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Major Assignment
1. Reading Log
1.1. Objectives:
Main objectives:
This assignment primarily aims to develop students' overall reading competency to B1+ level
(CEFR). Specifically, by completing this assignment, students should be able to:
- understand the features of texts of certain genres and purposes commonly encountered in their
daily life;
- identify suitable reading strategies, style and speed, for these texts;
- demonstrate satisfactory comprehension of the main points of these texts;
- and demonstrate a reasonable degree of independence in reading these texts.
Supplementary goals:
In this Reading-writing integrated assignment, students are also expected to achieve supplementary
knowledge and skills, as listed below:
- collecting short pieces of information from several sources, especially news or documentaries, and
summarise them for somebody else (communication strategies)
- summarising, reporting and giving one's own opinion about accumulated factual information on
familiar and slightly unfamiliar matters well enough for others to follow (writing competency)
- developing sufficient range of language on most familiar topics and some unpredictable situations,
enough to explain the main points with reasonable precision and express one's thoughts on both everyday
topics and some abstract, cultural topics (linguistic range)
- communicating with a relatively high degree of grammatical control without making mistakes that lead
to misunderstanding (grammatical control)
- searching for information from different sources and citing sources to avoid plagiarism (soft skills)
- using technology, especially word processor, to serve their studies (soft skills)
- participating in discussion with peers with positive attitudes (soft skills)
1.2. Guidelines
- This is an individual assignment, in which each student will periodically collect reading materials of
certain genres and purposes, then respond to the texts in writing based on some guiding questions and
make a glossary of new language. Every two or three weeks, students will have the opportunity to share
their collection with the class.
- There will be 03 entries in this Reading Log. For each entry, the procedure for the assignment is as
follows:
Step 1: Students receive guidance, including guiding questions, for collecting and analysing the text
genres and purposes from the teacher.
Step 2: Students find at least 01 sample for the text genres and purposes from suggested or their own
sources and put a copy in the Reading Log, together with proper citation of the source.
Step 3: Students read and analyze the texts based on the guiding questions. Then write down in the
Reading Log:
+ a brief summary of the main ideas or message of the texts they collected,
+ their personal thoughts on the content of the texts (e.g. whether they like or dislike the text, what they
like or dislike about the information they read),
Step 3: Students make a list of some language (i.e. vocabulary items or grammatical forms) they find
interesting and worth sharing in the text. For each item on the list, students must include the example
from the text, explain the interesting point about this item, and use the item in their own language (e.g.
make their own sentences with the words/phrases/structures).
Step 4: On the designated week, students bring their Reading Log to class to share the entry under the
facilitation of the teacher.
- Before week 15, students compile the 3 entries into a complete Reading Log with proper covers and title
pages. Students submit their Reading Log to the teacher in week 15's lesson.
2. Writing Portfolio
This assignment primarily aims to develop students' overall writing competency to B1+ level
(CEFR). Specifically, by completing this assignment, students should be able to:
write straightforward connected texts on a range of familiar subjects, conveying information and ideas
on abstract as well as concrete topics;
write detailed description of experiences (real or imagined) including description of their feelings and
reactions;
communicate with a relatively high degree of control of grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation, without
making mistakes that lead to misunderstanding
express themselves with reasonable precision with sufficient language for both familiar subjects and
some abstract, cultural topics as well as unpredictable situations.
Supplementary goals:
This assignment also contributes to the development of other knowledge areas and skills such as:
knowledge of the language system, the target-language culture as well as their own culture,
reflecting on their own language development, commenting on and editing their peers' works,
discussing with peers with appropriate attitudes
2.2. Guidelines
Students will be assessed individually. Basically, Writing Portfolio 1 is a collection of a student's writing
pieces, demonstrating their progress in writing competency as well as language over the whole semester.
3. News Sharing
1. Assignment description and objectives
This is a listening assignment which accounts for 10% of the total score. It is designed to
encourage students keep updated with the latest news in the fields of their interest so as to be
well-prepared to be a global citizen.
1. Guidelines on assignment completion
1 Source 1
2 Content 2
5 Facilitation skills 1
4. Persuasive Speech
2. Assignment description and objectives
This skill-integrated assignment accounts for 15% the score of the course. It is designed to help
students get to know how to conduct a formal persuasive speech individually, applying the
presentation knowledge acquired in the previous semester.
3. Guidelines on assignment completion
In semester 1, students worked in groups to carry out the project. In this semester, each student work on
their own to produce an individual persuasive speech, following the three steps below:
STEP 1 – Selecting a topic under the corresponding theme of the week in the syllabus
STEP 2 – Preparing for the speech. Visual aids can be used.
STEP 3 – Delivering the presentation (maximum ten minutes, followed by a 5 minute Q&A
section.
4. Marking rubric
4 Pronunciation 1
6 Voice control 1
7 Body language (eye contact, posture and gesture) 1
8 Visual aids 1
9 Q&A 1
News Report:
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1. Note-taking
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2. Summary
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3. Useful words/Expressions
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7. Reading Journal
2.2. Guidelines
This assignment requires students to work individually to read certain genres/ types of
text and then briefly present and reflect about the text in class. Students are free to choose which
genre to read each week. There will be a list of genres/ types of text for students to choose from.
