Author: Emma

Volume 1, Issue 1

Emma bourassa ib3041 ebourassa@tru.ca

January 2011

Special points of interest:
Culture plays an important part in how well you do in Canadian academic settings.
Become aware of the differences in how you learned at home and what you need to do in Canada.
Every instructor is different and we do not have to use the same text or style.
Expect to be challenged!

Inside this issue:

Overvie of the class	1
How to do well	1
Points of interest	1
Your questions	2
First Assignments	2
Vocabulary in English	2
First homework	3

ESAL 058 Winter 2011

What are we going to do in this class?

This is the final writing course in the ESAL program. The overall focus in this class is to expose you to analytical reading and writing. What you will gain from the course includes: increasing vocabulary, strengthening reading skills in terms of understanding author’s purpose, expanding your understanding of academic writing in situations where you have time to prepare, and of course writing under pressure. These skills transfer to the writing you will need to do in your academic classes.
This course tends to be challenging because it requires more than memorizing. In fact, the majority of the work you do in this class will be higher levels o f thinking such as applying, analysing, synthesizing and evaluation. You will be challenged to use all of these levels of thinking with class tasks, on quizzes and exams and of course in the 3 essays you will produce.
Writing in this class is demanding because you always need to support every point you make, very clearly and thoroughly . Of course you will also be assessed on grammar, clarity, organization, spelling, punctuation and any other particular criteria that is required in quality writing. You will write in class, out of class and under pressure to give you practice organizing thoughts and presenting them accurately during exams such as you will do in academic classes.

Who is an important writer in your culture? Why?

How to do well in this class

It is critical that you attend every class. This is not the kind of class that you can go away and just read the text. Rather, much time is spent on tasks and discussions that teach behavior and knowledge that will make your reading and writing in academic classes less stressful. Many times students have questions or observations that are extremely useful to help you understand the academic writing culture. You need to be here every day to take advantage of these opportunities. The purpose of this class is to provide you with strategies for communicating under pressure of exams. As all writing you do is, in fact a test of some sort, you need to follow instructions and ask for help if you need it. That is your job. It is kind of like looking at pieces of a puzzle and figuring out how each part fits to the next. Accurate grammar is a critical component to effective writing. Transfer what you learn in 042. Never assume one draft is your best work.
If you have completed 048 or written in English before, that’s great because you can focus on vocabulary and writing skills. If you haven’t, don’t worry– I am here to help you!

ESAL 058 Winter 2011

Page #

Important vocabulary to learn in the first 2 weeks:

Every academic area has its own language and it’s important to become familiar with it to avoid confusion.

These are the words you will hear and see repeated in the class. Make sure you know what they mean in the context of witing class. As with all courses, you need to know the vocabulary in order to fully understand and prove your knowledge.
Perpective
Responsibilty
Concept
Quality
Proof
Valid
Support
Authority
Criteria
Skills
Knowledge: inherent and acquired
Citation
Plagiarize
Apply
Analyse
Synthesize
Evaluate
Draft
Edit/revise
Presentation

Do you know how many words are in the English language?

<—- the answer to that question:

The Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use, and 47,156 obsolete words.
To this may be added around 9,500 derivative words included as subentries.
Over half of these words are nouns, about a quarter adjectives, and about a seventh verbs; the rest is made up of interjections, conjunctions, prepositions, suffixes, etc.
These figures take no account of entries with senses for different parts of speech (such as noun and adjective).Retrieved from: http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutenglish/mostwords?view=uk January 5, 2009

How do you build your vocabulary?

Caption describing picture or graphic.

