Can-do Statements B2
Course Description
ELI 104 is an intermediate level course aiming to build and further improve language proficiency at B2 Threshold level on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). It is a fourteen-week semester course with 2 hours of instruction each week.
Course Goal
The course aims at helping learners to achieve an overall English language proficiency leading to higher Independent User of language defined as B2 level on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), giving reasons and explanations for opinions and plans and describing experiences and events.
Course Objectives
- The course is intended to accomplish its goal in one full semester of fourteen weeks through developing students’ language skills to:
- Read and understand a wide variety of extended texts. (READING)
- Listen to extended conversations and monologues on a range of topics, identifying both general messages and specific details provided speech is clearly articulated in a familiar accent. (LISTENING COMPREHENSION)
- Give a straightforward talk and participate in extended oral communications on a familiar topic, be followed without difficulty most of the time, and convey meaning with reasonable precision. (SPOKEN PRODUCTION)
- Construct coherent and cohesive texts with multiple paragraphs using appropriate vocabulary in a fully developed response. (WRITING)
- Use a sufficient range of vocabulary and grammatical structures to communicate on a range of topics although flexibility may be limited when communicating on less familiar topics. (USE OF ENGLISH)
- *Extended text is a text of 400 – 800 words in frequently used grammatical structures at this level.
Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)
Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) are descriptions of what students will know or be able to do with the language as a result of instruction. A student learning outcome is written in terms of observable and measurable language skills. The table below lists the SLOs according to their Macro skills.
Speaking
- Can recount past experiences and events using a variety of narrative tenses to give background and make the sequence of events clear.
- Can express explanations and reasons for opinions with sufficient ease when discussing attitudes on topics such as books, places, people, and possessions
- Can ask for and provide detailed descriptions and opinions of someone's physical appearance and character
- Can give biographical information to describe events in my (and others’) life, including educational background and experience.
- Can express simple agreement, sympathy, pleasure and surprise when taking part in a conversation.
- Can describe rules and customs from different cultures and communities.
- Can express degrees of obligation, ask for and give permission, make and respond to suggestions using a variety of expressions and modal verbs.
- Can express degrees of certainty, when speculating about present and past situations.
- Can clearly express attitudes and opinions with sufficient ease when talking about future situations (real or imaginary) or making predictions, plans and arrangements.
- Can make suggestions and give advice in everyday situations using a variety of expressions.
Listening
- Can listen to an extended conversation and identify speakers' opinions and attitudes.
- Can listen to conversations and monologues and infer main ideas from contextual clues.
- Can follow radio/ TV news headlines and weather forecasts, and record important factual information.
- Can listen to and follow an extended conversation or monologue and record important factual information.
- Can listen to short texts about people’s experiences and retell them aided by written prompts
Reading
- Can analyze meaning by studying sections of a text in detail at the sentence level (in order to develop a higher level of understanding).
- Can scan an extended text to find idiomatic vocabulary items (such as phrasal verbs) and deduce their meaning using contextual clues.
- Can read and understand an extended text and express opinions on the content.
- Can read and understand extended texts** of a similar theme to identify and discuss similarities and differences of text content.
- Can locate desired information in a text and evaluate this information from a personal or social point of view.
- Can preview an extended text (by looking at headings and visuals, asking questions about it, making predictions) then read to confirm his/her ideas.
- Can read and understand an extended range of signs and labels found in public places and on products*.
- Can read and understand an extended text and note down the most important details
Writing
- Can produce a detailed cohesive and coherent argumentative essay in 3 to 4 paragraphs.
- Can express his /her opinion and give reasons to support that opinion and specific details to support the reasons.
- Can use an appropriate introduction with thesis statement, topic sentences, supporting details and conclusion.
- Can write using a variety of sentence types – simple, compound and complex – avoiding fragments and run on sentences.
- Can draft each paragraph of an argumentative essay in stages, following an outline.
- Can plan writing by listing, selecting and organizing ideas and putting them into an outline.
- Can revise writing by understanding and implementing peer and instructor feedback, and by checking for transition signals, supporting details and variety of sentence types.
- Vocabulary and Grammar
- Can understand and use literal, idiomatic, separable, inseparable phrasal verbs such as come across, hand down put up, end up, etc.
- Can confidently use the present perfect continuous tense, and produce written sentences utilizing this form.
- Can understand and use base and strong adjectives, and produce written sentences utilizing them..