University of Guyana
School of Education & Humanities
Department of Language & Culture Studies
Course:
Credits:
Duration:
Date:
Delivery:
Introduction to the Use of English - ENG 1105
Four
One Semester
September 2014
Lecture (2 hours)
Tutorials (2 hours)
Evaluation: Course work: Two in-class tests = 50%
Examination: One three-hour written paper = 50%
There is 75% attendance requirement for this course.
Course Description and Aim
The Introduction to the Use of English is a foundation course required for students who enter
the University of Guyana and are largely from Creole speaking backgrounds. The course
introduces students to language as it is used in academic settings and targets the development of
reading and writing skills for the tasks required at university. It aims to provide interactive
settings for students to develop and increase their language awareness and attain confidence to
aim for mastery of oral and written Standard English.
Objectives:
By the end of this course, students will develop and increase their:
a.
b.
c.
d.
language awareness;
skills in listening/viewing/reading and responding to English used in academic settings;
critical thinking and level of comprehension of written English;
skills in writing well-developed essays on topical issues.
Week 1:
Topics to be covered
 Introduction to language in the Guyana context
 Plagiarism
Grammatical Aspects to be covered: Punctuation, Subject and verb agreement
Week 2: Monitoring and Hypothesis Formulation Process in Reading
Comprehension


Focusing on language use, diction, literal and interpretative meanings;
Producing free responses and answering from multiple choices at various levels of
cognition: knowledge, comprehension and application;
Grammatical Aspects to be covered
 Correct use of the different types of verbs
 Common sentence construction pitfalls – run-on sentences, sentence fragments, choppy
sentences, non-parallel structures, sentences containing too many phrases and clauses.
Week 3:

Comprehension and Methods of Organizing
Reading comprehension and the recognition of different kinds of writing, e.g.
description, narration, exposition, persuasion/argumentation;
Examining the different rhetorical strategies that can be used to write paragraphs.

Grammatical Aspects to be covered: Consistency of tense and pronoun.
Week 4:

Critical Reading Framework
Focusing on the higher order levels of thinking; analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
Grammatical aspects to be covered: Dangling modifiers
Week 5:
First Test (Comprehension)
Week 6: Introduction to University level Writing
Grammatical aspects to be covered: Writing grammatically correct sentences
Week 7 – The writing process
 Limiting the topic, constructing topic sentences and thesis statements;
 Clarifying the thesis;
Week 8 - Semester break
Weeks 9:



Expository Writing
Shaping and developing paragraphs;
Structure of the essay – introduction, development/body. Conclusion
Methods of development – exposition, argumentation, definition, analysis,
classification, comparison/contrast.
Week 10: Argumentative Writing
 Shaping and developing paragraphs;
 Structure of the essay – introduction, development/body, conclusion
Week 11: Second Test (Essay Writing)
Week 12: Writing Critical Expository and Argumentative essays
Week 13; Editing and Proofreading
Week 14 – Revision and student evaluation of the course
Week 15 – Final examination
Recommended Readings
Bailey, S (2011). Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students. 3rd Ed. London:
Routledge.
Gillett, A. (2012). Using English for Academic Purposes: A Guide for Students in Higher
Education, Online at http:www.uefap.com
Lowe, C and Zemliansky, P. (eds) (2009). Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Vol. 1 Indiana:
Parlour Press
Lowe, C and Zemliansky, P. (eds) (2009). Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Vol. 2 Indiana:
Parlour Press