Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia

Vicerrectoría Académica y de Investigación

Syllabus of the Course English A2, Code 900002

1. Course Information

The course is part of the academic unit: Vicerrectoría Académica y de

Investigación VIACI

Training field: Interdisciplinar Básico

Academic degree level: Profesional
Común

Number of credits: 3 Course type: Methodological

The course does not have a re-Take Course designed by: Omar Augusto
exam Gómez Fernández

Course updated by: Omar Augusto Gómez Fernández

Date of update: Wednesday, November 11,

Date of design: Monday, January 27, 2020
2020

Course Description:

The English A2 course has three (3) academic credits which contain tutoring time
and independent work for a total of 144 hours of academic work, divided into 106
hours of independent study and 36 hours of monitoring and tutorial support.

With the aforementioned hours it is intended that the student recognizes and
appropriates the basic contents of the English course that displays basic concepts
related to the initial information, namely: present using simple and polite forms of
greeting and address others; asking how they are and how they react to the news;
handle very short social exchanges; ask and answer questions about what they do
at work and free time; make and respond to invitations; discuss what to do, where
to go and make arrangements to meet; Make and accept offers.

Related topics in this course seek that the student incorporate assertive
communication skills through a Task-Based Learning strategy in which the student
will browse through three Units in order to respond to 7 tasks; of these seven tasks,
four are questionnaires and the other three are collaborative tasks divided into three
moments: Initial, intermediate, and final.

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 2. Course Learning Purpose:

The course learning purpose is:

• To develop communicative skills in simple terms through writings, videos,

interviews, and quizzes using sentences and expressions of immediate needs
and routine tasks that are familiar to a present, past, and future situation.

3. Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the course the student will be able:

Learning Outcome 1: To identify essential information in short texts and

recorded passages through online assignments dealing with everyday
matters.

Learning Outcome 2: To write a letter about a travel experience using

linguistic structures and vocabulary according to the level, taking exercises
and readings from the online content as a reference.

Learning Outcome 3: To Express ideas and information about daily affairs in

writing and orally through a simple correlation of linguistic elements in
present, past and future tense.

4. Learning Strategy:

The Learning Strategy for the course is: Task Based Learning.

This Learning Strategy is based on: the student where he/she is the center of the whole
process and is expected to take the leading role; he/she is not waiting for the tutor
to tell him/her what to do and how to do it. They are active participants who develop
their own strategies at their own pace, trying to identify their strengths and aspects
that need to be improved. The English A2 course will be developed in three (3)
environments; Initial information, Learning, and Evaluation. The Initial information
environment contains the course presentation, agenda, and course agreements,
informative forums, and teacher’s monitoring; the Learning environment contains

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the E-book/Online content, activity guides, and discussion forums; and the
Evaluation environment contains the initial evaluation, Intermediate evaluations,
and the final evaluation.

The Learning Strategy is organized in 7 Tasks

• Task 1: Pre-Knowledge quiz

• Task 2: Writing production
• Task 3: Comprehension quiz
• Task 4: Speaking production
• Task 5: Technological component
• Task 6: Course review
• Task 7: Final exam

5. Course Contents and Bibliographic References

Unit 1: Sharing information about present and past activities.

In this unit, the following contents will be addressed:

• Module 1: Talk about the weather, tell the temperature, write about cause and
consequences, describe the weather.
• Module 2: Talk about routines, use time expressions: every day, every other
day, on weekends, on vacation, talk about frequency of activities, use
frequency adverbs, write a shopping list.
• Module 3: Talk about activities in progress and in the past, write a story in the
past, exchange information about vacations and travel, describe processes,
identify British / American English differences in vocabulary.
• Module 4: Talk about the past, ask and answer in the past, react to situations,
use connectors of cause and consequence.
• Module 5: Describe people’s physical appearance and personality, identify
areas of improvement for pronunciation, read for specific information, talk
about future plans, talk about sequences of events.

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To address the contents besides the E-book/Online content, the following bibliographic
references are required:

Exam English (2019) [A2 Listening: Describing people] Taken from:

https://www.examenglish.com/A2/A2_listening_describing_people.htm
British Council (2016) [Daily Routine] Taken from:
https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/topics/daily-routine/term
English grammar Online (2017) [Present Progressive] Taken from:
https://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/present-progressive
University of Victoria (2008) [Simple Past: Negatives and Questions) Taken from:
https://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/pastnq.htm
University of Victoria (2008) [Simple Past: Regular verbs) Taken from:
https://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/pasted.htm
University of Victoria (2008) [Simple Past: Irregular verbs) Taken from:
https://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/irpast.htm
Unit 2: Asking ang giving information related to plans in the future.

In this unit, the following contents will be addressed:

• Module 6: Identify and correct a typical mistake, identifying the main idea in a
paragraph, make predictions about the future, write about changes in life.
• Module 7: Talk about accidents and injuries, read newspapers and magazines
in English to be exposed to new language, talk about everyday problems, give
and accept advices, write about past experiences, make suggestions and polite
offers.
• Module 8: talk about plans in the future, use close captions to correlate written
and oral language, compare actions in progress with plans in the future, talk
about one’s schedule at the university.
• Module 9: offer and accept help, ask for and give permission, express
possibility, speculate about a situation in the present.