You will need a dictionary and thesaurus for the class. Bring all materials to class each day.
Dictionary: English only. I prefere a paper dictionary to an electronic dictionary because it is usually easier to find the correct word form.
Thesaurus: English only and alphabetically (A-Z) organization. Be sure to look inside. Some are organized by topic and this will make it very difficult to use.
Both of these are used together inorder for you to expand vocabulary, and understand meaning. English is a very specific language. Learn to use these tools well in order to improve your fluency and be able to communicate effectively. Consider all writing in this class as a test. You don’t have your face or body movements to explain. You have words and punctuation.
Bring all materials to all classes. If you do not have materials, you will likely lose learning time that you cannot retrieve later.

Volume 1, Issue 1

Page #

Critical Thinking:

I suspect you are a good student in your language, in your educational context in your country. That is a good place to start from. The academic culture in North America may be somewhat similar to or quite different from the schooling you had at home. One of the priorities of this course is to help you learn the cultural norms of studying at a university level in Canada. This involves knowing what critical thinking is and practicing. This involves more than memorizing for a single final exam that is worth 100% of your mark. Look at the course outlines from all of your courses. How are they the same? How are they different? What are you expected to know or be able to do? Look at your textbooks. How are they organized? What kind of information/skills come first, last? What kinds of questions are in the text? What kind of knowledge or skills do you need in order to answer? Is there one answer or many? What makes an answer a ‘good’ or effective answer? How much detail do you need to provide in your answer? It may seem like these questions are common sense, but common sense in different cultures can be very different. It is best to keep an open mind while you learn abour the expectations of academic clases in Canada. Over the course of the semsester (ah, did you notice I used ‘course’ in a different way?) I will provide strategies for you to use in all courses. J

Writing is like an art and a science. Do you agree or disagree? Support your answer.

What are your questions and/or concerns about the class?

First homework

A. Write one page , double spaced. Use the topic: Writing in my language. (for example, if my first language is Punjabi, I write about writing in Punjabi).
Write in your first language– not English. That’s right. Write in your first language the way you naturally would. Bring this to class. (If my first language is Punjabi, I write in Punjabi)
B. Send me an email today and answer the following questions:
What kind of writing did you do at your last school (highschool, university etc. in your home country)
What kind of writing do you enjoy?
What kind of writing is difficult or frustrating?
What was your experience writing in English either at TRU or your homecountry—what kind of writing did you do (academic or creative)?
Tell me what you know about writing in English in an academic setting. (If this is your first time for this, it is okay to say you don’t know)

Practice is important

058 Midterm time– warning: possible danger ahead…..

Midterm 058

MY MAIN SUCCESS:

MAIN GOALS FOR THE SECOND HALF OF THE SEMESTER:
1:
HOW I WILL DO IT:
HOW I KNOW I’VE SUCCEEDED:
2.
HOW I WILL DO IT:
HOW I KNOW I’VE SUCCEEDED:

RESOURCES: ESL LEARNING CENTER, WRITING CENTER, LIBRARIANS

Moodle

Here are some common challenges in the second half of the semester:
1. Students assume that academic classes are more important than ESL—this is not wise, as ESL helps you to be successful in academics. Don’t miss classes.
2. . Students think they can redo work for a better grade– this is incorrect. You earn your grade. At this point in the semester you should be used to the criteria (quality and amount) of the work you produce. You need to take time to do it well the first time as this is exactly what a test is.
3.Students assume that they can catch up later– this is not wise as there are classes that can not be redone..
4. Students think that effort or ability is enough to pass the class– this is not correct. In this class you need to produce and show me what you can do. Many students have regrets at the end because they think “I know this” but they did not prove it to me. Or they think “ I can do this” but did not prove it to me.
5. 045 is a skills class. If your skills are not strong enough so that academics are comfortable, you won’t pass 045. Take care of yourself and value your ESL class.

Midterm check in:

Skills build. You cannot learn and throw away or forget. Your success depends on knowing more, at a more sophisticated level of vocabulary, sentence structure, succinctness...

What skills are you comfortable with?
What skills are you struggling with?
What cultural concepts are you comfortable with?
What cultural concepts are you struggling with?
What do you know now about writing academic English that you didn’t know at the beginning of the class?