body:Paragraph 1
____Topic Sentence
____Example
____Support
____Concluding sentence or transition
Paragraph 2
____Topic Sentence
____Example
____Support
____Concluding sentence
3 .Conclusion:____Transition
____Restate claim, summarize main points
____Opinion
4 .Overall:____Coherence
____Transition
____Grammar
____Punctuations
____Spelling
Comments: …………………………………………………………………………………………………