The text must be 700 – 1000 words in length and of B2+/ C1- level.
Students are required to read the text in detail and reflect on it by making marginal notes.
Throughout the semester, there must be 06 entries of the reading journal, among which students
must read at least 03 pieces of updated news and 03 entries of other genres (at least 2 other
genres).
In each reading journal session, students need to bring their reading text with their
marginal notes to class and take turn to present about what they have read in groups. When the
students are presenting in groups, their peers must complete a Group minutes and evaluation
sheet, which will then be collected by the teacher. One or two students will be randomly chosen
to present in front of the class.
List of genres:
News
Poems
Short stories
Books of student’s field (chapters)
Journal articles of student’s field
For each reading journal entry and presentation, the marking criteria are as follows:
Total 10
8. Reading Challenge
In Semester 3, students are expected to read at least TWO books of two different genres using
the checklist provided. One of the books should belong to the Advanced list. They are required
to read regularly and keep reading notes while reading. Every TWO weeks, they need to bring
the reading notes to class to share with their peers about their reading progress.
In week 15, they have to select one book that they read in Semester 3 to introduce to their
peers and teacher in the CLC Book Club Day. They can choose to design a poster/an infographic
or prepare a PPT presentation/a short video to present their selected book. Their introduction
of the book must cover the followings:
A book published this year A book more than 100 years old
A book written by someone under 30 A memoir
A book with a one-word title A book by an author you’ve never read before
A book of short stories A book you own but have never read
ADVANCED
A book that’s more than 800 pages A book with a family-member term in the title
A book based on mythology A book that takes place over a character’s life span
• Put out some A4 or A3 sheets of paper. Collect at least 01 text that you think can be analyzed
with the guiding questions. Stick/ attach/ staple etc. that text onto the piece of paper with your
name and the date included. You can use other online platforms like Wordpress or Facebook as
well but creativity and visualization are highly recommended.
• The text may come from any source (newspapers, books, magazines, Internet etc.) of any
format (scanned, photocopied, printed out, photographed, cut out etc.) but it must be of
authentic English and of at least 500-word length. If the passage is an excerpt (e.g. a paragraph
of an essay, a section of a book chapter, a chapter of a book), you must summarize the content
of the essay, book etc. It should be related to one of the themes covered this semester and the
sources must be properly cited.
Students can also utilize the scholarly article they choose to review for the Writing assignment.
• The material should be accompanied by your responses in the form of marginal or footnote
comments using the list of guided questions. You do not have to answer all the questions but
you should try to answer as many as possible.
• Arrange to give feedback on your peers’ notes (recommended at least 1 week before the
submission).
You are free to give feedback to as many people as you like. Remember that both quality and
quantity will be considered in your assessment.
• Include your entry in week 10 in the scrapbook of the whole class and submit to the teacher.
In the following weeks there will be feedback sessions.
9.3.3. List of guiding questions
1) What is the writer saying?
2) What do you think the writer is suggesting or implying? What makes you think so?
3) What is the writer’s purpose?
4) What audience is the writer suggesting?
5) Is the writer responding to another writer’s ideas?
6) What is the writer’s main point?
7) How does the writer support his or her points?
8) Does the writer use facts, opinions or a combination of the two?
9) Does the writer include enough supporting details and examples?
10) What pattern of development does the writer use to arrange his or her ideas? Is this pattern
the best choice?
11) Does the writer seem well informed? Reasonable? Fair?
12) Do you understand the writer’s vocabulary?
13) Do you understand the writer’s ideas?
14) Do you agree with the points the writer is making?
15) How the ideas presented in this section like/ unlike those presented in other sections you’ve
read?
Model Sharing
In this assignment, students work in pairs.
Except for weeks 1, 8 and 15, at the beginning of each writing-focused lesson, a pair of students
are supposed to conduct a model sharing session, which lasts around 50 minutes.
If there are more weeks than pairs in the class, a pair of students that carry the model sharing
TWICE will receive bonus points in either this model sharing assignment or in the writing
portfolio assignment. This will be decided by the teacher in charge.
To prepare for a model sharing session, a pair of students are supposed to:
• (at home) choose a text that matches the weekly theme. It is recommended that students
choose different types of letter and argumentative essay as input texts, so that they can
prepare for the VSTEP exams. However, this is NOT a must: students can choose texts of other
genres to analyze. They are also allowed to choose several texts to analyze in ONE session, as
long as the total word count of the texts does not exceed 800.
• (at home) provide proper referencing of the texts.
• (at home) analyze how the author builds his/her arguments (especially in case the chosen text
is an
argumentative piece of writing) by using:
- evidence, such as facts or examples, to support claims
- reasoning to develop ideas and connect claims and evidence
- stylistic or persuasive elements such as word choice or appeals to emotion, to add power to
the idea.
