COURSE INTRODUCTION (SCRIPT)

COURSE TITLE: READING-WRITING 1

Slide Content

Warm greetings from ELO!

My full name is Phan Thị Thu Nga.
Welcome all of you to Reading-Writing Course (Level 1).
I have collaborated with Mrs. Nguyen Ngoc Ly, who was my former student and
also my colleague at present, on designing this course.

Allow me to introduce myself. I have been working as an English teacher trainer

and a lecturer of English at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Ho Chi Minh City
Open University since 2005. Before that I used to work at the School of Education,
Can Tho University, for 10 years. Besides teaching major subjects in English
1 language teaching and instructing students of online courses, I am interested in
researching how to conduct and monitor formative assessment tasks to support
students’ online learning. I hope that you will improve your reading and writing
skills after completing learning activities and practice tasks in this course.

Here is Mrs. Nguyễn Ngọc Ly.

Thank you Mrs. Thu Nga. I am Nguyễn Ngọc Ly. I began my teaching career at
The Asian International School ten years ago, and in 2020, I joined the Faculty of
Foreign Languages as a lecturer. I enjoy conducting research on effective teaching
and learning methods to better support students. I hope you will be excited about
this Reading and Writing course and gain many valuable achievements from it.
In this video, I will introduce some important information about this course before
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you get started.
 There are four main parts in my introduction.
In Part 1: I will tell you Course information such as course title, the number of
credits, length, required studying hours, course objectives, and expected learning
outcomes.
In Part 2: I will briefly summarize the content of the course, major compulsory
learning activities, major and supplementary materials for supporting your learning.
In Part 3: I will instruct you how to complete learning activities and let you know
how your learning outcomes will be assessed.
In Part 4: I will provide you with further advice related to technical issues and how
to receive technical support from ELO and other support from the lecturer of the
course.
To begin with Part 1.
- The title of this course is Reading-Writing (Level 1).
- Course Code is ENGL1324
- This course consists of 3 credits. One credit is equal to 15 credit hours for
learning with the lecturer and 30 credit hours for independent learning.
Therefore, during this course you will have opportunities to study with the

3 lecturer for 45 credit hours through 3 video conferences and through the
lecturer’s feedback on your learning activities and 105 credit hours for
independent learning.
- The course extends to 10 weeks, so every week you must spend 10.5 credit
hours (i.e., 8.75 hours /a week; 1.25 hours/a day) or at least 75 minutes every
day on independent learning activities.

4 Let’s continue with Part 2:

 - This course equips you with knowledge in general and lexical knowledge in
particular in four different areas, such as making good first impressions,
nutritional science, technology, and marketing.
- In terms of reading skills and strategies, you will have chances to practice
employing different skills such as skimming for the main idea, scanning for
specific information, reading for detailed comprehension, making inferences
while reading and distinguishing facts and opinions. In addition to these
skills, you are advised to various reading strategies previewing to make some
predictions before fully reading an article, identifying a causal chain,
identifying advantages and disadvantages, and using graphic organizers like
T-charts, Venn charts to transfer information from a text into a diagram for
comparing, contrasting and critical thinking to deeply comprehend the
author’s purpose in the article and messages s/he wants to transfer to you so
as to expand your knowledge in these four areas.
- In terms of writing skills, you will be instructed how to write a well-
developed paragraph (from 150-200 words) with the topic sentence,
supporting sentences, and the concluding sentence. You will practice writing
different types of paragraphs like ‘how-to/process’ paragraphs, descriptive
paragraphs, summary paragraphs, and opinion paragraphs.
- Finally, you have to meet the deadlines of the learning activities
continuously within 10 weeks, which will gradually form your ability to
manage your time for learning and ability to study under great pressure
because some of you are working full time while choosing this online
learning mode.

After fulfilling this course, you are expected to employ reading skills and strategies
5 to classify the main idea and supporting ideas, identify a causal chain/advantages
and disadvantages, infer information that is not clearly stated by the author (making
 inferences), and distinguish facts from opinions in articles in four different areas
such as sociology, nutritional science, technology, and marketing.

