Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia

Vicerrectoría Académica y de Investigación

Course: English 3
Code: 90121

Activity Guide and Evaluation Rubric – Task 4 Speaking task

1. Activity Description

Type of activity: Individual

Evaluation moment: Intermediate Unit 2
Highest score of the activity: 95 points
The activity starts on: Monday, April 4, The activity ends on: Sunday, May 1,
2022 2022
With this activity, you are expected to achieve the following learning
outcomes:
The student will be able to talk about environmental issues by describing situations
and giving points of view about the topic.
The activity consists of:

• Focus on Vocabulary: Match the expressions with their meanings

Table 1. Environmental problems

1. Environment (___) a. birds/plants/species animals or plants which may

2. carbon dioxide (___)
3. Flood (___)
4. natural resources (___)
5. global warming (___)
6. greenhouse effect (___)
7. deforestation (___)
8. oil slick (___)
9. endangered species (___)
soon not exist because there are very few now alive.
b. variety of plant and animal species that exist in a
particular environmental area
c. the poisonous gas formed by the burning of carbon,
especially in the form of car fuel.
d. the cutting down of trees in a large area; the
destruction of forests
e. air, water and land in or on which people, animals
and plants live.
f. increase in world temperatures caused by polluting
gases
g. a layer of oil that is floating over a large area of the
surface of the sea
h. damage caused to water, air.... by harmful
substances or waste.

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 10. pollution (___)
11. drought (___)
12. fumes (___)
13. waste (___)
14. carbon monoxide (___)
15.biodiversity (___)
i. the gas formed when carbon is burned, or when
people or animals breathe out.
j. a long period when there is little or no rain
k. a large amount of water covering an area that is
usually dry.
l. an increase in the amount of carbon dioxide and
other gases in the atmosphere
m. strong, unpleasant and sometimes dangerous gas
or smoke
n. things such as minerals, forests, coal, etc. which
exist in a place and can be used by people.
o. unwanted matter or material of any type, often that
which is left after useful substances or parts have been
removed.

• Listening: listen to these items about environmental issues and complete the
sentences with the following words. (environmental issues)

oil spill - poor air quality - extreme weather - water scarcity - sustainable
environment - Pollution - Flooding - Oil spills - carbon footprint - melting ice cap -
wind power - drought - Fracking - forest fires

Item a: There is a global water crisis, _______________ and drought have left to 844
million people lacking access to clean water
Item b: Oil accidents at sea can cause ______________ which contaminate the ocean water
resulting in the death of sea birds and other forms of marine life
Item c: growing trees, plants and your own vegetables help contribute to a
______________ _________
Item d: __________ or drilling on the ground for oil and gas, often contaminates the water
supplies.
Item e: Increase _______________ is a consequence of deforestation which is the cutting
down of too many trees.
Item f: One of the most common forms of renewable energy is ____________ _________
which is electricity generated by wind turbines
Item g: Air pollution and ___________ _______ _____________ is a big problem in many
cities around the world
Item h: ___________ _______________ includes tornados, cyclones and extremely high or
low temperatures.
Item i: Cars and planes burn fuel, when you travel by plane or car, you contribute to the
burning of fuel; this is your _______________ _______________
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Item j: Polar bears living in the artic are impacted by the ____________ _____
__________
Item k: ____________ ____________ seem to be hotter and worst every summer.

• Pronunciation practice: choose 5 of the items above, practice the pronunciations

and record them in a mp3 format, then share your recording in the forum.
You can use the sound recorder from your computer, or an online resource as
http://vocaroo.com/

• Speaking production: for this step you can choose one of these two options.
(Whatever your decision, post it in the forum)

1. Speaking game: during this activity, you will interact with your tutor an e-mates
in a synchronous meeting, where you will play a game which consist in spinning a
wheel that allows you to get a question at random to be answered (see example)

You need to register your participation in the drive provided by your tutor.

Some of the questions that may appear are: (however your tutor can ask more
questions)
a. Tell me about yourself. (Personal information)
b. What do you do to help the environment?
c. For you, what are some consequences of consumerism? How can you help to
reduce it?
d. How can you lower your carbon footprint?
e. What is the difference between carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide?
f. What is the greenhouse effect?
g. What is the worst environmental problem in your region? What causes it?
h. In your opinion, why are the rainforest disappearing in our country? How could
it be solved?
i. What is the global warming?
j. In your opinion, why is water shortage happening in some parts of Colombia?
How could it be solved?

2. Video: In case you cannot participate in the speaking game, you can record a four-
to-five minute video where you talk about one of the following environmental
situations that affect our country:
1. Deforestation and forest fires in Amazonas as strategy to expand agricultural
frontiers and pastures to feed livestock
2. Poaching and illegal trafficking of flora and fauna in Colombia, illegal timber
trade.
3. Illegal minery and overexploitation of natural resources.
4. Defense and protection of social, environmental and indigenous leaders.

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 5. Environmental problems associated with the use of pesticides and fertilizers.

