Syllabus:  PreTOEFL Reading
Winter 2001



 

INSTRUCTOR: Margaret Young  OFFICE HOURS:  Fri. 2:00 - 3:00, and by appointment
OFFICE: 113A East Hall  CONTACTS: (503) 725-4143; e-mail youngm@pdx.edu

Textbook:  The Heinle and Heinle TOEFL Test Assistant:  Reading; by Milada Broukal; Heinle & Heinle 1995

Grading: This course is graded A - F.  A minimum passing grade is C-, or 70%.  Grading is based on attendance and participation.


Objectives:  In this course you will practice different types of questions on the Reading part of the TOEFL 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 full-length practice tests in class for the purpose of becoming more comfortable with and working more effectively under simulated testing conditions with time constraints.

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.

The Learning Center:  Winter term this is open MWF 11:00 - 6:00 and TTh 10:00 - 3:00.  There are several software programs in the Learning Center which can help you improve your scores on the TOEFL.  In addition to the TOEFL software, I strongly recommend Ultimate Speed Reader.  This program has eye movement exercises as well as reading passages to help you read faster.

Tentative Calendar


WEEK DATES CONTENT
2 1/16 - 19 Introductions, strategies
Practice Test (PT)1
3 1/22 - 26 Error analysis of  PT 1, types of questions (pp. 1-2)
Chapter 1:  Details
4 1/29 - 2/2 Chapter 2:  Reference and Vocabulary
PT 2 and error analysis
5 2/5 - 9 Error analysis of PT 2
Chapter 3:  Main Ideas
6 2/12 - 16 Strategy review, continuation of Main Ideas
PT 3 and error analysis
7 2/19 - 23 Chapter 4:  Inference
Chapter 5:  Additional Skills
8 2/26 - 3/2 PT 4 and error analysis
9 3/5 - 9 Chapter 5 (cont.), strategy review
Your choice of additional practice
10 3/12 - 16 Final practice test and analysis (not in the book)

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