Course

College Preparatory Reading Skills for Students of English as a Second Language

Important Notice

This course is not active. Please contact Department Chair for more information.

Faculty
Language, Literature & Performing Arts
Department
English as a Second Language
Course Code
EASL 0465
Credits
3.00
Semester Length
15 weeks
Max Class Size
18
Method(s) Of Instruction
Lecture
Tutorial
Typically Offered
To be determined

Overview

Course Description
This reading course is for EASL students who wish to upgrade their reading skills in order to continue their education. The course is designed for advanced level students who need to read academic materials efficiently and critically. This course emphasizes reading for study purposes. Students will read material from texts, academic/professional books and journals and other sources. Reading exercises will emphasize understanding how information and ideas are developed and organized, summarizing important ideas and details, and identifying and evaluating arguments.
Course Content

Reading Skills

  1. To follow the ideas and information in readings
    • Follow written instructions
    • Use pre-reading skills to prepare for a reading task
    • Identify overall purpose and/or issue, key idea, main ideas, and key details
    • Follow the organization of a reading
    • Identify, summarize and evaluate an author’s position, supporting argument, and evidence in opinion readings
    • Identify components (background, method, results, discussion, conclusions) and evaluate how well reports/studies meet specified criteria in experiment/research reports/studies 
    • Identify characters, setting and theme and use of literary devices in literature
  2. To determine meanings of unfamiliar words, especially academic and/or professional topic-related language and/or jargon, use English-English dictionaries, indexes, glossaries, and context clues
  3. To find materials in the library
    • Use a variety of library resource materials to research a topic  
    • Use the Internet to create search strategies, use subject directories & search engines, evaluate web sites
    • Use on-line databases to access source materials for research projects.
  4. To use study skills
    • Apply and evaluate graphs, charts and statistical data to provide logical support for a thesis.
    • Prepare for objective tests and essay tests
    • Prepare study notes and predict essay questions
    • Learn content from text/materials

Accuracy

  1. To self-monitor for accuracy:
    • continue to edit for all accuracy items in 100, 200, and 300 levels
    • use word processing editing aids (spelling and grammar check and thesaurus)
    • apply knowledge of parts of speech, sentence elements, specified sentence types, and mechanics
    • identify and work on as need arises:
      • accuracy in sequence of tense rules in reported speech
      • accuracy in format and punctuation for documenting and inserting evidence from sources
      • accuracy in complex sentence structure:
        • correctly embeds appositives and introductory phrases including
        • reduction of adverb and adjective clauses to participial phrases
        • correctly inserts evidence (direct/indirect quotes and author introductory phrases)
        • edits for clause and sentence completeness

Classroom Skills

  1. To take responsibility for the following:
    • attendance and punctuality
    • class work and assignments
    • participation and teamwork
Learning Activities

The instructor will observe and evaluate students’ development and participation in reading and writing activities.

Whole and small group instruction will be combined with individual assistance and student-directed learning.  Students will receive assistance with reading difficulties that arise from lack of familiarity with the structure, lexicon and cultural content of the reading passages.  Students will participate in the setting of goals by identifying their communicative and language development needs, and will participate in the selection of learning acuities.

Means of Assessment
  1. Complete assigned skill-development tasks
  2. Prepare a file of self-selected and teacher selected materials (expository, opinion, research, literature) for oral and written activities
    This file should include:
    • notes on materials
    • vocabulary lists
    • written assignments which demonstrate development of critical reading skills
    • reference lists (APA style)
  3. Develop a file of writing, all word processed, that meets specified criteria for content and organization, language use and accuracy, and format.
    • This file should include:
      • at least one summary
      • at least one summary/analysis
      • at least one outline of a research essay
      • at least one comparative analysis of arguments on a common issue
    • This file could include:
      • a summary of an experiment/research report
      • a response to literature documented MLA style
  4. In class, read and complete tasks based on readings
  5. Complete quizzes , both skill based and content based
  6. Complete at least one self-assessment of learning strategies, progress, and classroom skills to be discussed with the instructor
  7. Complete tasks to a specified level of accuracy

Student achievement will be assessed using the letter grade system in accordance with college policy.

Learning Outcomes

Overall Objectives

Extend communicative proficiency and language accuracy for a broad range of academic purposes.

Specific Objectives

  1. Read and understand academic material from a variety of sources
  2. Take notes for a range of academic purposes
  3. Use strategies to explore academic materials
  4. Collect, analyze, and organize relevant information from a variety of sources
  5. Plan, write, revise, and edit formal compositions such as summaries, summary/analyses and literary response
  6. Plan and outline a research essay based on academic research, and documented APA style
  7. Monitor and apply strategies to improve accuracy in grammar, sentence structure, and word choice to a specified level of accuracy
  8. Participate effectively in a college classroom
  9. Assess progress
Textbook Materials

Students will be required to purchase a textbook to be determined by the instructor.

Requisites

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

(Current)

Course Transfers

These are for current course guidelines only. For a full list of archived courses please see

Institution Transfer Details for EASL 0465
There are no applicable transfer credits for this course.

Course Offerings

Winter 2025