PRETOEFL GRAMMAR

Syllabus: Summer 2009

Instructor:  Margaret Young  Office: 229 East Hall  Telephone: (503) 725-4143

Office hours: by appointment E-mail:  youngm@pdx.edu

Textbook:  The Heinle and Heinle TOEFL Test Assistant:  Grammar, by Milada Broukal, 1995
Grading:  Grading is based on attendance and participation.
Attendance.  It is important to come every day and be on time, especially when practice tests are scheduled.
    *There are no excused absences.
    *If you are late more than 10 minutes, it counts as an absence.
    *If you are late more than 5 minutes, these are recorded; three of these  late arrivals count as one absence.
    *It is your responsibility to sign the attendance sheet at the beginning of each class, or when you arrive.
    *If you do not bring the book, you will be marked absent and asked to leave.  You MAY NOT share books.
    *In order to receive a particular grade, you are only allowed a certain number of absences, shown below:

ABSENCES (HOURS)	% BASED ON 18 HOURS	LETTER GRADE
0	100	A
1	94	A
2	89	B+
3	83	B
4	78	C+
5	72	C-
6	67	D+
7	61	D-
8 or more	56 and below	F

Cell phones.  Cell phones must be turned off at all times. If your cell phone rings during a test or other timed activity, you will be marked absent for one hour.

Participation.  Participation includes several elements:
    *Being on time and ready to start class;
    *Having all of your materials (book, paper, pencil) ready to use at the beginning of class;
    *Working well in groups by sharing work equally and paying attention to the task;
    *Paying attention in class and asking questions

Objectives:  In this course you will practice different types of questions on the Structure section of the paper-based TOEFL (PBT) in order to become familiar with them.   You will also learn about and practice strategies so that you can maximize your effectiveness on this part of the test.  In addition, you will take some practice tests in class for the purpose of becoming more comfortable with and working more effectively under simulated testing conditions with time constraints. In addition, this class will provide you with an overview of intermediate and advanced grammar, which will help you with your grammar classes in ESL.

Homework:  This is not required.  However, we will not be able to cover all of the material in the book this term. If you wish to improve your TOEFL score significantly, you might wish to do extra work in the book, and practice outside of class, especially in the Learning Center, and with a study group. A copy of the textbook is in the Learning Center. However, PLEASE DO NOT DO WORK IN THE BOOK THAT WE ARE SCHEDULED TO DO IN CLASS, ESPECIALLY THE PRACTICE TESTS.  If you are not sure what we are going to do in class, please ask me.
Following is work that I recommend you do outside of class, as time allows:

• Do Practice Tests A-F, H, I, and J (handouts).  We will not do these in class. DO NOT DO  Practice Test G.
• Analyze each practice test that you do, using the analysis sheet that I hand out.
  
• Keep a notebook of your high-frequency errors.   Keep a separate section in your notebook for each type of question that you miss frequently (for example, adjective clauses or word forms).  Copy the questions that you missed into the corresponding sections of the notebook, together with your wrong answer AND  the correct answer.  After you have taken several practice tests, you will hopefully be able to see patterns in the questions, and see the cause of your mistakes.  This kind of notebook will also allow me to help you more.
  

The Learning Center:  To find out the open hours for the LC, call 503-725-9199, or drop by.  There are several software programs in the Learning Center which can help you improve your scores on the TOEFL.

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If you have difficulty hearing, seeing, walking, or if you have an illness or other condition that will make studying in this class difficult, please tell the teacher.

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TENTATIVE CALENDAR

CONTENT	DATE
Studying:  analysis, practice, study groups Strategies: timing, eliminating wrong answers, guessing CHAPTER 1:  NOUNS CHAPTER 2:  PRONOUNS CHAPTER 3:  PARTS OF A SENTENCE Practice Test G (handout); begin analysis	JUNE 26
HOLIDAY--UNIVERSITY CLOSED	JULY 3
CHAPTER 4:  VERBS CHAPTER 15:  WORD FORM Practice Test 1 (book); begin analysis	JULY 10
CHAPTER 14:  WORD ORDER CHAPTER 8:  ADJECTIVE CLAUSES Practice Test 2 (book)	JULY 17
IELP TOEFL--CLASS IS OPTIONAL THIS DAY CHAPTER 9:  ADVERB CLAUSES CHAPTER 10:  PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES Practice Test 3 (book)	JULY 24
CHAPTER 7:  NOUN CLAUSES CHAPTER 13:  PARALLEL STRUCTURE Practice Test 4 (book)	JULY 31
CHAPTER 11:  COMPARATIVES AND SUPERLATIVES CHAPTER 6:  ARTICLES CHAPTER 5:  PREPOSITIONS Practice Test 5 (book) Course evaluations	AUGUST 7

June 25, 2009