Course Outline (Spring 2016)

ENG 102 (English Reading Skills)

Instructor
Md Shaiful Islam
Senior Lecturer
Department of English
School of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB)
Office Hours: Sundays & Tuesdays (9.00- 11.00 am)
Mondays, Wednesdays & Thursdays (2.00 - 3.00 pm)
Email: [email protected]

Objectives
This course equips students with all English skills having major emphasis on reading micro-skills- predicting,
guessing meaning from context, skimming, scanning, inferring, summarizing, note-taking etc. This course involves
students in discussions on texts they read and encourages them to present their point of views. This course also aims
at raising students’ understanding of the relation between the lexical items and structural forms as well as expanding
their vocabulary by focusing on the word formation including suffixes and prefixes. Students also learn idioms and
collocations, slang, proverbs and phrasal verbs to help them better explore, review, play with and enhance their
skills, spoken and written expressions. It trains students on how they can write paragraphs and essays successfully
too.

Teaching Methods
All instruction will be in English. There will be class activities, discussion and role-plays. Students will have
individual practice to develop reading skills. They will work in pairs and in groups to understand contents,
synthesize ideas and promote analysis of studied material.

Required Text
Compiled Course Kit

Recommended Texts
Colin M.L. (1990). Patterns Plus
Joffe I. L.(1980). Opportunities for Skillful Reading
Maley & Duff.(1987). Beyond Words
Rudza B. et al (1981). The Words You Need
Grellet (1983). Developing Reading Skills

Evaluation Scheme Explanation of Letter Grades

Participation : 10% A : 90-100

Class Tests : 20% A- : 88-89
Mid-Term Exam : 30% B+ : 85-87
Assignment : 10% B : 80-84
Presentation : 10% B- : 78-79
Final Exam : 20% C+ : 75-77
Total : 100 C : 70-74
C- : 68-69
D+ : 65-67
D : 50-64
F : Fail
I : Incomplete
W : Withdrawal

1
Course Contents

Weeks & Topic Reading skills Major activities

Units
Week 1 Introduction Micro-skills in reading - Getting to know one another
- Sharing ideas on reading micro-skills
- Figuring out challenges faced in reading
Week 2 The Urban Crisis -Predicting -Deciding whether statements are true or
Unit 1 -Skimming false
-Scanning -Guessing meaning from context
-Inferring -Matching specific ideas with general
-Understanding reading ideas.
Structure -Getting the main idea
-discussing the reading

Week 3 Our Changing Lifestyles -Predicting -Deciding whether statements are true or
Unit 2 Trends and Fads -skimming false
-scanning - selecting the main idea
-Inferring Identifying the clues to the meaning of
& difficult words
Paragraph writing Choosing correct meanings
Getting the main idea
Discussing the Reading
-Writing about an era he or she is interested
in
Week 4 Eat Like a Peasant, Feel -skimming - Scanning the sub-heads to find the text
Unit 3 Like a King -Scanning organization & major ideas before reading
-guessing word meanings a text
Formulating key ideas - recalling information from the reading
Paraphrasing material with selection
specialized use of vocabulary - Finding out meaning of words from the
-Text organization context
& -Discussing the reading.
Paragraph writing - writing about healthy life
Week 5 Climate Change and -Skimming -Deciding whether statements are true or
Unit 4 Global Warming -Scanning false
Part 1 and 2 guessing word meanings - filling up the blanks with correct choice
-making inferences of words
-Making inferences
-matching synonyms and phrases
Discussing in pairs on global warming
Week 6 Global Connections - skimming -Choosing appropriate words
Unit 5 -Scanning -Deciding whether statements are true or
-guessing word meanings false
- making inferences of the -Deciding whether certain information is
ideas in the passage implied in the passage or not
Understanding explicit and -Choosing right answer based on explicit
implied information and implied information
Week 7 Wildlife -Skimming -finding evidence to make inferences
Unit 6 -Scanning - explaining why the writer used a certain
-Inferring style in the passage
- understanding writer’s
purpose/style

2
 Week 8 MIDTERM Understanding text Putting in order the jumbled paragraphs of
Unit 7 & organization and coherence passages
Marriage and Divorce
Week 9 Gladiator Open ended Test- Getting the - Reading a passage and writing the
Unit 8 information from the passage answers in own words
and learning how to write it in
own words
&
Essay writing
Week 10 The Workhouse Understanding complicated - Exercises on identifying the reasons why
Unit 9 sentence constructions sentences are complicated and then trying
& to understand the context.
Essay writing - identifying the reasons of difficulty in
relative structures
and making them simple
-exercises on identifying the reasons of
difficulty in conditionals , inversion,
negatives and double structures
Week 11 Firm Friends of Ours Understanding writer’s use of - answering questions in a reading
Unit 10 language comprehension based on the understanding
& & & of the writer’s use of certain techniques
Unit 11 (Part I.(a).Learning how to take and stylistic devices
1&2) I. Note taking notes from reading materials b. &
II. Summarizing Learning how to prepare a I. reading a passage and taking notes in a
spider diagram spider diagram
II. Learning how to write a II (a). Exercises on writing summaries
summary b. Reading a passage and writing a
summary
Week 12 Graphic Presentation of Understanding graphic Exercises on graph reading
Unit 12 Data information

Week 13 FINAL EXAMINATION