• (at home) create a list of vocabulary and grammatical items they find new/interesting and
worth remembering from the text with meaning, examples, and phonetic transcription.
• (at home) think of activities / tasks they will use to introduce the model to their classmates as
well as helping their classmates to pick up key/useful thematic vocabulary items.
o Those activities/tasks do NOT NEED to be formal (lectures).
o Informal activities/tasks (games, exercises, tasks, contests…) are acceptable as long as they
are effective in helping the students remember the key words/structures and the main points
of the text.
• (at home) prepare ONE packet consisting of all their products to submit to the teacher at the
beginning of each model sharing session (hard copy). This packet should include:
o a brief plan of how they would use the allotted time in class
o all the analysis of the structure of the texts
o all the exercises and tasks they intend to use in class in 45-50 minutes along with the answer
key
o lists of vocabulary and grammatical items they find new/interesting and worth remembering
from the text with meaning, examples, and phonetic transcription
• (at home) prepare suitable handouts and PPT slides to facilitate the activities they intend to
organize in class.
• (in class) conduct a sharing session in class (45-50 minutes). As stated previously, students are
encouraged to use different activities and tasks to help their classmates understand the chosen
text “inside out”.
• (in class) receive feedback and comments to improve their performance.
Listening Facilitation
STEP 1 – Form a group of three members;
STEP 2 – Choose an interesting audio/video recording of suitable level (C1) and related to the theme of
the week. It should not exceed 5 minutes. At the same time, decide on focused listening skills for the
audience to practice. These skills should be useful for VSTEP practice.
Listening tasks to check peers’ understanding and to get their response to the content of the
recording;
Pre-listening and post-listening tasks are recommended to facilitate the audience’s listening and
comprehension. These activities could be, but not limited to:
- A list of new language items and information related to that recording to share with peers
- A lead-in activity
- A discussion
Minor Activities
1. Vocab Games:
Students work in groups three. Each group takes turn to organize vocabulary games.
Two weeks before each vocabulary-focused session, all students will be given 02 passages. All
students are required to read the text and check any new words in terms of their meaning, spelling,
pronunciation, grammatical usage, collocation, and connotation and make a vocabulary list.
According to Stolley, Brizee & Paiz (2013), plagiarism is avoided by acknowledging the use of the following
kinds of materials:
“Words or ideas presented in a magazine, book, newspaper, song, TV program, movie, Web page,
computer program, letter, advertisement, or any other medium”;
“Information you gain through interviewing or conversing with another person, face to face, over
the phone, or in writing”;
“When you copy the exact words or a unique phrase”;
“When you reprint any diagrams, illustrations, charts, pictures, or other visual materials”; and
“When you reuse or repost any electronically-available media, including images, audio, video, or
other media”
2. PLAGIARISM vs. COMMON KNOWLEDGE
According to Stolley, Brizee & Paiz (2013), the use of:
common knowledge [e.g. folklore, common sense observations, myths, urban legends,
and historical events (but NOT historical documents)], or
generally accepted facts in daily life (e.g. “Water is essential for life”), or
generally accepted facts in certain areas and principles (e.g. In the field of TESOL, “there
are four language skills” is a generally accepted fact);
does not have to be documented or acknowledged.
(1) Plagiarism is “submitting someone else’s text as one’s own or attempting to blur the line
between one’s own ideas or words and those borrowed from another source”,
(2) Misuse of sources is “carelessly or inadequately citing ideas and words borrowed from
another source”.
In the Fast-track program, the misuse of sources should be penalized according to the
requirements of specific assignments and courses, not as plagiarism. The misuse of sources
should be distinguished from “no source cited at all” (See Footnote 2 next page).
1 Content words (e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) are distinguished from functional words (e.g. prepositions, articles).
2 “Providing any citation” herein is understood as citation with at least one of the followings provided: the name of the author, the
name of the work, or the name of the publisher (e.g. URL link, name of the publishing house etc.). Incorrect citations should be
counted as misuse of sources and penalized accordingly (See Section 4), NOT plagiarism.
3 First-time”, “second-time “etc. violations in this section refer to the number of violations throughout the two-year Fast-track
English language program, NOT during a single component course (e.g. 1A*, 2A*) solely. The coordinators, via all Fast-track
teachers, should keep a record of this and inform the respective teacher when plagiarism occurs.
4 “7 days of notice” herein is the maximum amount of time. Under certain circumstances, this could be shortened considerably but
(1) The teacher should discuss the work with the students to agree on the conclusion and the
penalties (if any) specified in Section 4 above.
(2) If the matter is not resolved, the minutes of this discussion should be taken (which
includes the justifications by both the teacher and the students and their signatures),
attached to a copy of the student’s work.
(3) Then, the work should be examined independently by at least another teacher (teaching
the same course and appointed by the students). Minutes should also be taken by this
teacher and include his/her conclusions.
(4) If the matter is not resolved by then, all the minutes, together with the copy of the
student’s work, should be sent to the Head of the Fast-track division for the final verdict.