FACULTY OF MEDICINE

Department of Medical English

(For Internal Use Only)

GENERAL ENGLISH I

COURSE POLICY
Table of Contents
I. COURSE OBJECTIVES ...................................................................................................................... 2
1. In terms of listening skill .............................................................................................................. 2
2. In terms of speaking skill .............................................................................................................. 2
3. In terms of reading skill ................................................................................................................ 2
4. In terms of writing skill ................................................................................................................ 3
II. COURSE MATERIALS ......................................................................................................................3
Required and supplementary materials .................................................................................................. 3
III. COURSE SYLLABUS ...................................................................................................................... 4
IV. ASSESSMENTS ............................................................................................................................... 7
1. Assessment & Grading ..................................................................................................................... 7
2. Speaking Assessments ......................................................................................................................7
2.1. Task Description ...................................................................................................................... 7
2.2. Task Objectives .........................................................................................................................7
APPENDIX 2.1: Speaking question bank .......................................................................................8
APPENDIX 2.2: Speaking marking rubric .................................................................................. 16
3. Writing assignment ........................................................................................................................ 34
3.1. Task Description ..................................................................................................................... 34
3.2. Writing Timeline ..................................................................................................................... 34
APPENDIX 3.2: Writing marking rubric ..................................................................................... 35

1
I. COURSE OBJECTIVES

This course is designed to assist students in reaching B1 level of CEFR (Common European
Framework of Reference) and/or Band 5.0 of IELTS (International English Language Testing
System). Upon the successful completion of the course, students are expected to develop their
abilities in listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar and study skills as described below:

1. In terms of listening skill

Students should be able to understand the main points of clear standard speech on familiar
matters. More specifically, they can:

- Follow clearly articulated speech in everyday conversation.

- Follow the main points of a clearly articulated discussion.
- Understand the main points of recorded materials on familiar subjects.
- Raise awareness of features of informal spoken English.
- Highlight now intonation conveys mood and feelings.

2. In terms of speaking skill

Students should be able to use right pronunciation, stress, and intonation through task-based
communicative activities. More specifically, they can:

- Start, maintain, and close a simple face-to-face conversation on familiar topics.

- Express and respond to feelings such as surprise, happiness, sadness, interest, and
indifference.
- Make his/her opinions and reactions clear as regards finding solutions to problems or
practical questions.
- Express beliefs, views, and opinions in discussing topics of interest.

3. In terms of reading skill

Students should be able to develop reading sub-skills such as skimming and scanning through
extensive practices. More specifically, they can:

2
 - Understand the main points in short newspaper articles.
- Skim short texts to find relevant facts and information.
- Understand information in everyday material such as brochures and letters.
- Understand the plot of a clearly structured story.
- Understand straightforward instructions.
- Understand short narratives about everyday things dealing with topics which are familiar.

4. In terms of writing skill

Students should be able to write simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of
personal interest.

- Write simple connected texts on a range of topics and express personal views and opinions.
- Write notes conveying simple information.
- Convey information and ideas in abstract as well as concrete topics.
- Express feelings such as grief, happiness, interest, regret, and sympathy in a letter.
- Describe in a personal letter the plot of a film or a book.

II. COURSE MATERIALS

1. Required materials
Herbert, P., Jeff, S., Peter, L. J. (2018). Think Level 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

2. Supplementary materials
1. Clive, O., & Christina. L. (2008). American English File 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. Raymond Murphy. (2016). Essential Grammar in Use Elementary. Cambridge University
Press: London.

3
III. COURSE SYLLABUS

Week Lesson Objectives

1 UNIT 1: AMAZING PEOPLE

1. Functions: Talking about things you have and haven't done;

Offering encouragement; Role play: Good causes
2. Grammar: Present perfect with just, already and yet; Present
perfect vs. past simple
3. Vocabulary:Personality adjectives
4. Collocations; Phrases with just

2 UNIT 2: A GOOD EDUCATION

1. Functions: Asking and giving / refusing permission; Role play:

Asking permission
2. Grammar: Present perfect with for and since; a, an, the or no
article
3. Vocabulary: School subjects; Verbs about thinking
4. Writing (U2 - p.27)

