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INTEGRATED ENGLISH PROGRAM
2007 SCOPE AND SEQUENCE
Members of the Integrated English Program committee at present, or in the past: Professors Erica Aso, Naoyuki Date, Joseph Dias (IE Program Coordinator), James Ellis (past IE Program Coordinator), Matsuo Kimura, Asuza Nishimoto, Wayne Pounds, Peter Robinson, Hiroko Sano, Don Smith, Minako Tanni, Naomi Tanooka, Jennifer Whittle, Teruo Yokotani, Hiroshi Yoshiba, Michiko Yoshida, and Gregory Strong, NIBU Coordinator, and course writer.
The curriculum guide, scope and sequence, and resource book have been augmented with many suggestions from teachers at the Sagamihara (formerly, Atsugi) Campus of Aoyama Gakuin University. The IE Program integrates the teaching of speaking, listening, reading, and writing in a task-based syllabus organized by themes.
Copyright, Aoyama Gakuin University
Gregory Strong, March, 2007
I. PROGRAM ORGANIZATION
The IE Program is organized into 4 semester-length integrated English courses: IE Levels I, II, III, and in the final semester of the IE Program, an IE Seminar on a specialized area of content. The courses are integrated in the sense that the IE Core course integrates the four skills and the themes at each level of the program link the IE Core, IE Writing, and IE Listening courses. There are about 380 freshmen and an almost equal number of sophomores in the program. Students are placed in classes according to their performance on the ITP, or Institutional Testing Program, a simplified version of the TOEFL test available the Educational Testing Service.
At IE Levels I, II, and III there is a Core Section of integrated skills taught in a weekly 180-minute class. At each level, there is also a 90-minute Listening Section and a 90-minute Writing Section. The grade for each student at the end of the term is based on the following formula: 40% for IE Core; 30% for IE Listening, and 30% for IE Writing.
IE Core (180 min)IE Writing (90 min)
IE Listening (90 min)
IE I
* Childhood
* Urban Life
* Food
* Travel / IE II
* Changing Times
* The Workplace
* Geography
* Biography / IE III
* Relationships
* Cross-cultural
Values
* Environment
* The Media / IE Seminar
*Communications
* Linguistics
* Literature
Fig.1 The IE Courses and their themes at each level.
The courses are taught by approximately 2 full-time faculty, 33 part-time native speakers, and 18 part-time Japanese teachers, some of whom are recent English Department graduates. At the end of each term, students evaluate the courses.
II. A PROGRAM SNAPSHOT
- A student who enters at level I and completes the IE Program will
participate in some 36 small group discussions and lead about 12 of them.
- The same student will read 6 novels, write an analysis of each one, and
describe each novel to other students in a small group.
- He or she will learn a variety of reading strategies and be introduced to various
genres of literature.
- He or she will draft, revise, and complete 4 essays of about 350 words, and
upon finishing Academic Writing, one of 1,500 words.
- The same student will have hours of guided listening and received instruction in
listening strategies.
Published research on the Academic Skills program suggests that students show significant improvement in their comprehension and note-taking abilities. Likewise, experimental data on the discussions in the IE Core classes shows significant increases in communication and confidence in using English, and significant increases in vocabulary.
III. PROFESSIONAL RESOURCES
A teacher resource area in the English Department office, Room B-520 on the Sagamihara Campus, offers secretarial assistance, photocopying, a library of professional texts, language teaching journals, student workbooks, computers with Internet access, video and DVD players for teacher and student use, a portable DVD region-free player, a video and DVD library, grading software, and teacher mailboxes and lockers.
Also available at the English Department office are the IE Core textbooks, Mosaic1 and Interchange 2, along with accompanying audio CDs and videotapes, and student guidebooks with sample discussion and writing activities for IE Core, IE Writing, IE Listening, Academic Skills, and Academic Writing, supplementary videos and DVDs, as well as a professional teaching library with academic journals. These are for use in the office. Computers there offer e-mail access and printing. Additional DVDs for IE Listening and Academic Skills can also be found there as well as a wireless internet connection for your laptop, a Sony wireless mic for recording with a video camera and a portable Sony DVD region-free player.
There is an annual teacher orientation in April, as well as lunchtime meetings at the end of each semester and as required. Teachers are asked to join an electronic ‘mailing list’ used for disseminating information about the program and on upcoming teacher vacancies.
Some 3,500 graded readers for student self-access, and to be used for Core book reports, can be found on the first floor of the library in Building B on the Sagamihara Campus.
Teachers are issued two different cards: a library card and a PC access card. Web hosting for course-related content is offered. Teachers may also publish in the department journal. Parking space for cars and bicycles is available on the Sagamihara Campus.