To address the contents besides the E-book/Online content, the following bibliographic
references are required:

University of Victoria (2008) [Past Continuous) Taken from:

https://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/pascon.htm

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University of Victoria (2008) [Future: Forms) Taken from:
https://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/fut.htm
British Council (2016) [Obligation and Advice] Taken from:
https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/grammar/beginner-grammar/have-
must-should-obligation-advice
University of Victoria (2008) [Modals of Advice: Should, Ought to, Had better) Taken
from: https://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/330-modals-
advice.htm

Unit 3: Comparing past experiences and plans in the future.

In this unit, the following contents will be addressed:

• Module 10: talk about past intentions, write about plans in the future, talk
about past expectations and habits, compare past and present events, talk
about career plan.
• Module 11: Make and respond to polite requests, talk about eco-friendly
materials, tell and write a story.
• Module 12: Talk about experiences, talk about activities that started in the
past and have continued to the present, talk about unusual experiences.

To address the contents besides the E-book/Online content, the following bibliographic
references are required:

British Council (2016) [Comparative and superlative adjectives] Taken from

https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/grammar/beginner-
grammar/comparative-superlative-adjectives
University of Victoria (2008) [Expressing the future) Taken from:
https://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/elc/studyzone/410/grammar/410-expressing-
the-future.htm
University of Victoria (2008) [Present Perfect and Simple Past) Taken from:
https://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/elc/studyzone/410/grammar/ppvpast.htm
University of Victoria (2008) [Present Perfect: uses) Taken from:
https://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/upperf.htm

6. Organization of Weekly Academic Activities and Course Evaluation Plan

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Initial Moment:

Task 1 Pre-Knowledge quiz

To be developed from week 1 to week 2
This responds to Learning Outcome: 1

The activities are: To present a multiple option with Single choice questions of topics
seen in the English A1 course.

Initial moment evaluation

The evaluation criteria for this activity are: Presentation of the pre-knowledge quiz
The highest score for this activity is 25 points, corresponding to 5% of the course
evaluation.

Intermediate Moment

Task 2 Writing production

To be developed from week 3 to week 6
This responds to Learning Outcome: 2
The activities are: To design a letter in which the student will write a story about a
travel experience in a city or place in Colombia, and in the same way, describe the
climate and the frequency of the activities that he / she carried out in that city or
place.

Evaluation of Task 2
The evaluation criteria for this activity are: the student develops the writing production
in the forum.

The highest score for this activity is 90 points.

Task 3 Comprehension quiz

To be developed from week 3 to week 7
This responds to Learning Outcome: 1
The activities are: To present a multiple option with Single choice questions of topics
seen at Unit 1, module 1 to 5.

Evaluation of Task 3

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The evaluation criteria for this activity are: an Online test that assesses the knowledge
of Unit 1.
The highest score for this activity is 90 points.

Task 4 Oral production

To be developed from week 7 to week 12
This responds to Learning Outcome: 3
The activities are: To record a video in which the student makes a personal
presentation, then, to tell a short story about a past experience; finally, to prepare
an interview or video monologue talking about planning his / her next vacation.

Evaluation of Task 4
The evaluation criteria for this activity are: The evaluation standard is a recording of a
video and the Synchronous meeting with the tutor or another video recording that
replaces the interview.
The highest score for this activity is 70 points.

Task 5 Technological component

To be developed from week 12 to week 13
This responds to Learning Outcome: 3
The activities are: To consolidate on a Wix or Blog page a story about a travel
experience in a city or place in Colombia and a video in which the student talks
about the travel experience or plans his / her next vacation.

Evaluation of Task 5
The evaluation criteria for this activity are: the Writing and Speaking production in a
Wix or blog page.
The highest score for this activity is 70 points.

Task 6 Course review

To be developed from week 12 to week 13
This responds to Learning Outcome: 1
The activities are: To carry out a self evaluation through multiple options with single
choice questions.

Evaluation of Task 6
The evaluation criteria for this activity are: the Student’s reflection on his/her academic
performance.
The highest score for this activity is 30 points.

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The highest score for this evaluation moment is 350 points, corresponding to 70% of the
course evaluation.

Final Moment

Task 7 Final Exam

To be developed from week 15 to week 16
This responds to Learning Outcome: 1
The activities are: Close ended questions of topics seen at Unit 1, 2, and 3

Evaluation of Task 7
The evaluation criteria for this activity are To present the final exam of the course of
close ended questions about topics seen at Unit 1, 2, and 3
The learning evidences for this activity are A Closed Objective Test on line that assesses
knowledge of units 1, 2 and 3.
The highest score for this activity is 125 points, corresponding to 25% of the course
evaluation.

7. Teacher’s Support

To develop the course activities, you will have the support of a teacher or tutor. The options
for this academic support are:

• Virtual Campus E-mail

• Collaborative Forums
• Skype Sessions
• Online Conference Sessions or Web Conferences