Hello Students,

This six-week CALL program is based on the topics and study skills required for the English course # 162, taught in the English Language Unit of the Science College at Kuwait University. Click here to see the goals of this Call program.

It includes weekly synchrounous, i.e. live and online and daily asynchronous communication via Yahoo!Groups an the class Blog. During the live meetings we are going to do some interesting activities using voice to improve your speaking skill. The daily communication is to help you better your writing and reading skills. the actitivities designed with consideration to the different learning styles and various learning startegeies that should suite everyone. For this reason we're going to work in groups.

There will be a final project that requires you to write and present a short research paper. Click here to learn more about things we need to do for the final projct.

We will be using these Internet Communication Technologies, (ICTs):

Asynchronous ICT:

- YahooGroups

-Blogs & Photoblogs

-WebPages (This EfS 162 website)

-Voice Email

-Mobile SMS & MMS

Synchronous ICT:

-Yahoo Messenger / MSN / Paltalk (Do you have other suggestions?)

-Skype

-Webheads Virtual Office (by Elluminate at LearningTimes)--Go tolive weekly meeting Schedule

The purpose of using the above mentioned communiation tools is to enhance your English and Internet skills, train you become independent e-learners to perfectly fit in the current Information technology age, and to have FUN!

I hope to see you soon.

Office Hours: Sat - Mon - Tue 12:30 - 2:00 p.m, Kh. Bldg 3, 2nd floor, Room # 12

Online Office Hours: click HERE

Join EfS 162 Yahoo Group at < coming soon >

Useful links can be used for this course

Douglas presentation on Tea:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/guide/tea.shtml (BBC videos)

Christine Course Material: writing, listening

http://academics.smcvt.edu/cbauer-ramazani/cbr/AEP/ac_eng_BU113.htm

SYLLABUS

Introduction

This is a blended course, English for Architecture and Urban Planning at Universidad Simon Bolivar. This course is intended for the practice of the different language abilities which have been introduced in the previous courses. The whole course is designed following the tenets of content-task-based instruction. In this course students will be discussing about the essence of Architure and Urban Planning and a general overview of the construction materials and structures used in their profession.

Objectives

1. Language
At the end of the course students will have practiced

• vocabulary related to the content
• reading authentic texts related to the content
• recognizing different kinds of rhetorical patterns in readings
• writing different kinds of paragraphs
• listening to authentic videos and recordings related to the content
• speaking about the course-related content

3. Study Skills
Students will have the opportunity to

This blended course has been designed to give certain autonomy and flexibility to the students. The multimedia lab will be our meeting place, especially for students who do not have easy access to computers. However, students are not forced to be in the lab, they can do the activities from other places, and not necessarily at the same time the lab session is taking place. They only need to complete the activities assigned for each week (see Weekly Activities). Students will participate in group work, and these activities can be done at any time the groups decide to meet; in the case of the chat, previous invitation and agreement with the teacher. Some activities will combine f2f and online elements, these activities will require students presence in the classroom. With the different activities students will develop and practice vocabulary related to the contend while they read authentic texts and listen and view authentic videos. Students will also be involved in peer and self-assessment of the work done.

Evaluation

The evaluation follows the tenets of Alternative Evaluation. See Asssessment section for details.

References

Online Resources: see References section.