Practical English Course for Students of Non-Linguistic Department

Intermidiate Worked out by the faculty of English section of Kazakh Leading Academy of Architecture and Civil Engineering and Almaty College of Communication at kau

Introduction

The given manual is designed for students of non-linguistic departments, who desire to master a foreign language during the period of study at university.

English language learning at non-linguistic departments makes the methodology of level education, oriented to formation of practical foreign language communicative skills very topical.

Nowadays the educational institutions of Republic of Kazakhstan have a definite experience of level teaching to English language which is divided into 6 levels of foreign language proficiency: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2 (Concept of foreign language education of the Republic Kazakhstan, 2007), accepted on the basis of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and adapted to the stages of national system of education.

According to the concept of foreign language education a teaching to foreign language at non-linguistic departments should cover the levels of B1, B2 and the courses of LSP – language for specific purpose (professional program) and LAP (Language for Academic Purpose).

However this model of foreign language education doesn’t correspond to real practice of students’ foreign language knowledge and skills, as by the moment of entering the university not all students master a foreign language at the level of A2. Many students come with the level A1 and sometimes with zero level of foreign language proficiency, but very eager to master it during their study at university.

That’s why an author group under edition of professor A.A. Kussainov on the basis of lasting and reach experience of teaching foreign language at non-linguistic departments, taking into account the achievements of the native and foreign scholars and methodologists in this field, and it’s own experimental work on language knowledge and skills assessment (Universal criteria of complex assessment of English language proficiency, 2008) suggests to single out 5 levels of language proficiency instead of 6 levels, expressed in percent measurement from 0% to 100% :

1. Elementary, which comprises also an introduction course for Beginners - А1-А2: from 0 to 20 %;

2. Pre-Intermediate - А2-В1: from 21to 40%;

3. Intermediate - В1-В2: from 41to 60%;

4. Upper-Intermediate - В2-С1: from 61 to 80%;

5. Advanced - С1-С2: from 81 to 100%.

Such subdivision into levels of practical English language proficiency allows to provide a systematic and indissoluble character, a sequence of foreign language learning at non-linguistic departments, compensate the faults of teaching to foreign language in schools and gives to students new opportunities to fill in the gaps in foreign language knowledge and skills.

Universal criteria of complex assessment of English language proficiency on above mentioned 5 levels presents a combined form of examination, including the assessment of theoretical knowledge of language (multiple choice test of grammar and lexis) and practical skills of communication (listening, speaking, reading and writing activities), providing an exactness, objectivity and transparency of the process of assessment.

Following the logics of improving the system of teaching English language the author group put forward an aim to develop a linguistic complex for each level of English learning at non-linguistic department, which comprises not only the materials of control and assessment as it was done in Universal criteria of complex assessment of English language proficiency (2008), but also the materials of study in the class and materials for students’ independent work after classes. That is why all material of manual is systematized from the point of its practical, communicative importance for the students of non-linguistic departments, on the basis of accessibility and sequence of stating, and the theory, concerning grammar is presented in doses and in minimum volume, and in such way paying more attention to the principle parts in English language learning. With it all the content of manual covers all aspects of learning foreign language: linguistic (phonetics, grammar, lexis), regional (Kazakhstani, British, American and other English speaking countries) and intercultural (differences in verbal and non-verbal communication) aspects.

So, this manual consists of three parts: Universal criteria of complex assessment of English language proficiency, collection of handouts on 30 grammar and lexical themes on each level, and a reader, designed for independent work of students after classes and preparation for examination.

The first part is dedicated to update and reedit Universal criteria of complex assessment of English language proficiency (2008) in accordance with changes of content and methodology of teaching and needs for developing students’ communicative skills and habits at non-linguistic departments.

The second part - collection of handouts was made up in accordance with four speech activities: listening, speaking, reading and writing, paying more attention to formation of speaking skills. The topics of handouts correspond to the requirements of Kazakhstani curriculum and syllabus and modern international requirements. As a contribution to the content of study a foreign language we have included the lexical topics, reflecting the culture, the way of life in Kazakhstan.

The third part – a reader consists of bank of lexical and grammar tests (120 multiple choice assignments for each level), bank of texts for listening and reading practice (10 texts on each of them), bank of tasks for speaking and writing practice.

At the end of a reader we placed additional materials where you can find the list of widely used phrasal verbs, table of English irregular verbs, proverbs and sayings, idioms, some lexis distinctions in American and British English variants, models of writing social letters: congratulation on different events, condolence and others. We also presented a collection of English texts for specific purpose on different specialties at university.

So, the content of this manual is composed on the basis of authentic resources, giving an opportunity to learn a real foreign language, using the communicative and interactive techniques of teaching and also developing the students’ skills of independent work in mastering a foreign language.

