Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia

Vicerrectoría Académica y de Investigación

Course Syllabus

1. COURSE IDENTIFICATION

Faculty or Unit: Vicerrectoría de

Acronym: VIREL
Relaciones Internacionales
Training field: Common basic
Level: Professional, specialization, master
interdisciplinary training
Course: English IV Code: 90170
Course type: Methodological Number of credits: 2
Course designer: Lika Gobronidze Course editor: Lika Gobronidze
Elaboration date: September 1st, 2015 Update date: November 17th, 2017
Course Description:
The UNAD, true to its mission as a leading organization in open and distance
education, has a key role in the advances related to the globalization topic. For this
reason, its internationalization policy seeks to guide the steps of the national and
international community towards bilingual scenarios.
According to the above, English 4 is part of the foreign language component in the
curriculum guidelines of the UNAD's academic programs.
Students will encounter in this course, the availability of a virtual environment in
which six environments (initial information, knowledge, collaborative learning,
practical learning, assessment and monitoring and management) are prepared. Each
environment fulfills a specific function within educational intentions, which guide the
work, through both individual and group interaction, in order to enhance the learning
and practice of English oriented activity guides and accompanied by their respective
evaluation rubrics.
This course has two (2) credits, which include independent study and tutorial support,
for a total of 96 hours of academic work, distributed in 64 hours of independent study,
36 hours of accompaniment and tutorial follow-up aimed to:

- Recognize and appropriate the basic contents of English 4 specifically.

- Develop abilities and communication skills through listening (audio, written reflection
of audiovisual materials) and written comprehension (drafting, interpretation and
development of the contents), in order to make use of the English language in
different scenarios of everyday life
- Foster in students the importance of learning English for work, academic and
personal environment.
- Take advantage of techno-didactical resources and technological tools in the course
in order to learn a foreign language with autonomy and tutorial support.

2. TRAINING PURPOSES

Training purposes:
To strengthen communication skills in English language so the student is able to
employ an intermediate - advanced language on general topics in order to allow him
to manage situations in different contexts where the use of the foreign language is
required. To achieve this purpose, synchronous and asynchronous learning activities
have been arranged where everyday situations arise and students are able to apply
and reinforce their knowledge, productive and receptive skills.
Course competences:
The student strengthens the communication skills required in the command of English
through the virtual environment and the ICT resources of the course as a support to
strengthen his learning process and be fluent in the foreign language.

The student through the use of the learning strategy based on tasks within the virtual
learning environment, is able to engage in everyday situations in oral and written form
on familiar topics.

The student communicates in oral and written way making use of English in order to
describe experiences, events, desires and aspirations, as well as briefly justify his
views and explain his plans.

The student takes part in the exchange of cultural information; Recognizing his
environment and understanding the new cultures of the second language studied.

Sociolinguistic competence
The English 4 student, has the ability to express and interpret thoughts, feelings and
facts in both oral and written (listening, speaking, reading, writing), and to interact
appropriately in social and cultural contexts among others making use of simple
tenses and more complex grammatical structures.

Production competence
The student is able to understand the main points of clear texts, which are familiar to
him, either in work or study situations and uses reading as a source of enjoyment and
personal enrichment. In addition, he produces simple and coherent text on familiar
topics or in which he has a personal interest. He is able to describe experiences,
events, desires and aspirations, as well as briefly justify his views and explain his
plans.
Digital and technological competence
The student uses the task based learning strategy supported by the course and, all
media and technology tools placed at his disposal, including the ICT in order to obtain,
select and present information in verbal and written form.

3. COURSE CONTENTS

Units/topics Required Bibliographic

References
1. UNIT 1 - TIME CLAUSES UNAD, 2017. Curso Inglés IV. Taken
• Time Relationships. from:
• If clauses and results clauses in conditional http://campus06.unad.edu.co/invil25
sentences.
/mod/page/view.php?id=175
2. UNIT 2 - HYPOTHETICAL SITUATIONS UNAD, 2017. Curso Inglés IV. Taken
• Wish to express hypothetical situations. from:
• Subject and Direct Object within a http://campus06.unad.edu.co/invil25
sentence.
/mod/page/view.php?id=178
• Events in the past.
• “Used to” for habits and customary past
actions.

4. LEARNING STRATEGY

Description of learning strategy:

Task based strategy organized as follows:

- Previous task - Act. 1. Recognition forum: Students present individually, an audio

recording of the answers to the questions set out.
- Focus on the meaning - Act. 2 - Pre-knowledge online activity: Students practice
online activity to identify and process specific structures and strengthen
communication skills.
- Focus on the form - Activity 4: Online Activity- Unit 1- (grammar, vocabulary,
reading, listening, and writing): Students are encouraged to listen to the audios and
read the texts to extract useful language with grammatical structures learned during
this unit.
- Focus on the form - Activity 6: Online Activity- Unit 2- (grammar, vocabulary,
reading, listening, and writing): Students are encouraged to listen to the audios and
read the texts to extract useful language with grammatical structures learned during
this unit.
- Focus on the language - Speaking assignment- Synchronous meeting: The tutor
leads the practical activities where the students exercise the vocabulary and
pronunciation and improve their communication skills.
- Central task - Writing assignment - Production: Students work in collaborative
groups. The tutor constantly accompanies the activity in each forum. Students present
a written text. Feedback, deep learning and reflection on the task.
- Task - General course review: Students are invited to evaluate their performance
in the course activities and the course management.
- Task - Oral and written production review: Students are invited to evaluate
their performance in oral and written production.
- Final Exam - Units 1 - 2: Students through the online final objective test will be
able to experiment the learning process of the course topics.