IV. GRADING STUDENTS
Because students receive a final IE grade comprised of their scores from the IE Core, IE Listening, and IE Writing sections, the instructor for each section must provide a numerical score rather than a letter grade for each student. Because of the importance of the score, it should be as precisely recorded as possible. For example, it would be preferable to assign a score of 73% rather than rounding the figure to 70%. The weight for each of the IE courses is as follows: 40% for IE Core; 30% for IE Listening, and 30% for IE Writing. We owe our students as efficient and as an accurate grading as possible, so please use the grading software that we provide.
It should be possible for students to achieve a score of 90% or higher in any of the I.E. sections. However, very few students in any class should be awarded such a high mark. Students attaining such distinction should have made effort and achievements superior to those of most students in the class. Conversely, you should have a few students that achieve an AA score of 90% or higher, even in an IE I Core or IE I Writing section.
IV.(a) MARKING FOR ATTENDANCE
Since 1996, we have had the following attendance policy. In the first class,students should be warned about regularly attending classes. Please take a pro-active role.Obtain contact telephone numbers and email addresses from your students. Warn students early if they start missing classes. Instructors must use their discretion when presented with student excuses. Serious illness with a doctor’s note, or a family-related matter such as a funeral, are acceptable reasons for absence. Otherwise, students should forfeit points from their final grade.
IV.(b) STUDENT PLAGIARISM
Student plagiarism, particularly of IE Core book reports has become a problem.
Some students wait until the last moment to read a book and faced with an impossible deadline, are tempted to copy another student’s work or even plagiarize a book report that they have written for another IE class.
We would like to minimize the problem while keeping our demands on teacher time as little as possible through a new policy of (a)stiffer penalties, (b)better teacher administration, (c)computerized record-keeping.
At the beginning of each term, explain the matter to students, and how will we be
setting up a new database, and warn them that plagiarism of an assignment will lead to a fail on that assignment (no rewrites), and that if they are caught with a second plagiarism, they will fail the entire IE Core class.
In terms of teacher administration, please try to get your students to choose a book by the 3rdIE Coreclass in the semester at the very latest. Ask them to choose their 2nd book and bring it class when you are collecting their first reports. When your students bring their books to class, have them write down their choices on a paper that you circulate in class. Please file the paper.
Any students who unable to produce the book that they are going to read, or suddenly switching books for the written report will be a red flag for plagiarism. As well, this “book check" will start students reading their books earlier, so there will be less temptation to cheat.
Finally, we will ask you to have your students e-mail you a copy of their two book
reports. We hope to be setting up a pass-protected website to receive these at some point in the term. Later, teachers will be able to check a book reports’ database.
Absences / Maximum Grade1 / 95
2 / 90
3 / 80
4 / 60
5 or more / Fail
Fig. 2 Absences and Grades
V. LANGUAGE LEARNING TASKS
Researchers in Second Language Acquisition have proposed transforming grammatical or functional language teaching syllabuses to those that are more task-based. We have identified key language learning tasks at each level of the IE Program: (a)small group work, (b)writing a journal, (c)reading 2 novels, (d)analyzing the 2 novels, (e)reporting on them to a small group. Additional tasks are found at the IE II and IE III levels.
COMBINED IE I, II, III TASKSSmall Group Work
1. Use English to participate in pair and small group activities in speaking,
listening, reading, writing.
2. Learn how to read and listen to authentic audio and video materials.
Write a Journal
3. Maintain a weekly journal in a notebook, blog, or message board.
4. Communicate with (a) partner(s).
5. Describe feelings, explain ideas and narrate events to another person.
Read 2 Novels
6. Learn to read fluently.
7. Acquire new vocabulary.
8. Develop analytical skills through applying literary terms.
Report on the 2 Novels
9. Using the MLA style, note the author, title, place of publication, publisher, and the year.
10. Describe the book using the literary terms: setting, point of view,conflict, climax, symbol,
irony, theme.
11. Summarize the events.
12. Express an opinion about the book.
13. Give an oral report to classmates.
IE I
Participate in a Discussion
1. Brainstorm discussion topics.
2. Introduce self; learn and use the names of classmates.
3. Make eye contact.
4. Use gestures to communicate.
5. Solicit opinions.
5. (Dis)agree and give reasons.
6. Interrupt someone politely.
7. Ask for clarification.
IE II
Join a Media Discussion
Use a news item from Japanese radio, TV,
newspapers, or magazines. Note the author, and
publisher. Do some note-taking on it: an
analysis of it, noting what, when, where, who,
why, and how
Discussion Leader
1. Note the main idea of the news item
2. Record the source using theMLA style
3. Paraphrase the news item in a
written paragraph
4. Explain it to partners
5. Introduce self; learn/ use the names of others
6. Make eye contact
7. Use gestures to communicate
8. Solicit opinions
9. (Dis)agree and give reasons
10. Interrupt someone politely
11. Ask clarification, provide follow-up questions / Group Presentation
Use one of the themes in the course to
develop a topic.