3 UNIT 3: ON THE SCREEN

1. Functions: Comparing things and actions; Asking for and offering

help
2. Grammar: Comparative and superlative adjectives (review); (not)
as ....as comparatives; Making a comparison stronger or weaker;
Adverbs and comparative adverbs
3. Vocabulary: Types of films; Types of TV programs; Expressions
with get
4. Writing (U6 - p.63)

4 UNIT 4: ONLINE LIFE

1. Functions: Giving advice

2. Grammar: Indefinite pronouns (everyone, no one, someone, etc.);
all / some / none / any of them should(n't), had better, ought to

4
 3. Vocabulary: IT terms; Language for giving advice
4. Writing (U8 - p.81)

5 UNIT 5: MUSIC TO MY EARS

1. Functions: Asking about feelings; Role play: Helpful suggestions

2. Grammar: Present perfect continuous; Present perfect simple vs.
present perfect continuous
3. Vocabulary: Making music; Musical instruments; Phrasal verbs
with out
4. Writing (U10 - p.99)

6 UNIT 6: NO PLANET B

1. Functions: Expressing surprise and enthusiasm

2. Grammar: will (not), may (not), might (not) for prediction; First
conditional; unless in first conditional sentences
3. Vocabulary: The environment; Verbs to talk about energy

7 UNIT 7: THE FUTURE IS NOW

1. Functions: Checking information; Agreeing

2. Grammar: Future forms; Question tags; Nor/Neither / So
3. Vocabulary: Future time expressions; Arranging a party; Phrases
with about
4. MIDTERM

8 UNIT 8: SCIENCE AND US

1. Functions: Talking about past habits; imaginary situations;

scientific discoveries
2. Grammar: Past simple vs. past continuous (review); used to;
Second conditional; I wish
3. Vocabulary: Direction and movement; Science

9 UNIT 9:WORKING WEEK

1. Functions: Accepting and refusing invitations; Role play: Inviting

friends to join you

5
 2. Grammar: The passive (present simple, past simple, present
continuous, present perfect)
3. Vocabulary: Jobs; work as / in / for; work vs. job; Time
expressions with in
10 UNIT 10: MIND AND BODY

1. Functions: Talking about your health

2. Grammar: Past perfect simple; Past perfect continuous; Past
perfect simple vs. past perfect continuous
3. Vocabulary: Time linkers; Illness: collocations

11 UNIT 11: BREAKING NEWS

1. Functions: Reporting what someone has said; Expressing

feelings: anger
2. Grammar: Reported statements; Verb patterns: object + infinitive
3. Vocabulary: Fun; More verbs with object +infinitive; Expressions
with make
12 UNIT 12: RULES AND REGULATIONS

1. Functions: Talking about permission; Following and giving

simple instructions
2. Grammar: be allowed to / let; Third conditional
3. Vocabulary: Discipline; Talking about consequences and reasons

6
IV. ASSESSMENTS

1. Assessment & Grading

Assessment tasks Type Weight

Speaking assessments Pair 20%

Writing 4 points
Mid-term
Individual 20%
exam Exam (Listening +
6 points
Reading)

Final exam Individual 60%

2. Speaking Assessments

(Please read carefully and do accordingly)

2.1. Task Description

 The speaking tests start from Week 2 through the end of the course.
 Students take the test in pairs.
 2-3 pairs will take the test each week.
 Each pair has a maximum of 10 minutes to complete the test which has two tasks.
* Note:
- Teachers are supposed to provide students with a speaking test sample on the first day of the
course.
- Students can be either intentionally or randomly paired.
- The test questions are provided to the students for their preparation and practice.

 For the test questions, please refer to Appendix 2.1.

 For marking criteria, please refer to Appendix 2.2.

2.2. Task Objectives

The main purpose of this task is for students to have a chance to practice speaking outside
class. Doing this task, students can recycle the language they study in each unit, learn how to
organize a talk, develop their pronunciation skills, and improve speaking fluency.

7
APPENDIX 2.1: Speaking question bank

TASK 1: PICTURE DESCRIPTION

TEST 1
Now I’d like each of you to talk on your own about something. I’m going to give each of you a
photograph and I’d like you to talk about it.
A, here is your photograph. Please tell me what you can see in the photograph.
B, here is your photograph. Please tell me what you can see in the photograph.

8
TEST 2

Now I’d like each of you to talk on your own about something. I’m going to give each of you a
photograph and I’d like you to talk about it.
A, here is your photograph. Please tell me what you can see in the photograph.
B, here is your photograph. Please tell me what you can see in the photograph.