After fulfilling this course, you are expected to write a well-developed paragraph
(about 150-200 words) giving instructions, describing a dish or something,
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summarizing an article, and expressing your opinion with supporting details about
one of the four areas mentioned above.
Let’s continue with learning activities
About the course content, you will work on totally 4 units in the textbook Qskills
for Success: Reading and Writing 3, the 3rd edition of Oxford University Press.
7 In addition to reading, vocabulary and writing tasks, class progress tests designed
and adapted from these four units and embedded on ELO LMS you are also
requested to do other compulsory learning activities two major platforms: iQ Online
practice of Oxford University Press and Heyhi.
Optional learning activities for developing writing skills
You should watch video clips on Youtube, from which you will be instructed steps
to write different types of paragraphs. For example, in this course syllabus, you can
see a list of online sources from [10 to 16].
[10] The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2020).
[[Link]
[11] Bccampus Open Education, Descriptive Paragraph (2020).
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[[Link]
[12] Worldwide Speak, Youtube, Basic Paragraph Structure, English Writing
Skills,(2020).
[[Link]
[13] Worldwide Speak, Youtube, How to Write a Process Paragraph
[[Link]
[14] Worldwide Speak, Youtube, How to Write a Descriptive Paragraph.
 [[Link]
[15] Worldwide Speak, Youtube, How to Write an Opinion Paragraph (2020).
[ [Link]
[16] Worldwide Speak, Youtube, How to Write a Summary (2020).
[[Link]
I have just introduced to you learning materials and online resources that you can
access to for further practice on reading and writing skills.
Let’s continue with Part 3.
After watching this video clip, you will start your learning. Before doing reading
and writing tasks on ELO LMS, you should follow steps below:
1. Watch a video clip on how to study on each Unit.
2. Listen to the instructions (scripts and slides) on reading skills, strategies and

9 vocabulary studying skills.

3. Do reading and vocabulary practice tasks and vocabulary exercises.
4. Listen to the instructions (scripts and slides) on writing skills.
5. Do writing practice tasks.
6. Try to finish your writing assignment.
7. Do a class progress test after each unit.
8. Post your response on the discussion board.

Try to follow these steps in each unit.

Now you know that you need to do at least 8 activities for each unit, and you may
wonder how many marks you will be awarded after finishing all compulsory
learning activities on ELO LMS and two online platforms.
10 Let me explain how your learning outcomes will be assessed after finishing this
reading and writing course.
- For formative assessment within 10 weeks, you will be awarded 40% out of
the total mark of this course. Let’s see what you should do to get 40%
 1. Attending 3 Video Conferences: 5%
2. Your responses on 3 discussion boards: 5%
3. 4 class progress tests, Writing assignments 1, 2 % 4: 15%
4. Writing assignment 3 & Peer Review: 5%
5. Online practice tasks on iQskills and Heyhi platforms: 10%
- For the final term exam, you will take an offline reading and writing test in
90 minutes. The reading part includes 2 passages followed by 20 multiple-
choice questions. In the writing part, you are asked to choose one of the two
topics given to write a paragraph from 150 to 200 words. The score of your
final term test occupies 60% out of the total score of the whole reading and
writing course.

In Part 4 of my introduction, I would like to have some suggestions for effective

online learning.
First and foremost, you need stable internet connection at home or in your office to
ensure a strong Wi-Fi connection to avoid interruptions during live sessions such as

attending a video conference or doing a class progress test. Second, make sure that
your technical devices are reliable. In other words, your laptop or tablet is equipped
with a good webcam and microphone so that you will be able to improve/enjoy your
learning experience. Third, you should explore and master all features of ELOLMS
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Platform to make sure that you know how to download learning materials (slides,
scripts or any instructional materials), how to upload your writing assignments, how
to post your response on discussion boards, and how to track your learning progress.
If you have any difficulty with features of ELO LMS, you should go to
[Link] and create a ticket to request technical support. You can also
post your questions on class forum to get assistant from the teaching assistant of the
course or your classmates who are good at using technical devices. Next, use or get
as many benefits as possible from AI tools such as Grammarly and QuillBot for
 checking spelling or grammar mistakes in your writing assignments. Finally, stay
organized digitally by using Google Calendar or Notion to track deadlines and plan
study time and creating folders in Google Drive or OneDrive to organize course
materials.
Hopefully, after watching this video, you will be clear what to do to complete the
reading and writing activities of this course and enjoy your learning experience on
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ELO LMS.
Thank you for watching and good bye!