Tesis alumna FUNIBER. Maria Fernanda Osorio - Teaching English as Foreign Language

COURSE DESIGN PROJECT
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COURSE DESIGN PROJECT – FINAL PROJECT
“Teaching English as a Foreign Language”
UNIVERSIDAD IBEROAMERICANA
In collaboration with Fundación Universitaria Iberoamericana (Funiber)
Designing Two Units for an Online
Course in English for Academic
Purposes
Author: María Fernanda Jaime Osorio
Tutor: Elena Caixal Manzano
Code: COFPMTFL927670
Group: 30
Date: August 4, 2013

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction………….……….……………………….………………………....... 4
2. Theoretical background….………………………………...………………...… 6
2.1 Course design for EFL/ESL…………...…..………………….……….…….. 6
2.1.1 Online courses…………………………………….………………….…. 8
2.1.2 Didactic units………………………………………………………..…… 10
2.1.3 Content and activities……………………………………………..……. 12
2.1.4 Learning to learn………………………………………………………… 13
2.1.5 Final task…………………………………………………………………. 14
2.1.6 Evaluation and assessment……………………………………………. 15
2.1.7 The teacher’s book……………………………………………………… 17
2.2 Teaching EFL/ ESL for Academic Purposes………….……..….…………. 17
2.3 Teaching EFL/ ESL with Educational Software………….……...………… 18
2.4 The writing process for descriptive, explanatory,
and argumentative texts…………………………………………………...… 20
2.5 Academic grammar and Academic vocabulary……………………………. 21
2.6 Knowledge about education…………………………………………………. 22
2.6.1 Learning Strategies……………………………………………………… 22
2.6.2 CALL……………………………………………………………………… 22
3. Aims…………………..……………………………………………….…………... 23
3.1 Project aims…………………………………………………………………... 23
3.2 EAP course aims………………………………………..……………………. 24
3.3 Units aims……………………………………………………………………… 24
4. Methodology……………………………………………………………………… 25
4.1 Investigation……………………………….……………….……..…………… 25
4.2 Process for data gathering, analysis and interpretation………………….. 26
4.3 Approach for unit design…….……………………………..…….………..… 26
4.4 Population and students’ needs..………………………..….……....……… 28
4.5 Course structure………………………………………………..……………... 31
4.5.1 Content…………………………………………………………………….. 32
4.5.2 Unit aims…………………………………………………………………... 32
4.5.3 Unit features………………………………………………………………. 34

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4.6 Unit creation process……..…….…………………..………………………… 35
4.6.1 Unit organization and features……………………………………........ 36
4.6.2 Final task…………………... ……….………………………….............. 38
4.6.3 Evaluation……….……………………………….………………………. 39
4.6.4 Learn to learn...……….…………………………..………….…………. 39
4.6.5 Teacher’s book……………………………………...…………..…….… 40
4.6.6 Work plan...…………………………………………………..…………. 41
5. Conclusion……………………………………………...………………....…………… 42
References…………………………………………………………………...……………. 43
Appendices…………………………………………………………………..……………. 47
Appendix I: EAP Course syllabus………………………………………..……… 47
Appendix II: Course syllabus for units 9 and 10…………………..…………… 71
Appendix III: Problem analysis on CM and SLA assignments…..…………… 74
Appendix IV: Problem analysis from Spanish and Portuguese-
Speaking students………..……………………………....…….… 87
Appendix V: Contents unit 9 ………………………………………..…………… 99
Appendix VI: Contents unit 10…………………………………………………… 113
Appendix VII: Student’s book unit 9……………………………………..………. 127
Appendix VIII: Student’s book unit 10….………………………..……………… 144
Appendix IX: Teacher’s book unit 9..………………………….……………….... 164
Appendix X: Teacher’s book unit 10…………………………………………...... 182

