ESL265 introductions:

 Introductions:

 

Interview questions:

 

In your breakout room, ask your partner the following questions. Be sure to have your camera on.  Take notes on what he/she says.  You will report the information back to the class.  (10 minutes) 

 

1. Where are you from?  Where are you living right now?

2. What do you like to do in your free time?

3. What was your favorite part of summer this year? 

4. Is there anything else you want to tell the class? (major, job, family….)

 

Also, in your breakout room, discuss the following: 

 

Reading in your life:

1. What do you read in your native language?

2. What do you read in English?

3. Do you read every day? 

 

 

 

Course overview:

 

1. Grammar Review:

a. Adverb clauses: We are meeting online this quarter because there are still too many cases of Covid-19 in the US.

b. Conditional sentences: If I were president,  I would take action against climate change.

c. Adjective clauses: ESL 265, which is a new class at De Anza, is a reading and writing course.

d. Noun clauses: I hope that everyone has been able to get a vaccine. 

e. Reported speech:  A student asked me if she had to buy the book.  

f. Passive Voice: Joe Biden was elected to be the 46th president of the US.

g. Verb shift: Because she rested a lot over the summer, she has a lot of energy for the new quarter.  

h. Past modals:  I should not have eaten so much in 2020.  I gained 10 pounds. 

 

2. Reading and Vocabulary:  You will be reading the textbook along with various articles which I will assign to you.  You will find the articles on Canvas.

a. You will learn how to write summaries of articles which you read.  

b. You will learn to paraphrase important sentences from the readings. 

c. Also, you will do vocabulary work in which you learn definitions, collocations and how to use the words in your own sentences. Most words that we study will be from the Academic Word List (AWL). 

Here is some information about the AWL:

The Academic Word List is a list of words that appear frequently in all academic texts. This means that they are very general academic words. They are not specially connected with any particular subject and so they are very useful for all students.

 

3.​Paragraph development: The main focus of this course will be on writing well developed paragraphs with clear topic sentences and a lot of support.  You will be writing multi-paragraph assignments. 

 

 

What is a paragraph?  

A paragraph is a unit of writing which focuses on one idea.  

 

A paragraph needs:

 

1. To begin with a topic sentence.

2. To include support for the topic sentence (explanation, detail and examples, paraphrases)

3. To have a concluding sentence.

4. To be cohesive (the ideas need to flow together smoothly).

5. To have unity (one idea only).

6. To be carefully edited.

 

 

What is a topic sentence?  It is the main idea sentence of the paragraph.  It has a controlling idea.  The controlling idea contains an opinion, attitude or idea about the topic. The topic sentence is the first sentence of the paragraph.  The topic sentence needs to directly respond to the prompt. 

 

Examples:

 

Prompt:

 

Why are you studying at De Anza College?  

 

I am studying at De Anza College because it has a high transfer rate. 

 

 

Prompt:

Why is exercise important for our life?

 

Exercise is important in the way that it helps reduce stress.

 

 

 

 

Practice:

 

Prompt:  What is one way that your smartphone is a necessity in your life? 

 

In small groups, brainstorm about some reasons why a smartphone is a necessity to you.

 

Then, after you brainstorm, write a few topic sentences choosing for your controlling idea something that you came up with during your brainstorming.

 

Example: 

 

My smartphone is very necessary when I'm driving because of its GPS.