9
TEST 3

Now I’d like each of you to talk on your own about something. I’m going to give each of you a
photograph and I’d like you to talk about it.
A, here is your photograph. Please tell me what you can see in the photograph.
B, here is your photograph. Please tell me what you can see in the photograph.

10
TEST 4

Now I’d like each of you to talk on your own about something. I’m going to give each of you a
photograph and I’d like you to talk about it.
A, here is your photograph. Please tell me what you can see in the photograph.
B, here is your photograph. Please tell me what you can see in the photograph.

11
TEST 5

Now I’d like each of you to talk on your own about something. I’m going to give each of you a
photograph and I’d like you to talk about it.
A, here is your photograph. Please tell me what you can see in the photograph.
B, here is your photograph. Please tell me what you can see in the photograph.

12
TASK 2: DISCUSSION

TEST 1
Now, in this part of the test you’re going to talk about something together for about two minutes.
I’m going to describe a situation to you.
You are a member of a local youth club. The club wants to advertise a party for club members,
and the leader has decided to ask you to help make posters to put around the club.
Talk together about the different things you could use to make the posters and decide which things
would be the best to use.
All right? Now, talk together.

13
TEST 2
Now, in this part of the test you’re going to talk about something together for about two minutes.
I’m going to describe a situation to you.
A group of school children are going to the city for the day. They are going to the theater in
the afternoon but they need something to do for two hours in the morning.
Talk together about the different things they could do in the city for two hours and then decide
which would be best. All right? Now, talk together.

14
TEST 3
Now, in this part of the test you’re going to talk about something together for about two minutes.
I’m going to describe a situation to you.
The members of a Music Club, where young people meet to talk about and listen to music,
would like to have T-shirts for all the members. Talk together about the different designs that
can put on the T-shirts and decide which would be.
All right? Now, talk together.

15
TEST 4
Now, in this part of the test you’re going to talk about something together for about two minutes.
I’m going to describe a situation to you.
You are going on a cycling trip in the countryside with a group of friends. You need to decide
what things would be useful to put in your backpack and take with you.
Now please talk together and decide.

16
TEST 5
I’m going to describe a situation to you.
Your English teacher has asked everyone in the class to write a story in English and is going to
give a prize to the student with the best story.
Talk together about the different things the teacher could give you as a prize and then decide which
would be best. All right? Now, talk together.

17
 APPENDIX 2.2: Speaking marking rubric

Linguistic competence Grammar and Vocabulary Discourse Management Strategic competence

(40%) (20%) (20%) (20%)

The student maintains control Ideas are relevant, coherent

10 The student’s pronunciation The student demonstrates a
of a wide range of and varied.
is effortless to understand; good attempt to correct and
grammatical forms.
the L1 accent has minimal or avoid the mistakes he/she
The student uses a wide
nearly no effect on usually makes.
The student uses a wide range of cohesive devices
intelligibility.
range of vocabulary and and discourse markers.
The student uses a wide apply flexibly learnt
range of connected speech vocabulary to give opinions
features (assimilation,
linking, etc.) subtly and
sustains the use of these
features throughout.

16
 The student can apply all
intonation features and
sentence stress with precision
and subtlety; sustains flexible
use of features throughout.

9 shows all the positive features of 8 and some, but not all, of the positive features of 10

The student shows a good Ideas are relevant and there

8 The student pronounces The student pays attention to
degree of control simple is a clear organization of
clearly and intelligibly the correction of his/her
grammatical forms and some ideas.
despite evident foreign frequently-made mistakes;
complex grammatical forms.
accent and occasional but some mistakes are still
The student uses a range of
mispronunciation or wrong occasionally repeated.
The student uses a range of cohesive devices and
word stress.
vocabulary and apply many discourse markers.
The strong forms and weak learnt vocabularies to give
forms of words in the opinions.
sentences are appropriately
used despite occasional
lapses.

The student can apply a wide

17
 range of intonation features
with mixed control.

