BAR ILAN UNIVERSITY – EFL UNIT
TROM (INTERMEDIATE) 1 SYLLABUS
(108 hours) FOR PRE-ADVANCED LEVEL 04 ENGLISH
(Psychometric: 85 – 94)
EXIT REQUIREMENTS
Upon completion of the pre-advanced level course, the student will be able:
i.
to read and comprehend English texts of general interest at a basic
academic level (approximately 1,500 words)
ii.
to extract information and draw inferences from 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 and text
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).
READING SKILLS
A.
Introduce skimming and scanning techniques.
B.
Recognise the structure and development of a text via transitions and other
organisational markers, and understand the relationship between ideas as
they are expressed across several paragraphs.
C.
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, listing, comparison and contrast, cause
and effect, problem and solution.
E.
Infer meaning at both sentential and discourse levels.
F.
Develop conscious awareness of cognitive strategies as tools in reading
LANGUAGE SKILLS
G.
Build and master vocabulary[1] adequate for reading texts at the preacademic level and deduce meanings of other words via morphological,
syntactic and context clues.
H.
Understand the meaning of a sentence with the help of syntactic clues.
I.
Identify the meanings of references and ellipses within and between
sentences.
READING SKILLS
SKILL A: Introduce skimming and scanning techniques.
1.
Use extra-textual clues to predict the topic of the text. Look at length
of text, physical layout, charts, diagrams, illustrations, title, sub-titles,
and bibliographic information.
2.
a. Skim opening and closing paragraphs to get the main idea or
conclusion of
the writer.
b. Read first sentence of each paragraph to get the gist of the text.
c. Scan for dates, names, and numbers.
SKILL B: Recognise the structure and development of a text via transitions and
other organisational markers, and understand the relationship between ideas as
they are expressed across several paragraphs.
1.
Identify writer’s method of presentation and text organisation via
subtitles and other organisational markers.
2.
Recognise the function of markers of transition.
3.
Identify the function of paragraphs as they relate to each other and to
the text as a whole.
SKILL C: Identify the main idea of a text and the purpose of the writer; identify
the point of view or attitude of the writer.
1.
Identify the explicit main idea of a text by referring to markers, context
clues, and opening and closing paragraphs.
2.
Infer the implicit main idea of a text by making use of general
knowledge and textual clues.
3.
Identify the purpose of the writer by recognising direct statements of
intent or by recognising other clues of intent such as type of text, style
and use of language, and overall tone.
4.
Identify the point of view or attitude of the writer by distinguishing
between fact and opinion, between the writer’s own view and his/her
presentation of other views, between a neutral tone and an ironic
tone.
SKILL D: 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.
Recognize the structure of a paragraph - general statement (topic
sentence) illustrated by specific details, examples, and
explanations.
2.
Recognize the markers of illustrative support. Distinguish between
general and specific statements and relate examples to their
general statement and vice versa.
3.
Identify the stated 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.
Recognize the markers of comparison and contrast. Identify
comparison and contrast of ideas. Recognize what two things are
being compared or contrasted and what is the point of the
comparison or contrast.
5.
Recognize the markers of cause and effect. Identify cause and
effect relationships, distinguishing the cause or reasons from the
result or effect, and connecting the cause with its particular result.
Recognise other common markers such as: markers of frequency,
listing and problem and solution.
6.
SKILL E: Infer meaning at both sentential and discourse levels.
1.
Deduce the meaning of words from morphological, syntactic and
contextual clues.
2.
Infer the main idea of a paragraph when only specific details or partial
statements are given.
3.
Infer the main idea of a text when it is not stated directly by using
general knowledge and textual clues.
4.
Infer the tone of a text (ironic, humorous, sceptical, sarcastic) from
indirect statements and stylistic devices such as exaggeration,
understatement and inflated language.
5.
Infer the writer’s point of view/position from references to opposing
viewpoints and tone of personal statements.
SKILL F: Develop conscious awareness of cognitive strategies as tools in
reading.
1.
2.
Note that the meaning of a sentence is much more than the
translation of words in that sentence.
Note that the use of the strategies listed above facilitates
comprehension.
3.
Note the contribution of previous knowledge to the reading of new
material.
4.
Recognize that high cognitive strategies combine with lower decoding
strategies in reading comprehension.
5.
Make conscious use reading skills, especially in reference to those
listed above.
LANGUAGE SKILLS
SKILL G: Build and master vocabulary adequate for reading texts at the basicacademic level and deduce meanings of other words via morphological, syntactic
and context clues.
1.
Enrich vocabulary by learning new words as they come up in the
readings and vocabulary-building exercises.
2.
Deduce the meaning of words by their form, i.e., identifying prefixes
and suffixes, word families.
3.
Deduce the meaning of unfamiliar words by understanding how they
function in a sentence (grammatical classes - parts of speech).
4.
Deduce the meaning of words from context clues such as synonyms,
antonyms, examples that illustrate the meaning, markers of logical
relationship, and the general sense of the passage.
5.
Use of dictionary to find appropriate meaning of words in context.
6.
Make predictions while reading so that expectations give meaning to
unknown words.
7.
Awareness of idioms and figurative language.
8.
Recognize which words are more important for the general meaning
of the passage and which words are less important.
SKILL H: Understand the meaning of a sentence with the help of syntactic clues.
1.
Recognize basic parts of speech in an English sentence (noun, verb,
adjective, and adverb).
2.
Recognize basic English sentence structure (subject, verb, and
complement). Focus on subject and main verb as carriers of
meaning.
3.
Identify modifiers - adjunct nouns (gold watch, city hall), compound
adjectives (worn out, well known).
4.
Understand the structure of complex sentences, i.e., multiple-clause
structures. Identify the main clause and the dependent clauses.
5.
Use markers to understand the logical relationship between the main
clause and the other clauses, i.e., the type of information conveyed
by each clause.
6.
Understand the meaning conveyed by grammatical structures
(tenses, modals, conditionals, and verbals (gerund and participle nonverb forms).
7.
Read sentences in meaningful units.
SKILL I: Identify the meanings of references and ellipses within and between
sentences.
1.
Recognize the use of reference markers - pronouns and other words
that substitute for preceding words in a text.
2.
Identify the antecedents of these reference markers.
3.
Recognize the words in a text that refer to the same antecedent
(synonyms and paraphrases).
4.
Recognize ellipses, relative pronouns, reduced adjective clauses and
other instances of ellipsis within and between sentences.
5.
Deduce the meanings of unknown words by recognising the writer’s
use of references.
[1]
See attached vocabulary list in the Appendix