Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia

Vice President for Academic Issues and Research

Syllabus Subject English B1, Code 900003

1. Course information

Faculty or Unit the course belongs to: Vicerrectoría Académica y de

Investigación VIACI
Academic Degree Level: Profesional Academic Program: Interdisciplinar
Básico Común
Time credits: 3 Course type: Metodológico
The course Can not be retested by a Course designer: Angela Patricia Arias
remedial work Tibaquirá
Course Updater : Angela Patricia Arias Tibaquirá
Course development date: miércoles, Course update date: miércoles, 29 de
29 de enero de 2020 enero de 2020
Course description:

UNAD, faithful to its mission as a leading organization in open and distance

education. It has an essential role to play in the progress made on the issue of
globalization. Therefore, its internationalization policy seeks to guide the steps of the
national and international community towards bilingual scenarios. According to the
above, this B1 English course is part of the foreign language component present in
the curriculum guidelines of academic programs at UNAD.

English B1 is a practical theoretical course consisting of three academic credits,

which include independent study and tutorial accompaniment, for a total of 144
hours of academic work; distributed over 106 hours of independent study, 38 hours
of tutorial and monitoring support with the following aim:

• To recognize and to appropriate the basic contents of English.

• To understand the foreign language through the different skills: oral
comprehension (audio and written reflection of audiovisual materials) and written
comprehension (writing, interpretation and content development)
• To encourage students to learn English for their work, academic and personal
environment.
• To use techno-didactic resources to learn a foreign language with autonomy and
tutorial accompaniment.
 2. Academic training purpose:

The course´s academic training purpose is:

To develop the student’s communication skills in English so that the student can
understand and use a standard language to talk about familiar topics such as work,
study, leisure activities, etc., being able to obtain and provide information to others
using the appropriate structures.

3. Learning´s outcomes:

At the end of the academic course the student will be able to show:

Learning´s outcomes: 1–The student writes a letter in English describing his/her

occupation, using the topics studied in unit 1 & 2 and following the given
instructions.
Learning´s outcomes: 2– The student creates a video asking and answering
questions in English related to his/her personal information and his work.
Learning´s outcomes: 3–The student participates in an interview in English
talking about his/her personal life and answering questions related to his skills at
work.
Learning´s outcomes: 4–The student creates a resume and an infographic using
the appropriate structures in English to talk about his/her strengths and weaknesses
related to his job.

4. Learning strategy:

The course learning strategy is: Task Based Learning.

This strategy is based on developing meaningful tasks in which the student uses the
language for genuine communication to strengthen his learning.

The learning strategy is organized as follows:

 1– Task 1 Prior Knowledge Assessment.

  2– Task 2 Writing production.
 3– Task 3 Online English Test.
 4– Task 4 Speaking Production.
 5– Task 5 Technology Development Production.
 6– Task 6 Self-Evaluation Test.
 7– Task 7 Final Exam.

5. Course´s Contents and bibliography

Unit 1: Module 1 & module 2 from the E book

Module 1: Interview and respond to interviews

At this unit you will study these academic contents:
 Using conditionals
 Talking about habits and their results
 Talking about scientific facts
 Order of clauses in conditionals
 Home remedies
 Reading e-mail messages
 Talking about superstitions
 Understanding superstitions around the world
 Narrating story in the past
 Identifying phrasal verbs
 Understanding phrasal verbs in context
 Learning to learn
 Taking about superstitions
 Home remedies and medicine
 Pronunciation

Module 2: Express prohibition

At this unit you will study these academic contents:
 Finding a job
 Expressing necessity and obligation
 Talking about necessity and lack of necessity
  Talking about necessity and obligation in our daily lives
 Driving in the US
 Expressing obligations using must
 Talking about prohibitions
 Expressing prohibitions using must not
 Talking about actions that are not necessary
 Talking about not necessary things using do not have to
 Understanding necessity and obligation
 Learning to learn
 Talking about rules
 Don’t do that! Talking about prohibition
 Culture page

To deal with topics of this subject, it is recommended to study the contents in Module
1 & Module 2 from the E book. You can find them in Learning / E book/Online Content
English B1.