7 shows all the positive features of 6 and some, but not all, of the positive features of 8

18
 The student shows a good Ideas are relevant and there
6 The student’s pronunciation The student recognizes their
degree of control simple is a very little repetition
is clear enough to be frequently-made mistakes
grammatical forms and
understood with a noticeable and attempts to correct them,
attempts some complex The student uses a range of
foreign accent; although their attempts are
grammatical forms. cohesive devices
mispronunciation of not always successful and
individual words or sounds sustainable
The student uses a range of
reduces clarity at times;
vocabulary and apply some
The student demonstrates an learnt vocabulary to give
awareness of connected opinions.
speech features (especially,
linking), but fails to sustain
the use of these features
throughout.

The student demonstrates an

awareness of sentence stress
but still confuse the strong
form and the weak form of
some functional words.

The student can apply some

19
 intonation features but they
are inappropriate or
unnatural.

5
shows all the positive features of 4 and some, but not all, of the positive features of 6

4 The student shows a good Ideas are mostly relevant, The student’s effort to
The student’s pronunciation of
degree of control of simple despite some repetition. correct their pronunciation
basic, familiar words can be
grammatical forms. mistakes and improve their
understood with effort by the
The student use basic speech is minimal
listeners; wrong word stress is
The student uses a range of cohesive devices.
frequent.
appropriate vocabulary,
Very few connected speech apply only 1 or 2 learnt
features are shown. vocabulary to give opinion.

20
 The important words in the
sentence are not stressed and
no positive features of
intonation are applied.

3
shows all the positive features of 2 and some, but not all, of the positive features of 4

2 cannot produce basics can only list ideas in random The student shows no effort
The student’s speech is often
sentence forms. order and there is no cohesive in improving their
unintelligible
device. pronunciation

0-1
The student does not hand in the recording or the recording is of such poor quality that the teacher cannot distinguish any
sounds.

21
3. Writing assignment

3.1. Task Description

- Writing sessions will be held during Weeks 2, 3, 4, and 5.
- Each session will focus on different writing tasks and skills.
- Two topics will be randomly chosen for the midterm test and students are allowed to choose one.

3.2. Writing Timeline

WEEK 2 WRITING - UNIT 2

WEEK 3 WRITING - UNIT 6

WEEK 4 WRITING - UNIT 8

WEEK 5 WRITING - UNIT 10

WEEK 7 MIDTERM WRITING

34
APPENDIX 3.2: Writing marking rubric

4 (Excellent) 3 (Strong) 2 (Fair) 1 (Needs Score

Category
improvement)

Content Clearly introduce the Introduce the topic. Introduces the topic but Topic is unclear …../4
topic. the focus is unclear.
Use some details to Don’t use any details to
Use important details support the topic. Need to use more support the writing.
and information to details to make the
Use clear explanation Use little to no
support the topic. writing complete.
and analysis that explanation or analysis
Use clear and concrete discusses most of the Use explanation and of the information
explanation and information presented. analysis attempt to presented.
analysis that thoroughly discuss the information
discusses the but is unclear and lacks
information presented. depth.

35
Organization Write a strong Some parts need to be Most of the writing is No introduction-body- …../4
introduction, body and put in order. not organized. conclusion
conclusion/ ending.
Use more transition There are missing Have mixed-up ideas.
Use appropriate words to make the ideas paragraphs.
There are no transition
transitions to connect flow.
The writing seems to be words.
ideas.
more an outline; there
are no transition words.

Style Use descriptive words Most words address the Use few descriptive Use no descriptive …../4
that help readers ‘see’ prompt. words. words.
their ideas.
Needs to choose a Have little sentence Sentences all begin with
Sentences are varied in variety of words. variety. the same word or are
length, word usage, and not complete.
Do not use different Tone and voice are
structure.
types of sentences. inappropriate and Tone and voice are
Tone and voice are inconsistent. inappropriate and
Tone and voice are not
appropriate and inconsistent.
always consistent.
consistent.

36
Mechanics Almost entirely free of May contain a few Several spelling, Contains many spelling …../4
spelling, grammar and spelling, grammar, or grammar or punctuation grammar, or
punctuation errors. punctuation errors but errors that distract the punctuation errors.
they don’t impede reader.
No 10% above or below 40% above or below
understanding.
word limit. 10%-30% above or word limit.
No 10% above or below below word limit.
No 20% above 30% above plagiarism.
word limit.
plagiarism. No 20-30% above
No 20% above plagiarism.
plagiarism.

…. out of 4
������� + ������������ + ����� + ���������
������� ����� =
�

37