English Course – Level One:

Course Description Form

First: Course Description
Touchstone is an innovative new series for adults and young adult learners of English in the Arab world. It is a “corpus-informed” course, drawing on extensive research into the corpus of North American English in the Cambridge International Corpus – a large database of everyday conversations and texts that show how people actually use English.
The course is designed to take the students smoothly from the beginner’s level to the intermediate level via 4 levels of books. Each book has 12 units, and each unit has 4 lessons that cover: grammar, vocabulary, conversation strategies, and reading & writing.
Touchstone merges the best features of proven and familiar communicative methodologies. It offers engaging activities that are interaction- based that promote active and inductive learning. In addition, it encourages students to be independent learners.
New Headway Academic Skills 1 is a course aimed at post-secondary students who need English in their academic studies. The book consists of 10 units covering a variety of topics relevant to students in higher education. Units focus on a wide range of academic reading, writing, research, and/or vocabulary skills.
Whilst this course does not deal specifically with IELTS and TOEFL, many of the skills taught in this course have a direct application to preparing for these exams.

Second: Course Objectives:
After studying this course students are expected to be able to:
Touchstone 1 & 2
• understand some information on the telephone if the situation is familiar.
• begin to understand relationships between speakers.
• recognize levels of formality in familiar social situations
• read short texts about familiar topics that contain mostly language with which he/she is familiar
• predict the content of these texts before reading based on pictures, headlines, and layout.
• read these texts and gain a general understanding.
• understand the main ideas of these texts and details of these texts.
• understand the details of these texts.
• begin to understand writers’ opinions and feelings.
• begin to understand the structure of language when it is used to link ideas of time, place, and possession.
• identify and understand a range of text types from public notices and signs to letters.
• read and understand short stories at the appropriate level.
• write simple, logical, and connected texts (100 -50 words) on topics which are familiar, or of personal interest, e.g. family, holidays, everyday routine.
• write a range of text types including letters, narratives, and descriptions of people, objects, and places.
• complete forms and questionnaires at the appropriate level and communicate information.
• write personal texts, which include descriptions of experiences and feelings, e.g. an embarrassing event, the happiest day of his/her life, a film he/she enjoyed.
• connect his/her ideas logically using a limited range of expressions, e.g. linking words and expressions.
• spell known words accurately.
• punctuate and paragraph appropriately.
• begin to correct his/her own work and that of others.
• keep a diary which records his/her problems and progress and in which he/she practice writing on given topics.
• use an English-to-English dictionary at the appropriate level and select the appropriate use of a word or phrase.
• use a dictionary to find out the pronunciation, grammar, and meaning of a word.
• keep useful and appropriate records of new vocabulary and phrases for reference and self-study, e.g. wordlists.
• keep useful and appropriate records of coursework in an accessible file or folder.
• make useful notes on the main points from reading and listening sources at the appropriate level and from the whiteboard.
• use his/her notes to complete tables, short written texts, and short talks.
• organize his/her own studies in his/her free time and meet deadlines.
• realistically assess his/her own performance and that of the other students at his/her level.
• edit and correct his/her own work.
• take responsibility for his/her own progress and work independently on his/her weaker areas and he/she knows when he/she needs help from others.
• be understood when he/she speaks, most of the time, although he/she makes some pronunciation error.
• show an awareness of syllable, word, and sentence stress.
• begin to produce appropriate intonation.
• begin to assess his/her pronunciation.
• aware of the phonemic chart and can produce the individual sounds.
• aware of his/her own pronunciation problems.
• use a range of vocabulary to talk about a variety of everyday topics and issues, e.g. holidays, families, work.
• select appropriate vocabulary to talk about feelings, opinions, and experiences, e.g. happiness, sadness, anger.
• begin to recognize there are different types of phrasal verbs and can understand and use a number of phrasal verbs and collocations.
• choose vocabulary appropriate to context.
• start to work out the meaning of unknown vocabulary items from context.
• form other words in a word family group based on his/her knowledge of how nouns, adjectives, etc. are formed.
• use the grammar structures listed effectively, although he/she may make some mistakes.
• use the English tense system to talk about the past, present, and future
• use some linking words and phrases to express the relationship between ideas, e.g. although, however…
• try to use some of the more complex structures.
• self-correct basic errors.

