THE UNIVERSITY OF THE AUTONOMOUS REGIONS OF THE

NICARAGUAN CARIBBEAN COAST

URACCAN-NUEVA GUINEA CAMPUS

Subject: Basic Writing II

Curriculum, 2010

Nueva Guinea, Mayo 2012

 GENERAL INFORMATION:

SUBJECT : Basic Writing II

MAJOR : Bachelor’s degree in English

Language Teaching/Licenciatura
En Ciencias de la Educación
Con Mención en Inglés

SHIFT OF STUDY : Night, afternoon and Saturdays/

Nocturno, vespertino, sabatino

STUDY MODE : Encounters/ por encuentros

TOTAL NUMBER OF HOURS : 64 hours

NUMBER OF CREDITS : 4 credits

DESIGNED BY :

DATE DELIVERED :

APPROVED BY :

DATE APPROVED :

SIGN/SEAL:
INTRODUCTION

The course Basic Writing II is designed to Offer the students the knowledge and skills,
to develop the writing as well for helping students understand the conventions of
basic writing in English, specifically the expectations of the North American
writing style. Teachers will serve as facilitators; mediators, and cultural
informants, teachers will be an integral part of the classroom community whose
primary responsibility is to serve as resource for the students.
Students will be produce short writing samples that feature their own
experiences, their culture, and common topics associated with language
learning, while adhering to English language writing norms. The teacher will use
the students’ writing in order to provide feedback and facilitate mini lessons
according the needs of the students.

According to the curriculum 2010, of the Bachelor’s degree in English Language

Teaching and knowledge areas that comprise it, the course Basic Writing II is
located in the area of specialization. This class is a prerequisite to be taken
Basic Writing I.

The importance of this course is that students will meet the basic standards of
English language writing as well students will be prepared for developing their
writing skills in paragraphs and basic essay and letters, this will help them to
solve different tasks that they will encounter in their career.

GENERAL OBJECTIVES

Students will learn techniques for organizing different types of letters and
essay.

Students will be provided of tools for writing narratives about personal

experiences and to make summaries of information about daily life.

Develop intercultural and gender issues.

Students will use the skills in this course to continue to grow and develop their
writing abilities.

Students will express opinions and points of view on a wide range of topics.

Students will be able to follow the norms of English language writing in order to
answer questions in unique and meaningful ways.
 SUBJECT PLAN

N Organization of the Teaching-learning Total

o. Process No.
(Estimated Hours) Hours
UNITS THEORY PRACTICE
Confere Laboratory Oral
nce Production
1 Learners 2 1 2 5
 Reason for learning.
 Different context for
learning.
 Learner differences
 The importance of student
motivation.
 Responsibility for learning.
2 Teachers 3 2 2 5
 Describing good teachers.
 Who teachers are in class.
 Rapport.
 Teacher task
 Teacher skills.
 Teacher knowledge.
 Art or science?
3 Managing the classroom 2 1 2 5
 Classroom management.
 The teacher in the
classroom.
 Using the voice.
 Talking to students.
 Giving instructions.
 Student talk and student
talk.
 Using the l1.
 Creating lesson stages.
 Different seating
arrangements.
 Different student groupings.
4 Describing learning and 1 2 2 5
teaching.
 Children and language.
 Acquisition and learning.
 Different times, different
methods.
 Elements successful
language learning (ESA)
 ESA lesson sequences.
 ESA planning.
Interim exam
5 Describing language 2 1 4 4
 Meaning in context.
 The elements of language.
 Forms and meanings.
 Parts of speech.
 Hypothetical meaning.
 Words together.
 Language functions.
 Text and discourse.
 Language variables.
6 Teaching the language system 2 1 4 4
 Teaching specific aspect of
language.
 Explaining meaning.
 Explaining language
construction.
 Practice and controlled
practice.
 Example of language
system teaching.
 Mistakes, slips, errors and
attempts.
7 Teaching reading 2 1 4 4
• Reasons for reading
• Different kinds of reading
• Reading levels
• Reading skills
• Reading principles
• Reading sequences
• More reading suggestions
• Encouraging students to read
extensively
8 Teaching writing 4
• Reasons for teaching writing
• Writing issues
• Writing sequences
• More writing suggestions
• Correcting written work
• Handwriting
9 Teaching speaking. 4
• Reasons for listening
• Different kinds of listening
• Listening levels
• Listening skills
• Listening principles
• Listening sequences
• More listening suggestions
• Audio and video
10 Teaching listening 4
 • Reasons for listening
• Different kinds of listening
• Listening levels
• Listening skills
• Listening principles
• Listening sequences
• More listening suggestions
• Audio and video
11 Using courbooks 4
• Options for course book use
• Adding, adapting and replacing
• Reasons for (and against) coursebook use
• Choosing coursebooks
12 Planning lesson 4
• Reasons for planning
• A proposal for action
• Lesson shapes
• Planning questions
• Plan formats
• Planning a sequence of lessons
• After the lesson (and before the next)
13 Testing 4
• Reasons for testing students
• Good tests
• Test types
• Marking tests
• Designing tests
14 What if? 4
• What if students are all at different levels?
• What if the class is very big?
• What if students keep using their own language?
• What if students don’t do homework?
• What if students are uncooperative?
• What if students don’t want to talk?
• What if students don’t understand the audio track?
• What if some students finish before everybody else?