Unit 2: Module 3 & module 4 from the E book

Module 3: Describe feelings and emotions.

At this unit you will study these academic contents:
 Applying for a job
 Using the infinitive
 Infinitive after certain verbs
  Some uses of verbs+infinitive
 Infinitive after objects
 Rehearsing the use of infinitives
 Infinitives after adjectives
 Using adjectives and infinitives
 Negative form of infinitives
 Asking for and giving clarification and repetition
 Understanding important decisions
 Understanding a text about study abroad
 Learning to learn
 Talking about study abroad
 Writing about an important decision
 Pronunciation

Module 4: Describe places

At this unit you will study these academic contents:
 Talking about possibilities
 Identifying verbs followed by gerunds
 Using gerunds after prepositions
 Identifying prepositions with gerunds
 Using gerunds as subject of sentences
 Other uses of gerunds
 Identifying verbs followed by gerund or infinitive with a change in meaning
 Using infinitives and gerund with changes in meaning
 Understanding qualities and skills employers look for
 Understanding people’s personality and skills
 Learning to learn
 Talking about your personal qualities and skills
 Writing about professional skills

To deal with topics of this subject, it is recommended to study the contents in Module
1 & module 2 from the E book. You can find them in Learning / E book/Online Content
English B1.
Unit 3: Module 5 & module 6 from the E book

Module 5: Talking about your job experience

At this unit you will study these academic contents:
• Talking about your job experience
• Reviewing present perfect
• Reviewing past participle form of irregular verbs
• Listen to the following conversation
• Comparing past simple and present perfect
• Read the following information about these famous people
• Connecting the past and the present using for and since
• Making small talk
• Managing interactions
• Closing a conversation
• Understanding information about a person’s experience abroad
• Understanding information about a famous person’s biography
• Learning to learn
• Writing the biography of a person you admire
• Talking about conversation skills
• Pronunciation
Module 6: Keep conversations moving
At this unit you will study these academic contents:

• Using negative comparatives

• Making negative comparisons
• Expressing similarities and differences
• Expressing similarities and differences using as… as with adjectives
• Expressing similarities and differences
• Expressing similarities and differences with adverbs
• Expressing similarities and differences using as… as with adverbs
• Expressing similarities and differences using as… as with nouns
• Talking about life experiences using superlatives
• Talking about quantities, amounts and degree
• Understanding information about life in past
• Learning to learn
• Describing your favorite place
• Writing about gender equality
• Culture page

To deal with topics of this subject, it is recommended to study the contents in Module
1 & module 2 from the E book. You can find them in Learning / E book/Online Content
English B1.
 6. Settings of academic’s activities by weeks
Initial moment:

Task 1 Prior Knowledge Assessment.

It is developed from week 1 to week 2
The activities are: Presentation of the prior knowledge task.

Intermediate moment

Task 2 Writing Production.

It is developed from week 3 to week 6

Responds to learning´s outcome # 1: The student writes a letter in English
describing his/her occupation, using the topics studied in unit 1 & 2 and following
the given instructions.
The activities are: Answering to some questions in the forum and writing a letter
about his occupation.

Task 3 Online English Test.

It is developed from week 3 to week 7
The activities are: Online task that assesses the knowledge of the course units.

Task 4 Speaking Production.

It is developed from week 7 to week 12
Responds to learning´s outcomes #2: The student creates a video asking and
answering questions in English related to his/her personal information and
occupation.
Responds to learning´s outcomes #3: The student participates in an interview in
English talking about his/her personal life and answering questions related to his
skills at work.

The activities are: Synchronous meeting with the tutor and recording of a video.