Academic Skills 1
• think about the types of texts they have to read and the different skills they use to read each text type;
• make predictions about the content of a text before reading it as an aid to comprehension;
• skim a text for the general idea;
• get information quickly from an encyclopedia entry by learning to use headings;
• guess the meaning of a word from its context;
• make notes about a text by extracting the important information;
• describe buildings and other structures;
• extract information from websites by using texts, diagrams and visuals;
• identify topic sentences and use them to get the meaning from texts quickly
• identify the writer’s personal views while reading a text;
• interpret the data in visuals, charts and graphs;
• look out for rephrasing when they read as it can help them to understand any new words and expressions;
• use reference in a text to help their understanding;
• read, understand and interpret statistics included in texts or visuals;
• write simple paragraphs of description about themselves and other people;
• use capital letters appropriately;
• check capitalization, spelling, grammar and punctuation;
• use the basic parts of speech;
• organize and record vocabulary that they want to learn;
• write descriptions of routines and procedures;
• use adverbs of frequency correctly in writing;
• use apostrophe for possession and in contraction;
• use the various sources of information for their studies;
• use drawings and diagrams to learn vocabulary;
• find factual information;
• use linking words to build sentences and paragraphs;
• write formal letters and emails;
• take notes while reading;
• write simple definitions and example sentences;
• recognize the different types of websites;
• check the authorship, accuracy and reliability of these websites;
• describe food and drinks in paragraphs;
• identify and use negative prefixes;
• use the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
• write reviews and compare between data;
• get specific information from the internet;
• understand an unfamiliar word by breaking it down into its component parts;
• summarize texts and correct themselves and their peers;
• use books effectively to find out if a book is going to be useful for them;

Third: Course Components:
1. Classware
2. Workbook
3. Test CD-ROM

Fourth: Course References:
1. English Corpus
2. Oxford English Dictionary

First: Course Description
Touchstone 3 & 4 is an innovative new series for adults and young adult learners of English in the Arab world. It is a “corpus-informed” course, drawing on extensive research into the corpus of North American English in the Cambridge International Corpus – a large database of everyday conversations and texts that show how people actually use English.
The course is designed to take the students smoothly from the beginner’s level to the intermediate level via 4 levels of books. Each book has 12 units, and each unit has 4 lessons that cover: grammar, vocabulary, conversation strategies, and reading & writing.
Touchstone merges the best features of proven and familiar communicative methodologies. It offers engaging activities that are interaction- based that promote active and inductive learning. In addition, it encourages students to be independent learners.
New Headway Academic Skills 2 is a course aimed at post-secondary students who need English in their academic studies. The book consists of 10 units covering a variety of topics relevant to students in higher education. Units focus on a wide range of academic reading, writing, research, and/or vocabulary skills.
Whilst this course does not deal specifically with IELTS and TOEFL, many of the skills taught in this course have a direct application to preparing for these exams.
English for Science and Engineering is a four-skills course designed to build both fluency and accuracy in tertiary students enrolled in science and engineering programs who have completed a general English course. By setting language activities in context of their future professional lives, it motivates learners to develop the language skills they will need for success in their careers.
English for Health Sciences is a four-skills course designed to build both fluency and accuracy in tertiary students enrolled in health science programs who have completed a general English course. By setting language activities in context of their future professional lives, it motivates learners to develop the language skills they will need for success in their careers.
The book has 5 units, and each unit has 6 lessons that cover: grammar and lexis, listening, and speaking. The book uses real-life scenarios to empower science and engineering students with language and life skills they need to carry out their career goals.
After each unit there is a Team Project that consolidates skills developed in the unit and allows for exploration of areas of particular student interest.
The course is designed to focus on the five fundamental functions that are common to all branches of engineering: Research and Development, Design and Testing, Manufacturing and Industry, Safety, Maintenance and Quality Control, & Careers and Employment.
The book has 5 units, and each unit has 6 lessons that cover: grammar and lexis, listening, and speaking. The book uses real-life scenarios to empower science and engineering students with language and life skills they need to carry out their career goals.
After each unit there is a Team Project that consolidates skills developed in the unit and allows for exploration of areas of particular student interest.

Second: Course Objectives:
After studying this course students are expected to be able to:
Touchstone 3 & 4
• understand some information on the telephone if the situation is familiar.
• begin to understand relationships between speakers.
• recognize levels of formality in familiar social situations
• read short texts about familiar topics that contain mostly language with which he/she is familiar
• predict the content of these texts before reading based on pictures, headlines, and layout.
• read these texts and gain a general understanding.
• understand the main ideas of these texts and details of these texts.
• understand the details of these texts.
• begin to understand writers’ opinions and feelings.
• begin to understand the structure of language when it is used to link ideas of time, place, and possession.
• identify and understand a range of text types from public notices and signs to letters.
• read and understand short stories at the appropriate level.
• write simple, logical, and connected texts (100 -50 words) on topics which are familiar, or of personal interest, e.g. family, holidays, everyday routine.
• write a range of text types including letters, narratives, and descriptions of people, objects, and places.
• complete forms and questionnaires at the appropriate level and communicate information.
• write personal texts, which include descriptions of experiences and feelings, e.g. an embarrassing event, the happiest day of his/her life, a film he/she enjoyed.
• connect his/her ideas logically using a limited range of expressions, e.g. linking words and expressions.
• spell known words accurately.
• punctuate and paragraph appropriately.
• begin to correct his/her own work and that of others.
• keep a diary which records his/her problems and progress and in which he/she practice writing on given topics.
• use an English-to-English dictionary at the appropriate level and select the appropriate use of a word or phrase.
• use a dictionary to find out the pronunciation, grammar, and meaning of a word.
• keep useful and appropriate records of new vocabulary and phrases for reference and self-study, e.g. wordlists.
• keep useful and appropriate records of coursework in an accessible file or folder.
• make useful notes on the main points from reading and listening sources at the appropriate level and from the whiteboard.
• use his/her notes to complete tables, short written texts, and short talks.
• organize his/her own studies in his/her free time and meet deadlines.
• realistically assess his/her own performance and that of the other students at his/her level.
• edit and correct his/her own work.
• take responsibility for his/her own progress and work independently on his/her weaker areas and he/she knows when he/she needs help from others.
• be understood when he/she speaks, most of the time, although he/she makes some pronunciation error.
• show an awareness of syllable, word, and sentence stress.
• begin to produce appropriate intonation.
• begin to assess his/her pronunciation.
• aware of the phonemic chart and can produce the individual sounds.
• aware of his/her own pronunciation problems.
• use a range of vocabulary to talk about a variety of everyday topics and issues, e.g. holidays, families, work.
• select appropriate vocabulary to talk about feelings, opinions, and experiences, e.g. happiness, sadness, anger.
• begin to recognize there are different types of phrasal verbs and can understand and use a number of phrasal verbs and collocations.
• choose vocabulary appropriate to context.
• start to work out the meaning of unknown vocabulary items from context.
• form other words in a word family group based on his/her knowledge of how nouns, adjectives, etc. are formed.
• use the grammar structures listed effectively, although he/she may make some mistakes.
• use the English tense system to talk about the past, present, and future
• use some linking words and phrases to express the relationship between ideas, e.g. although, however…
• try to use some of the more complex structures.
• self-correct basic errors.