UNIT SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES AND CONTENT

Unit 1: The writer-reader connection

Objectives:
 Understand the connection that must exist between the writer and the
reader.
 Analyze the interest of the readers for doing a good writing.
 Know the structure of a reading and its grammar style in sentences and
letters.

Content:
Journal writing
Personal letters
Sentence convining // (dependent/independent clause)

Unit 2: The Paragraph and introduction

Objectives:
 Identify the main parts of a paragraph
 Differentiate the sequence of the ideas in the different parts in a
paragraph
 Understand the needs of connection ideas for the explanation in the
paragraph.

Content:
Topic sentence
Controlling idea.
Concluding sentences

Unit 3: Planning the Paragraph

Objectives:

 Learn how to support a main idea in a paragraph

 Improve the flow and sequence of the ideas in a paragraph
 Acquire the necessary techniques for supporting ideas in a paragraph.

Content:
Supporting the topic sentence
Facts
Examples
Physical description
Personal experience

Unit 4: Explanation Paragraphs

Objectives:
 Learn how to generate ideas for explanation paragraphs.
 use a reasonable pattern of organization to engage the readers in the
topic

Content:
 process paragraph
 definition/clarification paragraph

Unit 5: comparison/ contrast paragraphs

Objectives:
 Use different methods for doing a paragraph.
  Integrate powerful vocabulary, verbs and grammatical structures to help
the students understand the environment of the reading.

Content:
Comparison/ contrast paragraphs
Similarities:
Person, places, things, ideas.

Differences:
Person, places, things, ideas.

Unit 6: cause/ effect paragraphs

Objectives:
 Use cause and effect paragraphs for comparing different cultures in
Nicaragua as well the protection of the environment and natural
resources.

Content:
Cause paragraph answer the question “why”
Effect paragraphs answer the question “what”

Unit 7: Summary Writing.

Objectives:
Engage the students in the process of writing summaries identifying the main
idea in different kind of paragraphs.

Content:
Purpose of a summary:
Inform
Purpose
Persuade

METHODOLOGY RECOMMENDED TO THE TEACHER TO CARRY OUT THE

TEACHING-LEARNING PROCESS

It is recommended that English teachers, of URACCAN University, follow a

communicative approach to facilitate the teaching-learning process of this
course, taking into consideration that the communicative approach in language
teaching starts from a theory of language as communication. According to
Hymes (1972) the goal of language teaching is to develop communicative
competence.
Some of the characteristics to have in mind are:

 Learners learn a language through using it to communicate.

 Prior experiences of the students are important.
 Authentic and meaningful communication should be the goal of
classroom activities.
 Fluency is an important dimension of communication.
 Communication involves the integration of different language skills
(listening-speaking and writing-reading)
 Learning is a process of creative construction and involves trial and error.

The Pedagogical Model of URACCAN University underlines other significant

suggestions to carry out the teaching-learning process, for instance, teachers
have to "encourage and promote research, guide their work based on student’s
prior knowledge and experiences, promote entrepreneurship and creativity, and
promote the development of classroom environments where the student meets
the most important role in the classroom, through their active participation.
(URACCAN, 2004, p. 17)

In conclusion, it is suggested to use authentic materials such as books with

audio CDs recorded and designed by nave speakers, movies tackling important
topics, English langue laboratory, board games, websites, visit of English
peaking people -available in the community-, dictionaries and other sources
found in the community and that are easy for the students to use. Moreover, to
make the oral production more meaningful, the students and teachers will use
the English Language as a medium of communication and interaction inside
and outside the classroom.

TEACHING SOURCES

English teachers will use the following teaching materials in order to meet the
objectives of this course:

BOOK: The Process of Paragraph Writing. Second edition 1994.

Joy M Reid.

This book is a very basic resource for the teacher to get ideas for which grammatical
topics and structures are appropriate for third year students.

Other means and Teaching materials:

 Tape recorders
 Computers to be used in the classroom.
 Data shows
 TV
 DVD player
 Audio CDs
 DVDs
 Internet
 Language Laboratory.
 Monolingual English dictionary
 English-Spanish dictionary
 Grammar books
 Head projectors
 Classroom with chairs, whiteboards, light, tables and funs.

ASSESSMENT PROCESS

The assessment process in this course will be accomplished by taking into

consideration a wide variety of teaching strategies and techniques, for instance, oral
presentations, listening exercises, debates, small talks, conversations, tours,
simultaneous interpretation exercises, tour guide exercises and discussions of issues.

Moreover, English professors must pay attention to what URACCAN Pedagogical

Model suggests regarding evaluation "the assessment is a continuous process that
must accompany the learning process as both are inseparable. (URACCAN, 2004, p.
17)

Thus, some strategies suggested are:

a. Take into consideration the students’ needs to the extent that their
motivation is the engine that drives learning.
b. Use interactive activities looking for meaningful interaction.
c. Take into account the contexts in which the students interact and their own
experiences when teaching.
d. Understand that through errors the students also can learn.
e. Apply techniques for individual and group work.
f. Encourage students to be self taught.

It means that, it is also mandatory that professors put into effect different ways to
assess their students’ learning process such as diagnostic evaluation, formative
evaluation and summative evaluation.

Finally, the English teachers have to know that in order to decide if a student passed or
failed the course, they have to provide a quantitative grade. According to URACCAN
University, its grading system is a numeric scale from 0 to 100; the minimum grade for
approval requires 60%. However, it is suggested that the evaluation and assessment
process of this course be carried out on basis of cumulative and individually work done
by the students.