CONTENTS

Part I.
1	Universal criteria of complex assessment of English language proficiency		6-9
Part II Collection of Hand-outs
№	Grammar	Lexical theme	pages
1	Present Simple and Continuous	Food	10-14
2	Past simple, past continuous and past perfect tenses	Sport	15-20
3	Future forms; like/look/like	Family and personality	21--25
4	Present perfect	Money matters	26-29
5	Present Perfect Continuous	Changing your life	30-32
6	Comparative and superlative adjectives.	Transport and travelling	33-37
7	Must, have to, should (obligation).	National identity	38-42
8	Must, may, might, can’t (deduction)	People and their appearances	43-47
9	Can, could, be able to (ability and possibility).	British Books and literature	48-51
10	Grammar: First conditionals	Education in Kazakhstan	52-56
11	Future time clause	Education in Great Britain	57-61
12	Phrasal verbs	Education in the USA	62-67
13	Second conditional	My ideal house	68-71
14	Usually and used to	Relationships	72-75
15	Modal verbs: mustn’t and don’t have to	Lifestyle	76-79
16	Articles	A man thing or a woman thing	80-84
17	Gerund and infinitive	The right job for you	85-89
18	Reported speech	Life’s great events	90-94
19	Passives	Famous Kazakh people	95-99
20	Direct and indirect questions	British and American celebrities	100-104
21	Relative clauses	Heroes and icons of our time	105-109
22	3 rd conditional	Substitutions	110-14
23	Question tag	Customs connected with birth, wedding and funeral	115-19
24	Reported speech	Habits	120-124
25	Phrasal verbs	Wonders of the world	125-129
26	Third conditional	How well do you know our world	130-134
27	Used to	Science and scientists.	135-138
28	Future Perfect	Tomorrow’s world.	139-142
29	Compound nouns	Mass media	143-147
30	General revising’	The call of the ancestors	148-153
31	Audio scripts		154-167
Part III
1	3.1 Bank of tests		168-180
2	3.2 Bank of tests for listening practice		181-183
3	3.3 Bank of tests for speaking practice		184-187
4	3.4 Bank of tests for reading practice		188-204
5	3.5 Bank of tests for writing practice		205-211
Part IV
1	4.1 Additional material
2	4.2 Greeting cards		212-213
3	4.3 Phrasal verbs		214-215
4	4.4 English proverbs and sayings		216-217
5	4.5 English idioms		218-219

UNIVERSAL CRITERIA OF COMPLEX ASSESSMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY

BLOCK I – PRACTICAL

III level

Total: 41 - 60%. Time limit – 40 min.

I. For listening you should get 15%. Time limit 10 min.

LISTENING

Understanding the text in original (volume 800-900) and filling in test -5% (4min)

Task 1: Listen to two colleagues from an advertising agency, Media Design Advertising and fill in test.

Marianne: Good morning everybody. My name is Marianne Reed, and I’m the managing director of Media Design Advertising here in New York. It’s great to finally meet face to face after speaking only on the phone. To begin with, I hope you won’t mind me saying something about our history. Our headquarters are in Milan, and this is our main branch outside Italy, with 22 more scattered around the States, Australia, Japan and of course, Europe. We have 2,300 employees altogether.

We’re very well-established company with many years of valuable experience. We’ve worked with many of the top names of the fashion, food and transport industries, though we specialize in media products. Over the years we’ve won numerous awards for our innovation approach to advertising, and just last year we won three prizes at the annual advertising media awards, both at a national level and internationally. I can honestly say that we’ve never had a dissatisfied client.

Well, if there are no questions…? I think we might as well get started then. I’d like to hand you over to our art director, Dave Terry.

Dave: Good morning . I’d like to start by showing you a few of the campaigns we’ve produced in the past couple of years, which seem to be in line with what you would like us to do for your newspaper. OK, so on the walls around this room you can see some examples of our best print ads. For instance, this is the poster for a very popular fashion magazine, while these here are some shots from an ad for a multimedia company. Many of these campaigns have won prestigious awards for outstanding design. You’ll also notice the TV screens around the room showing some of our best TV ads.

1. Their main branch outside ______

   1. Milan b) Italy c) New York d) Moscow

2. They specialize in ______ products

   1. financial b) mechanical c) medical d) media

3. They’ve won ______ awards for our innovation approach to advertising.

   1. numerous b) many c) much d) number

4. They’ve never had a dissatisfied _______

   1. customer b) buyer c) client d) employer

Listen to the whole conversation again.

Task 2: Сomplete the missing information in the notes bellow. Which two pieces of information are not mentioned? - 5% ( 3 min)

Media Design Advertising

Date of meeting: 22 July, 2008 Place of meeting _____________

Client: The daily Sunshine

Attendants:

Name Position Target market: ____________

Marianne Reed managing director Possible add types: _____________

Raffaella Livingstone ____________ Budget _____________

Cecily Valley ____________ Next meeting _____________

Dave Terry ____________

Jhone McEwans ____________

Frances Lohan ____________

2. Answering the questions according to the listened text - 5% (3min)

Task : Answer the following questions.

1. How many employees do they have?

2. What top names of industries have they worked with ?

3. What did Dave say about best print ads?

4. Do you think smaller advertising agencies can compete with and be as successful as larger one?

Explain why/ why not.