Important:

• For your video you must introduce yourself (name, city, profession/ job, current
studies or career), start your topic with an introduction (how the problematic started
and place), develop the idea (description of the problem, how the community is being
affected) and conclude the topic by giving some solutions to the problem you chose
(what recommendations or advice you can give to solve the problem)
• Develop a script for your video and share it in the forum, so you can get feedback
from your tutor or group mates.
• Record your video in selfie mode; then, upload it to YouTube (set the privacy to
PUBLIC) and share the link in the Speaking forum.
• Practice your pronunciation using an online tool as http://www.fromtexttospeech.com/
or https://www.naturalreaders.com/online/

For the development of the activity consider that:

In the Initial Information Environment, you must:

➢ Revise the agenda of the course to be informed about the starting and closing dates of
the activity.

In the Learning Environment, you must:

➢ Go over the grammar topics and activities in modules 7 to 12 of the e-book.
➢ Take part in the speaking forum by posting your contributions on time.
➢ Read the activity guide carefully.

In the Evaluation Environment, you must:

➢ submit your final document to the evaluation environment

Evidences of individual work:

The individual evidence to be submitted is:

A document with the following information:

➢ Cover.
➢ Development of the vocabulary activity “focus on vocabulary”
➢ Development of the listening practice “Listening”
➢ Development of the “Pronunciation practice”
➢ A screenshot If you take part in the “speaking game” (option 1)

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 ➢ The script and the link if you record the video. (Option 2)
Note: your final document must be named as follow:
Task 4_student’s name_group number
(Task 4_Pedro Salazar_255)

Evidences of collaborative work:

No collaborative evidence is required in this activity.

2. General Guidelines for the Development of Evidences to Submit

For Individual evidences, consider the following:

• Each student must take part in the forum within the dates stablished in the agenda.

• Before submitting the final paper, each student should check that it meets all the
requirements mentioned in this activity guide.

• Each student must submit their own document.

Please keep in mind that all individual or collaborative written products must comply
with the spelling rules and presentation conditions defined in this activity guide.
Regarding the use of references, consider that the product of this activity must
comply with APA style.
In any case, make sure you comply with the rules and avoid academic plagiarism.
You can review your written products using the Turnitin tool found in the virtual
campus.

Under the Academic Code of Conduct, the actions that infringe the academic order,
among others, are the following: paragraph e) Plagiarism is to present as your own
work all or part of a written report, task or document of invention carried out by
another person. It also implies the use of citations or lack of references, or it
includes citations where there is no match between these and the reference and
paragraph f) To reproduce, or copy for profit, educational resources or results of
research products, which have rights reserved for the University. (Acuerdo 029 - 13
de diciembre de 2013, artículo 99)

The academic penalties students will face are:

a) In case of academic fraud demonstrated in the academic work or evaluation, the
score obtained will be zero (0.0) without any disciplinary measures being derived.

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b) In case of proven plagiarism in academic work of any nature, the score obtained
will be zero (0.0), without any disciplinary measures being derived.

3. Evaluation Rubric Template

Type of activity: Individual

Evaluation moment: Intermediate Unit 2
The highest score in this activity is 95 points
First evaluation High level:
criterion: The speech is carried out with normal pauses and few hesitation,
the ideas convey clearly the target topic.
Fluency & If your work is at this level, you can get between 15 points
coherence and 25 points

This criterion Average level:

represents 25 The speech is carried out with frequent pauses and some
points of the total hesitation, the ideas are somewhat clear.
of 95 points of
the activity. If your work is at this level, you can get between 5 points
and 14 points

Low level:
The speech is carried out with long pauses and hesitation, the
ideas are uneven and incomprehensible.
The student doesn’t take part in the activity

If your work is at this level, you can get between 0 points

and 4 points
Second evaluation High level:
criterion: Pronunciation and intonation are always good which makes the
speech sounds natural most of the time.
Pronunciation
If your work is at this level, you can get between 15 points
This criterion and 25 points
represents 25
points of the total Average level:

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of 95 points of Some pronunciation and intonation problems that sometimes
the activity. interfere with the speech comprehension.

If your work is at this level, you can get between 5 points

and 14 points

Low level:

Multiple pronunciation and intonation problems which makes the

speech hard to understand.
The student doesn’t take part in the activity

If your work is at this level, you can get between 0

points and 4 points
Third evaluation High level:
criterion:
Grammatical and lexical elements according to the level are
Grammar and used accurately what makes the conversation smooth and clear.
vocabulary
If your work is at this level, you can get between 15 points
and 25 points
This criterion
represents 25 Average level:
points of the total
of 95 points of Some grammatical and lexical errors that do not interfere with
the activity. the comprehension of the speech.

If your work is at this level, you can get between 5 points

and 14 points

Low level:

Frequent grammatical and lexical errors that significantly affects

the communication
The student doesn’t take part in the activity

If your work is at this level, you can get between 0 points

and 4 points
Fourth evaluation
High level:
criterion:

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 All the practice activities are carried out and submitted correctly
Practice according to the guidelines (Vocabulary, listening, pronunciation
activities. and video script (only the ones who record the video)).

This criterion If your work is at this level, you can get between 11 points
represents 20 and 20 points
points of the total
of 95 points of Average level:
the activity. Some practice activities are developed and submitted according
to the guidelines, or they present some mistakes.

If your work is at this level, you can get between 5 points

and 10 points

Low level:

Practice activities are not carried out or they are all incorrect.

If your work is at this level, you can get between 0

points and 4 points