Academic Skills 2 (Humanity Students)
• think about the types of texts they have to read and the different skills they use to read each text type;
• make predictions about the content of a text before reading it as an aid to comprehension;
• skim a text for the general idea;
• get information quickly from an encyclopedia entry by learning to use headings;
• guess the meaning of a word from its context;
• make notes about a text by extracting the important information;
• describe buildings and other structures;
• extract information from websites by using texts, diagrams and visuals;
• identify topic sentences and use them to get the meaning from texts quickly
• identify the writer’s personal views while reading a text;
• interpret the data in visuals, charts and graphs;
• look out for rephrasing when they read as it can help them to understand any new words and expressions;
• use reference in a text to help their understanding;
• read, understand and interpret statistics included in texts or visuals;
• write simple paragraphs of description about themselves and other people;
• use capital letters appropriately;
• check capitalization, spelling, grammar and punctuation;
• use the basic parts of speech;
• organize and record vocabulary that they want to learn;
• write descriptions of routines and procedures;
• use adverbs of frequency correctly in writing;
• use apostrophe for possession and in contraction;
• use the various sources of information for their studies;
• use drawings and diagrams to learn vocabulary;
• find factual information;
• use linking words to build sentences and paragraphs;
• write formal letters and emails;
• take notes while reading;
• write simple definitions and example sentences;
• recognize the different types of websites;
• check the authorship, accuracy and reliability of these websites;
• describe food and drinks in paragraphs;
• identify and use negative prefixes;
• use the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
• write reviews and compare between data;
• get specific information from the internet;
• understand an unfamiliar word by breaking it down into its component parts;
• summarize texts and correct themselves and their peers;
• use books effectively to find out if a book is going to be useful for them;

Science and Engineering Students

1. Understand the five fundamental functions that are common to all branches of engineering: Research and Development, Design and Testing, Manufacturing and Industry, Safety, Maintenance and Quality Control, & Careers and Employment.
2. Research and Development: measuring and comparing R&D activities, putting together a R&D team, planning a R&D project, and develop new products.
3. Design and Testing: resolving design issues, value engineering a product, designing tests, conducting performance tests.
4. Manufacturing and Industry: describing technical processes, analyzing areas of expertise, describing habitual routines and current activities.
5. Safety, Maintenance, Quality Control: describing maintenance procedures, applying safety measures, running quality control checks.
6. Careers and Employment: assessing the job market , getting licensed, building a career.
7. Consolidates skills and work as a member of a team for a project.
8. Communicate in English in the fields of science and engineering.

Health Science Students

a. Take responsibility for his/her own progress and work independently on his/her weaker areas and knows when he/she needs help from others.
b. Consolidates skills and work as a member of a team for a project.
c. Communicate in English in the health science fields.
d. Listening for: information, attitude, and subtext.
e. Being a good listener: repeating the information given by patient, body language, understands colloquial and technical English.
f. Speaking: putting patients at ease with small talk, eliciting, forming open-ended questions, form closed questions, avoiding leading questions, dealing with socially delicate subjects, consoling, sympathizing, explaining in lay terms, summarizing/repeating, paraphrasing, checking understanding, telephone language.
g. Reading: technical papers, patient’s notes.
h. Writing: patient’s notes and letters of referral.

Third: Course Components:
1. Classware
2. Workbook
3. Test CD-ROM
4. Videos
5. Audio files

Fourth: Course References:
1. English Corpus
2. Oxford English Dictionary