5. DISTRIBUTION OF ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES OF THE COURSE

Week Contents Activity to carry out according to the

learning strategy
1y2 Unit 1 - Time Clauses Activity 1: Recognition forum - Activity 2: Pre-
knowledge online Activity
3 Unit 1 - Time Clauses Activity 3: Writing assignment – Production
Activity 4: Online Activity- Unit 1- (grammar,
vocabulary, reading, listening, writing)
4 Unit 1 - Time Clauses Activity 3: Writing assignment – Production
Activity 4: Online Activity- Unit 1- (grammar,
vocabulary, reading, listening, writing)
5 Unit 1 - Time Clauses Activity 3: Writing assignment – Production
Unit 2 - Hypothetical Activity 4: Online Activity- Unit 1- (grammar,
Situations vocabulary, reading, listening, writing)
Activity 5: Speaking assignment -
Synchronous meeting
6 Unit 1 - Time Clauses Activity 3: Writing assignment – Production
Unit 2 - Hypothetical Activity 4: Online Activity- Unit 1- (grammar,
Situations vocabulary, reading, listening, writing)
Activity 5: Speaking assignment -
Synchronous meeting
7 Unit 1 - Time Clauses Activity 3: Writing assignment – Production
Unit 2 - Hypothetical Activity 4: Online Activity- Unit 1- (grammar,
Situations vocabulary, reading, listening, writing)
 Activity 5: Speaking assignment -
Synchronous meeting
Activity 6: Online Activity- Unit 2- (grammar,
vocabulary, reading, listening, writing)
8 Unit 1 - Time Clauses - Activity 4: Online Activity- Unit 1- (grammar,
Unit 2 - Hypothetical vocabulary, reading, listening, writing)
Situations Activity 5: Speaking assignment -
Synchronous meeting
Activity 6: Online Activity- Unit 2- (grammar,
vocabulary, reading, listening, writing)
Activity 7: Task - General course review
Activity 8: Task - Oral and written production
review
9 Unit 2 - Hypothetical Activity 5: Speaking assignment -
Situations Synchronous meeting
Activity 6: Online Activity- Unit 2- (grammar,
vocabulary, reading, listening, writing)
Activity 7: Task - General course review
Activity 8: Task - Oral and written production
review
10 Unit 2 - Hypothetical Activity 6: Online Activity- Unit 2- (grammar,
Situations vocabulary, reading, listening, writing)
Activity 7: Task - General course review
Activity 8: Task - Oral and written production
review
11 Unit 2 - Hypothetical Activity 6: Online Activity- Unit 2- (grammar,
Situations vocabulary, reading, listening, writing)
Activity 7: Task - General course review
Activity 8: Task - Oral and written production
review
12 Unit 2 - Hypothetical Activity 6: Online Activity- Unit 2- (grammar,
Situations vocabulary, reading, listening, writing)
Activity 7: Task - General course review
Activity 8: Task - Oral and written production
review
13 Unit 2 - Hypothetical Activity 6: Online Activity- Unit 2- (grammar,
Situations vocabulary, reading, listening, writing)
Activity 7: Task - General course review
Activity 8: Task - Oral and written production
review
14 Unit 2 - Hypothetical Activity 7: Task - General course review
Situations Activity 8: Task - Oral and written production
review
15 y Unit 1 - Time Clauses - Activity 9: Final Exam - Units 1 -2
16 Unit 2 - Hypothetical
Situations

6. STRATEGIES OF ACADEMIC SUPPORT

Description of academic support strategies to apply in this course.

Synchronous student accompaniment

The English IV course tutor network assists students synchronously in the aula within
the following areas:

Synchronous Attention by Skype: Different schedules are arranged to attend

student´s concerns and doubts in real time. This schedule can be found within the
news forum, general forum, banner of INITIAL ENVIRONMENT and internal mail.

Synchronous Attention by Course Chat: The schedule designated to address any

questions concerning the development of the aula. The schedule is situated within the
INITIAL ENVIRONMENT, course chat and internal mail.

Web-conferences in the course: Different meetings are organized at various times

where students can interact with their tutors using the tools of web-conference. The
timetable can be found in the KNOWLEDGE ENVIRONMENT, general forum and internal
mail.

Attention in CEADs: Schedules to attend the students in person and in real time at the
centers and / or CEADs. The schedule is published in the news forum and general
forum.

7. COURSE ASSESSMENT PLAN

Numbe Products to deliver Highest

Assessme Score/500
r of according to the learning Score/500
nt stages points
weeks strategy points
Activity 1: Recognition
1-2 Initial 25
forum - Activity 2: Pre-
 knowledge online Activity: 25
A Pdf file and Mp3 audio
recording.
Activity 3: Writing
assignment – Production:
A written text as a result of a
team work.
Intermedia
3-4 Activity 4: Online Activity- 260
te Unit 1
Unit 1- (grammar,
vocabulary, reading,
listening, writing):
Development of knowledge
quiz.
Activity 5: Speaking
assignment - Synchronous
meeting: Participation in an
interview and deliver of a
350
video.
Activity 6: Online Activity-
Unit 2- (grammar,
vocabulary, reading,
listening, writing):
Intermedia
5-14 Development of knowledge 90
te Unit 2
quiz.
Activity 7: Task - General
course review:
Development of self-
assessment quiz.
Activity 8: Task - Oral and
written production
review: Development of
self-assessment quiz.
Final test: Development of
15-16 Final 125 125
knowledge quiz
Total score 500 points 500 points