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A. Personal Identification
1. Language functions
a. describing one's present life situation and connecting it to
the past and future
b. expressing future goals and aspirations and steps for
achieving them
2. Language structures related to self such as present perfect,
verbs of intent, and modal auxiliaries (politeness, ability and
possibility)
3. Skills and strategies
a. recognizing formal vs. informal speech
b. using appropriate capitalization and punctuation
c. pre-writing techniques, e.g. free writing and listing
d. writing paragraphs with a topic sentence, supporting detail
and concluding sentence
4. Vocabulary
a. descriptive language related to current and past personal
experiences
b. synonyms and antonyms describing personal characteristics
B. School
1. Language functions
a. describing past and present school experience
b. communicating with appropriate school personnel to get
information
c. identifying personal academic strengths and weaknesses
d. defining academic goals and steps to achieve them
2. Language structures related to education such as verb + infinitive;
verb + gerund; verb tense shifts; serial order of events; modal
auxiliaries (permission, probability, and necessity), question
forms, including indirect speech; and articles and demonstratives;
"some/any" with nouns
3. Skills and strategies
a. using language strategies for group work such as questioning,
interrupting and expressing disagreement
b. effective study skills including organizing materials, time
management and establishing priorities
c. independently using educational resources including the library
and computer labs when available
d. using the internet as an informational resource
e. writing paragraphs about academic and vocational aspirations
4. Vocabulary
a. terms to describe aspects of college curriculum, e.g.
"prerequisite," and "credit"
b. terms to describe academic policies and procedures, e.g.
"plagiarism" and "matriculation"
c. terms to describe basic elements of "computer literacy"
C. Family (and Culture)
1. Language functions
a. describing relationships within family structure, e.g.
"generations," "siblings," "in-laws"
b. comparing and contrasting cultural differences between
country of origin and USA
c. explaining personal process of acculturation and/or
assimilation
2. Language structures related to family and culture such as verb
tenses, e.g. past tense with "used to," past perfect and time
clauses
3. Skills and strategies
a. using charts and Venn diagrams to compare and contrast
information from readings and/or group discussions
b. pre-writing techniques e.g. word maps and outlining
c. skimming and scanning narratives and non-fiction passages
for specific information
d. writing paragraphs to interpret a reading passage
4. Vocabulary
a. terms to describe traditions, customs and beliefs
b. dates and numbers, e.g. cardinal and ordinal, numeric and
alphabetic forms
D. Work
1. Language function
a. identifying occupations including duties, skills, training
and pay
b. describing ways to get a job e.g. search, networking, applying,
interviewing
c. expressing job-related needs e.g. training, evaluation, and
"speaking up"
d. explaining workers' rights, responsibilities and resources
2. Language structures related to work such as adverbs of intensity,
spoken vs. written language; formal vs. informal language; writing
forms and conventions
3. Skills and strategies
a. using politeness conventions to engage in group work
b. using clarification strategies
c. using appropriate format, punctuation and capitalization
to write business letters and resumes
d. using the internet for research skills (career options,
workers' rights and responsibilities)
4. Vocabulary
a. job-seeking terms
b. terms related to training, supervision and evaluation
c. terms related to benefits, worker protection, taxes, dues
E. Community
1. Language functions
a. describing living situations, e.g. "address," "rent/own," "multi-
family," and "neighborhood"
b. identifying essential services e.g. utilities, public safety
c. describing community resources, e.g. "courts," "non-profits"
and "media"
d. accessing and communicating with various constituencies, e.g.
neighbors, officials, emergency personnel, store personnel
and service representatives
e. describing emergency situations, e.g. earthquake, accident,
criminal activity, injuries and medical condition
f. understanding, filling out and negotiating standardized
documents and forms such as leases, loan agreements and
court orders
2. Language structures related to community e.g. tense shifts within
a sentence or paragraph, modals of obligation, permission,
probability, sentence construction including dependent clauses,
parallel structure and run-on sentences
3. Skills and strategies
a. using standard formats for numbers such as dates, zip codes
and telephone numbers
b. questioning, clarifying information and negotiating in spoken
English
c. applying reading strategies to various types of narratives and
expository reading passages
d. guessing meaning of new vocabulary from context
e. analyzing and interpreting new concepts from readings and
discussions
f. using non-verbal clues to facilitate understanding in one-to-one
and/or group discussions
g. beginning to write well-developed paragraphs (or series of
related paragraphs) about community-related concerns and
problem-solving strategies
4. Vocabulary
a. terms to describe place of residence in context of larger
community
b. terms to describe standard components of a local community
and/or region
c. names of basic institutions, companies, services and utilities
d. terms for processes and activities involving community
interaction, e.g. petitions, volunteerism
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Assignments may include:
A. In-class assignments
1. Speaking
a. posing questions, responding to questions
b. describing, explaining, analyzing language structures,
vocabulary, topics or issues
c. pair-work and small group discussion
d. oral presentations on topics and issues from the curriculum
e. interviews and surveys
f. role plays, speeches, skits
2. Listening
a. responding to in-class practice exercises
b. informal conversations with classmates and teacher
c. responding to taped materials
d. responding to various accents, levels of formality, etc.
3. Reading
a. skimming various types of material for gist (general meaning)
b. scanning various types of material for specific details
c. analysis and interpretation to identify main idea and details
d. introduction to various types of reading styles such as
expository passages and poetry
e. interpretation of charts, tables, graphs, graphics, inserts
and footnotes
f. introduction to components of published materials such as
tables of contents, indexes and copyrights
g. objective tests
4. Writing
a. composing sentences, paragraphs and essays
b. dictations (as models of correct grammar, format and
punctuation)
c. completing standardized/formal documents such as loan
applications and leases
d. composing various types and styles of written material
including letters, notes and e-mail
e. creating a class newspaper, newsletter or promotional brochure
B. Homework
1. Speaking
a. asking for information over the telephone
b. leaving messages on an answering machine
c. interviewing/surveying people in the community
d. obtaining/requesting information outside the classroom
to solve a problem
2. Listening
a. listening to recorded information and responding to telephone
menu prompts
b. listening to radio, TV, music and live entertainment in English
c. obtaining accurate information from sources in the community
(e.g. prices and directions)
3. Reading a wide variety of written materials in English (e.g.
newspapers, magazines, TV, Internet, advertisements, labels,
brochures, signs and other environmental written messages)
4. Writing
a. written assignments as follow-up to in-class instruction
including textbook exercises and worksheets
b. practical and/or creative writing assignments such as recipes,
directions, absence notes and poetry
c. journal entries
5. Self-study through DVD viewing and corresponding homework packets that support communication in English for various life skills topics
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THE NEW GRAMMAR IN ACTION 2, Foley & Neblett, Heinle & Heinle, 1998
BASIC ENGLISH GRAMMAR, 2ND EDITION, Azar, Pearson Education, 1996
MORE GRAMMAR PRACTICE, Books 1 & 2, Heinle & Heinle, 2001
LISTEN TO ME, Foley, Heinle & Heinle, 1998
GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS, Barnard, Oxford University Press, 1998
CELEBRATE WITH US, Kennedy, Contemporary Books, 1996
Putting English To Work 1 video series
English For All video series
Instructor-prepared materials
