Ethics and Academic honesty
All students are expected to act with civility and personal integrity, respect other students’ dignity, rights and property; and help create and maintain an environment in which all can succeed through the fruits of their own efforts. An environment of academic integrity is requisite to respect for self and others and a civil community.
Academic integrity includes a commitment to not engage in or tolerate acts of falsification, misrepresentation or deception. Such acts of dishonesty include cheating or copying, plagiarizing, submitting another person’s work as one’s own, using Internet sources without citation, taking or having another student take your exam, tampering with the work of another student, facilitating other students’ acts of academic dishonesty, etc.
Sanctions for breaches in academic honesty may range, depending on the severity of the offense from an “F” grade on an assignment/test to an “F” in the course. Severe cases and/or repeat offenses of academic dishonesty may also result in more severe disciplinary sanctions up to and including suspension or expulsion.
Teaching and learning philosophy and methodology
Although the main aim of the Undergraduate Foundation English courses is to develop language and communicative competence, teachers also foster interpersonal and academic skills required for university study. The process of learning occurs best in an environment that both values diverse experiences, backgrounds, learning styles and interests, and encourages open communication of ideas and self-reflection. A cooperative learning method can help to create supportive and friendly atmosphere, encourage learners to exchange their knowledge and embolden them to learn from each other. Moreover, students retain more of the course material when they are active learners and participants of a learning process. Therefore, teachers should create a learner-centered environment that will help students to turn into autonomous, responsible, self-directed and self-regulating learners who make decisions regarding the activities they fulfill and the topics they work on. A process-oriented approach is another approach that is used within the courses to teach students to write. This approach considers writing as a developmental process through which meaning and self-discovery are created. As a result, in the process-oriented approach a writer is seen as an independent text producer having innate creative potential rather than a writer limited in rights on discovery and self-expression. Also, to reach students teachers must engage them, establish rapport, hold their attention, and create an open learning atmosphere. As a result of these beliefs about teaching and learning, the cooperative learning method, the learner-centered approach and the process-oriented approach are recommended for the Undergraduate Foundation English courses.
Course learning activities
Students are required to undertake ____ hours of learning activities. The instructors provide ______ hours of class contact. It means that ________hours must be explicitly allocated across a range of independent learning activities. Teachers focus a lot of attention on the development of students’ critical thinking and autonomous learning. The course learning activities include working individually and in small groups, writing opinion paragraphs, preparing and producing dialogues, reading adapted and authentic texts, listening to various audio materials, working on grammar and vocabulary.
Class schedule
Week | Topic | Content of study / Class activities | Unit | Assessment | |
Art | Grammar:Present Simple vs. Present Continuous (Revision), prepositions of place Vocabulary:Art; Appearance and personality, clothes and accessories Writing:Word order Speaking:Dialogue (In an art gallery) Reading: Listening: | Unit 1A,B,C Unit 11B (word order) | · Feedback is given every lesson in the form of error analysis. | ||
· Feedback is given every lesson in the form of error analysis. · Grammar mini-test 1 | |||||
Holidays | Grammar: Past Simple (Revision), used to, Prepositions of time and place Vocabulary:Phrases with go Writing:Subject and verb agreement Reading: Listening: | Unit 2A,B Unit 10B (used to) | · Feedback is given every lesson in the form of error analysis. · Vocabulary mini-test 1 | ||
Grammar: Past Simple vs. Past Continuous, time sequence and connectors Vocabulary:Holiday activities Writing:Parallel structures, speech connectors Speaking:Dialogue (Memories about holidays) Reading: Listening: | Unit 2B,C | · Feedback is given every lesson in the form of error analysis. · Grammar mini-test 2 | |||
Booking arrangements | Grammar:Present Continuous for future arrangements, to be going to, Future Simple(Revision) Vocabulary:Traveling (preparations, at the airport, at the station, etc.) Writing:Opinion paragraph organization andopinion paragraph writing 1 (First draft) Speaking:Dialogue (At the airport) Reading: Listening: | Unit 3A,B Unit 6A,B | · Feedback is given every lesson in the form of error analysis. · Vocabulary mini-test 2 | ||
Relations | Grammar: Present Perfect Simple Vocabulary:Relationship phrases Writing: Opinion paragraph organization andopinion paragraph writing 1 (Second draft) Speaking: Reading: Listening: | Unit 4A Unit 9B | · Feedback is given every lesson in the form of error analysis. · Grammar mini-test 3 · Opinion paragraph 1 (Second draft) | ||
Grammar: Past Simple vs. Present Perfect Simple Vocabulary:Relationship phrases Writing:Opinion paragraph writing1 (Final) Speaking:Dialogue (Generation gap) Reading: Listening: | Unit 4B Unit 9C | · Feedback is given every lesson in the form of error analysis. Vocabulary mini-test 3 · Opinion paragraph 1 (Final) | |||
Life hacks | Grammar: Gerund and Infinitive Vocabulary:phrases with get Writing:Opinion paragraph writing 2 (First draft) Speaking:Dialogues (Unusual life experience) Reading: Listening: | Unit 7A,B | · Summative assessment 1 | ||
Education | Grammar: Gerund and Infinitive (continuation), Modal verbs (can, must, have to, should, might) Vocabulary:Education, subjects Writing:Opinion paragraph writing2 (Second draft) Reading: Listening: | Unit 7A,B,C Unit 8A Unit 10C (might) | · Feedback is given every lesson in the form of error analysis. · Grammar mini-test 4 · Opinion paragraph 2 (Second draft) | ||
· Feedback is given every lesson in the form of error analysis. · Vocabulary mini-test 4 · Opinion paragraph 2 (Final) | |||||
Grammar:Modal verbs (can, must, have to, should, might) Vocabulary:Education, subjects Writing:Opinion paragraph writing2 (Final) Speaking:Dialogue (Studying abroad vs. studying in Kazakhstan) Reading: Listening: | |||||
Problems | Grammar: First Conditionals Vocabulary:Animals Speaking:Dialogue (Problems) Reading: Listening: | Unit 8A Unit 8B Unit 9A | · Feedback is given every lesson in the form of error analysis. · Grammar mini-test 5 | ||
Grammar: Second Conditionals Vocabulary:Problems Writing:Summative assessment 2 Paragraph (First draft) Reading: Listening: | |||||
· Feedback is given every lesson in the form of error analysis. · Vocabulary mini-test 5 · Summative assessment 2 paragraph (Second draft) | |||||
Inventions & Discoveries | Grammar: Passive Voice Vocabulary:techniques and equipment Writing:Summative assessment 2 Paragraph (Final) Speaking:Dialogue (The most important invention/discovery) Reading: Listening: | Unit 10A | · Feedback is given every lesson in the form of error analysis. · Grammar mini-test 6 · Vocabulary mini-test 6 · Summative assessment 2 paragraph (Final) | ||
Summative assessment 2 | |||||
Revision |
Instructional resources
Harrison, M. (1995). Grammar spectrum 2 (Pre-Intermediate). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Latham-Koenig, C., & Oxenden, C. (2013). English file (Pre-Intermediate). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Murphy, R. (2009). Grammar in use (Intermediate). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Oshima, A. (1999). Writing academic English. London, UK: Longman.
Redman, S. (1997). English vocabulary in use (Pre-Intermediate and Intermediate). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Savage, A., & Shafiei, M. (2007). Effective academic writing 1: The paragraph. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Zemach, D., & Islam, C. (2005). Paragraph writing: From sentence to paragraph. Oxford, UK: Macmillan Education.