Task 5 Technology Development Production

It is developed from week 9 to week 12
Responds to learning´s outcomes #4: The student creates a resume and an
infographic using the appropriate structures in English to talk about his/her
strengths and weaknesses related to his job.
The activities are: Creation of a resume and an infographic using a technological
tool.
Task 6 Self-Evaluation Test.
It is developed from week 10 to week 14
Responds to learning´s outcomes #:1, 2, 3, 4
The activities are: Presentation of an online test where student reflects on his
academic performance.

Final moment

Task 7 Final Exam.

It is developed in week 15
Responds to learning´s outcomes #:1, 2, 3, 4
The activities are: Presentation of the final exam of the course to check the
knowledge about modules 1 to 6.

7. Monitoring strategy
To develop the activities, you will have an academic monitoring from your professor.
The spaces stablished to have this academic monitoring and interaction are as
follows:
 Virtual Campus email
 Workshop forum
 Skype session
 Webconference and online sessions

8. Course evaluation plan

Initial moment evaluation

Task 1 Prior Knowledge Assessment

Responds to learning´s outcome 1
The criteria evaluated are:
 The student answers to all the questions proposed in the Test.
 The student checks his knowledge of English.

The learning evidences are: Presentation of the Prior knowledge assessment test.

This standard represents 25 points of the activity, corresponds to 5% of the

course´s evaluation.
Intermediate moment evaluation:
Task 2 Writing production
Responds to learning´s outcome 1
The criteria evaluated are:
 Paragraphs in the text follow the order given and the text is written following a
coherent structure.
 Statements answer the questions using the appropriate structure of the
language.
 The student provides clear and useful input for the group to structure the text.
 The student answers the given questions in the forum and comments on
his/her partner's ideas.
 The student uses grammar structures and vocabulary appropriate for the
units.
 The student makes no errors in spelling that distract the reader from the
content.

The learning evidences are: Participation in the forum and PDF document with the
text.
Activity higher score: 90 points

Task 3 Online English Test

Responds to learning´s outcomes 2, 3
The criteria evaluated are:
 The student answers to all the questions proposed in the Test.
 The student checks his knowledge on the topics studied in the Units.

The learning evidences are: Presentation of the Online English Test

Activity higher score: 90 points

Task 4 Speaking production

Responds to learning´s outcomes: 2, 3
The criteria evaluated are:

 The video is well structured, with good quality, nice images and good sound.
 The student provides clear and useful input for the classmates to improve their
videos.
 The student publishes the video in the forum in the time stipulated
 The student participates in the interview with the tutor.
 The student answers the questions in a fluent and coherent way.
  The questions and answers provided in the video follow an adequate structure
of the language.
 The student understands and answers the questions made by the tutor using
an adequate structure of the language.

The learning evidences are: A video uploaded in the forum and the interview with
the tutor.
Activity higher score: 70 points

Task 5 Technology Development Production

Responds to learning´s outcome 4
The criteria evaluated are:

 The design of the infographic is neat and includes pictures to illustrate the
ideas.
 The student provides clear and useful input for the classmates to improve their
infographics and resumes.
 The student publishes the infographic and the resume in the forum in the time
stipulated.
 The infographics shows the complete information about the 5 jobs chosen.
 The resume shows all the information needed.
 The sentences are coherent and with an adequate structure and grammar of
the language.
The learning evidences are: A resume and an infographic with the requested
information.
Activity higher score: 70 points

Task 6 Self-Evaluation Test

Responds to learning´s outcomes 1 2, 3, 4
The criteria evaluated are:
 The student answers to all the questions proposed in the Test.
 The student checks his performance in the course.

The learning evidences are: Presentation of the Self-Evaluation Test

Activity higher score: 30 points

The higher score of this evaluation moment corresponds to 70% of the course (350
points).
Final moment evaluation:

Task 7 Final Exam

Responds to learning´s outcomes 1 2, 3, 4
The criteria evaluated are:
 The student answers to all the questions proposed in the Test.
 The student evaluates his knowledge and learning in the course.

The learning evidences are: Presentation of the Final Exam

Activity higher score: 125 points

This standard represents 125 points of the activity, corresponds to 25% of the
course´s evaluation.