BAR ILAN UNIVERSITY – EFL UNIT
MATHILIM (BEGINNERS) II SYLLABUS
(54 HOURS) 02 LEVEL ENGLISH
(Psychometric: 78 – 84)
EXIT REQUIREMENTS
Upon completion of the Beginners Level 02 course, the student will be able:
i.
to read and comprehend English texts of general interest at a basic
academic level (approximately 1000 words)
ii.
to extract information and make primary deductions concerning the
text in order to demonstrate comprehension of the texts
iii.
to write short answers varying from a few words to a complete
sentence in English.
The student will acquire the following skills:
i.
reading skills (at word, sentence, and paragraph
level)
ii.
general language skills (listening, speaking and writing sufficient to
participate in the lesson, communicate with the teacher and write
short answers to language and comprehension
questions).
LANGUAGE SKILLS
A.
Understand the meaning conveyed by grammatical structures.
B.
Understand the meaning of a sentence with the help of syntactic clues.
C.
Master vocabulary adequate for popular and simple academic
texts[1] and deduce meanings of other words via morphological,
syntactic and context clues.
D.
Identify the meanings of references within and between sentences.
READING SKILLS
E.
Recognise high-frequency words, reference words, basic transitions
and connectors, and syntactic clues.
F.
Make reasonable deductions about the meaning of words and
sentences.
G.
i. Identify the subject area and central idea of a text.
ii. Identify the main idea of a paragraph and its relationship with
preceding and
following paragraphs.
H.
Infer meaning at both the sentential and paragraph levels.
I.
Develop conscious awareness of cognitive strategies as tools in
reading.
PRODUCTION & RECEPTION SKILLS
J.
Master the production skills for simple utterances.
K.
Write basic sentences necessary for demonstrating an understanding
of the written word.
L.
Comprehend basic spoken language used in instruction.
LANGUAGE SKILLS
SKILL A: Understand the meaning conveyed by grammatical structures.
1.
Recognise the following tenses: Simple, Progressive & Perfect
(Present, Past & Future) and understand how they affect meaning;
including statement, interrogative and negative forms.
2.
Recognise stative verbs and the Imperative
3.
Recognise the passive voice and understand how it affects the focus of
the sentence.
Passive voice – all tenses
Recognise modals - (can, could, may, might, should, ought to, must,
would) and understand their meaning.
4.
5.
Recognise noun plurals endings, including the use of articles (a, an,
the) and quantifiers (some, any, much, many).
6.
Understand the first conditional form.
7.
Identify relative pronouns (that, who, which).
8.
Identify prepositional patterns of place, time, direction, and manner.
Identify prepositional verbs (wait for, look for) and frequency adverbs.
SKILL B: Understand the meaning of a sentence with the help of syntactic clues.
1.
Identify the parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, and adverb).
2.
Recognise basic English sentence structure: subject (and modifiers),
verb, complement (and modifiers) Focus on subject and main verb as
carriers of meaning.
3.
Identify modifiers - adjunct nouns (gold watch, city hall) compound
adjectives (red-hair, well-known), intensifiers –modifying adjectives and
adverbs (very, somewhat, quite)
4.
Note the noun-phrase word order.
5.
Identify adverbials as additional units of information.
Identify adverbials of place, manner, time, purpose, cause, result, and
concession.
6.
Use markers (conjunctions) to understand the logical relationship in the
sentence, i.e., the type of information conveyed by each adverbial.
7.
Understand the structure of compound sentences.
Identify conjunctions (and, but).
8.
Identify phrase connectors and sentence connectors (either/neither ....
or/not)
9.
Read sentences in meaningful units.
SKILL C: Master vocabulary adequate for popular and basic academic texts and
deduce meanings of other words via morphological, syntactic and context clues.
1.
Enrich vocabulary generally by building up a knowledge of high
frequency
words used especially in academic texts; learn to discover the
meaning of words within a context, and develop a awareness of the
wealth of English vocabulary specifically by introducing synonyms and
antonyms.