1. Brainstorm topics
2. Use English to negotiate duties in
the presentation
3. Select the main points
4. Outline the presentation
5. Develop a conclusion.
IE III
Join a Newspaper Discussion
Copy an article from an English newspaper or
Online news and attach it to your written work.
Note the author, and publisher. Do your
analysis of it, noting what, when, where, who,
why, and how
1. Note the source using the MLA style
2. Summarize the article
3. Write down an opinion about it.
4. Explain it to partners
5. Introduce self; learn/ use the names of others
6. Make eye contact
7. Use gestures to communicate
8. Solicit opinions
9. (Dis)agree and give reasons
10. Interrupt someone politely
11. Ask for clarification / Survey Project
Use one of themes to develop a survey.
1. Brainstorm survey items
2. Determine subjects
3. Ask survey questions
4. Collate the answers
5. Negotiate duties of group members
6. Prepare an outline and create graphs
and charts.
Make a Commercial
Use one of the themes in the course to develop
a topic for a commercial.
1. List potential products and services
2. Choose the product
3. Use English to negotiate duties in
the presentation
4. Plan the commercial using storyboards
and a shooting script
5. Depict different characters and
create realistic dialogue.
6. Use persuasive language to promote
products or services
Fig. 5 IE Core Classes: Language Learning Tasks
* Forming student groups of 3 instead of 4 cuts the time needed for discussions yet still allows
for full student participation.
VI. WRITE A JOURNAL
We require IE Core teachers to use written journals, taped journals, or blogs with their classes as part of the writing component of the IE Core Section. Journals encourage them to use English communicatively in correspondence.
They are also a forum for students to describe their feelings, experiences, and ideas. Research on emerging student writing indicates how useful his task can be in improving their writing.
The chief objection instructors have toward journal writing is that it takes too much of their time to respond to students. One of the best solutions to this problem is to use "secret friends" or penpals in your class. Rather than the teacher responding to each student, students exchange journals with one another and respond accordingly.
Keeping their identities secret from one another makes the task more exciting for the students. In the "secret friends" approach, they only reveal their identities to one other in the last class.
Of course, you must give your students a clear explanation of what you expect of them in journal writing and provide them with models. Generally, we ask students to write the equivalent of 3 double-spaced pages each week. Over the term, they should have written about 36 entries or pages. Half of these entries will be in their notebook and the other half in their partner's. Make it clear to students that, eventually, you will be reading the notebooks and their entries will figure in their final marks.
In the first class, you might introduce journal writing by giving students 10 minutes to write their first journal entries. This is a good opportunity to emphasize that the point of this activity is to improve writing fluency and not grammatical accuracy. Some students will have great difficulty concentrating on their writing for the whole ten minutes and in writing more than 50 words as well. You should write during this time, too, so that you have a benchmark of what you might expect from students writing for ten minutes.
You should show the class a simple word count formula where you count the words in the first 3 lines of a journal entry, and divide by 3 to get the average number of words per line. Multiplying this figure by the number of lines in the journal entry, you will arrive at a word count far more quickly than by counting each word as students do. List some student scores on the board as well as your own. There probably will be a range from 40 to 240 words. Putting the scores on the board encourages students to concentrate more and to write faster.
The students should finish the other two journal entries at home during the following week. Then you should take in all the journals to see how the students are doing, assign them an initial score, and, according to interests and personality, match "secret friends" together. In the next class, read a few of the “better” journal entries to let the class know your expectations. Then, assign "secret friends.”
You maintain the secrecy of the students' partners and increase student excitement by requiring everyone in your class to purchase the same style and colour of notebook. Preferably, this should be an inexpensive one such as the B-5 size (250cm x 18cm) Campus notebook available in the school bookstore for about 100 yen. You should bring a notebook to the first class to show the students exactly what to purchase.
Each student chooses a secret name and writes it on the inside cover of his/her book. At some point later in class, you should find out each student's secret name and record it on a journal checklist.
An easy way to manage the exchange of the journals and to keep their anonymity is a "mail bag." At the beginning of class, students put their journals into the bag. At some point in class, the teacher checks them off on the class checklist, and then passes the bag back to a student in class, who then looks for her partner's journal in the bag. From that student, the mail bag circulates to the other students.
With this approach, you only read the students' journals once in the first month of the semester to set your standards for the activity and to make students aware of them. Then you take them in on the second-to-last class which will allow you to return them the students. Yet all through the term, students will still be receiving regular, detailed responses to their writing from their secret partners.