ESL 20 - College Reading/Writing Skills
This course focuses on the reading/writing problems of students who have completed either ESL 3 or ESL 13 but require additional practice prior to proceeding to the next level of study. It will provide the student with skills necessary to succeed in subsequent ESL, English, liberal arts, and career and technical education courses. There are two components to this class: students will read authentic pieces of writing, written for native speakers of English, and will focus on vocabulary development and comprehension. Writing assignments based on the readings will also be done.
Contact: 6 hours lecture per week
Student Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of ESL 20, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate comprehension of the information presented in the course through written tests.
- Read and comprehend a variety of reading materials.
- Have developed their vocabulary at both the receptive and productive levels.
- Use paraphrases as an aid to comprehension and to see how they are used in everyday reading material.
- Read for specific purposes.
- Engage in pre-writing activities.
- Write clear, effective sentences and paragraphs.
- Utilize critical thinking skills.
- Summarize and paraphrase specific reading selections.
- Edit irrelevant ideas out of their own writing.
- Use their knowledge of grammar to edit papers.
- Work in groups sharing and reporting information.
- Report and evaluate orally and in writing the facts, ideas, and concepts presented in the readings.
Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes is achieved by the following means:
- Periodic submission to the instructor of student evaluations having to do with the dynamics of the group (individual participation, conversational, and group management skills).
- Periodic submission to the instructor of student-written journals based on the reading material.
- Daily comprehension question/answer sessions of reading material.
- Daily paraphrase writing sessions of passages from the reading material.
- Individual evaluation by the instructor of each written composition during the term.
- End-of-the-term evaluation of students' ability to write an in-class composition.
- Grade equivalency score of 9.0 (ESL 3 students)/10.0 (ESL 13 students) or higher on the language/reading portions of the Test of Adult Basic Education.