2.
Deduce the meaning of words by their form, i.e. identifying prefixes
and suffixes.
3.
Deduce the meaning of unfamiliar words by understanding how they
function in a sentence (grammatical classes, parts of speech).
4.
Recognise which words are more important for the general meaning of
the passage and which words are less important.
5.
Use the dictionary to find the appropriate meaning of words in context.
6.
Identify specific lexical items such as:
i. Compound nouns (headache, housewife)
ii. phrasal verbs
iii. basic gerund and participle structures
SKILL D: Identify the meanings of references within and between sentences.
1.
Recognise the use of reference markers - pronouns and other words
that substitute for preceding words in a text.
Recognise the indefinite object pronoun (one, ones).
2.
Identify the antecedents of these reference markers.
READING SKILLS
SKILL E: Recognise high-frequency words, reference words, basic transitions
and connectors, and syntactic clues.
1.
2.
Use dictionaries, (hard copy, computer and electronic). Develop an
appreciation and knowledge of these reading aids.
Use reference words within and between sentences to discover
meaning,
and basic transitions and connectors to reveal the relationship between
clauses and sentences.
SKILL F Make reasonable deductions about the meaning of words and
sentences
1.
Construct the specific meaning of words and phrases at the sentential
level.
2.
Identify the function of sentences as they relate to each other and to
the paragraph as a whole.
3.
Identify the main idea of a text and the purpose of the writer.
4.
Identify the main idea of a text by referring to opening or closing
paragraphs
of a text, by using markers and content.
SKILL G: Identify the main idea of a paragraph; understand the development of
ideas in a paragraph via common rhetorical devices such as general
statement and illustrative support, comparison and contrast, cause and
effect.
1.
Recognise the structure of a paragraph - general statement illustrated
by specific details, examples, and explanations.
2.
Recognise the markers of illustrative support. Distinguish between
general
and specific sentences.
3
Identify the main idea of a paragraph (via the topic sentence or
concluding statement), i.e. the statement that is supported by the
specific details of the paragraph.
4.
Recognise the markers of comparison and contrast. Identify
comparison
and contrast of ideas. Recognise what two things are being compared
and contrasted and what is the point of the comparison or contrast.
5.
Recognise the markers of cause and effect. Identify cause and effect
relationships, distinguishing the cause or reason from the result or
effect,
and connecting the cause with its particular result.
6.
Recognise other common markers such as: markers of frequency,
listing,
and problem and solution.
SKILL H: Infer meaning at both sentential and paragraph levels.
1.
Infer information not stated directly in a sentence by using sentence
markers, time expressions, and other clues.
2.
Infer the main idea of a paragraph when only specific details or partial
statements are given.
SKILL I: Develop conscious awareness of cognitive strategies as tools in
reading.
1.
Note that the meaning of a sentence is much more than the
translation
of words in that sentence.
2.
Note that the use of the strategies listed above facilitates
comprehension.
3.
Note the contribution of previous knowledge to the reading of new
material.
PRODUCTION & RECEPTION SKILLS
SKILL J:
Master the production skills for simple utterances.
1.
Master the articulation of English sounds and the names of the letters
of
the alphabet.
2.
Participate in simple dialogues and question and answer exchange.
3.
Answer simple questions relating to a text and concerning teaching
instruction and classroom management.
SKILL K: Write basic sentences necessary for demonstrating an understanding
of the written word.
1.
Produce basic sentence structures.
2.
Manipulate sentence structure such as combining sentences and
passivization.
3.
Express simple ideas and reactions to texts and about subjects under
discussion.
SKILL L: Comprehend basic spoken language used in instruction.
1.
Follow and understand the teacher’s reading of a text.
2.
Follow basic instructions and classroom management orders.
[1]
See attached vocabulary list in the Appendix.