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1. Introduction
“The one who studies, but never practices, is like
the one who ploughs but never sows” Plato
Over the last few years, there has been great increase among educational
institutions offering online courses to satisfy their clients’ needs. However few of those
courses take into account those who do not reach the minimum requirements to pass
an entrance test, and end up destroying not only the future opportunities but the
dreams of people who need further help. This Research Project is just one link in the
chain of a series of previous and future works that have been and will be carried out by
a team of people pursuing the constant improvement of an academic offer for students
around the world. It has been created under the philosophy that education should be
available for all and that time or place should be no limit for those who are in search of
knowledge and improvement.
The aim of this project is to design two units for an online English for Academic
Purposes (EAP) course that will help the Funiber’s Teaching English as a Foreign
Language students-to-be reach that minimum academic language and educational
content level required by Funiber institution. Three important aspects will be covered in
this paper. First, the main contributions and up-to-date theories on course design,
teaching EFL/ESL for academic purposes, Moodle, the academic writing process, and
knowledge about education on learning strategies and CALL will be reviewed to
support the theoretical framework on which this research project is based. Second, the
aims of the project, the course in which the units are based, and the units will be
established. Finally, the unit design and the methodology used will be outlined, all the
same as the students’ profile, and the detailed work plan to carry on the project.
Moreover, my personal interest to develop this project relies on the conviction that
developing an English for Academic Purposes course means to center in what students
learn and how we meet their needs. I have been a teacher for about 5 years and along
my career, I have also taught English for Specific Purposes to different professional
people including physicians, psychologists, engineers, teachers, secretaries and police
officers. Few years ago the available material to teach those students was minimal and
sometimes almost inexistent. I had to design material to fulfill their needs and more

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than once I found myself studying the vocabulary, reading news and articles on the
matter in order to bring meaningful material to the class.
All the same, I am currently teaching English as a Foreign Language at the Institute
of Languages at Surcolombiana University in Huila - Colombia. There, I teach English
to students who are doing their major in different fields and that see Academic English
use as a key aspect to succeed in their near future career, so I considered this
Research Project a great opportunity to benefit my students, to enrich my experience
as a teacher and material designer, and to share my abilities to work in group, personal
motivation, problem solving skills, and a high sense of responsibility with the group
participating in the development of such important two fields of major interest
nowadays: English for Academic Purposes through Distance Education and
Technology.
Lastly, I would like to express my deepest thanks to God and my beloved husband
and daughter who have been the driving force in my life and all the projects I have
successfully culminated. Likewise, I would like to thank my tutor, Elena Caixal, for her
valuable and constant feedback and guidance, and the designer team group of the
Funiber EAP Course Funiber who like me, devoted their time and effort to complete the
design of the course. I would also like to thank the TELF Master programme Funiber
tutors for giving me the theory and the opportunity put it into practice into a real world
project like the one I have participated on. Finally, I could not but acknowledge my
family (Parents in law, mother, brother and sister) unconditional support during these
two years from the beginning until the end of my master.

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2. Theoretical Background
This project is based in several important aspects: course design, teaching EFL/ESL
for academic purposes, teaching EFL/ESL under the e- learning software platform
Moodle, the academic writing process for descriptive, explanatory and argumentative
texts, academic grammar and academic vocabulary, and knowledge about education
on learning strategies and CALL. In the following paragraphs the main topics and
contributions on these fields will be reviewed in order to carry out the plan, and
implementation of this project.
2.1 Course Design
Designing a course implies making choices and taking different steps to
subsequently develop a language curriculum. Richards (1997, p.1) states that the
language curriculum development is “concerned with principles and procedures for the
planning, delivery, management, and assessment of teaching and learning”. This is
certainly a not simplistic view of the process required to successfully accomplish an
effective language teaching and / or learning. To make our teaching task easier, it is
thus necessary to divide the process of curriculum development into five steps: “needs
analysis, goal setting, syllabus design, methodology, and testing and evaluation” (ibid,
p.1).
When planning a unit, there is not much difference in relation to the steps we take.
We start designing a course or a course unit by considering our students’ needs and
context, and end up by assessing and evaluating it. According to Lowe (2001), there
are seven steps to plan a course unit: Identify needs, create a students’ profile,
determine unit topic, establish the goals, select the skills to be developed, brainstorm
the learning activities, and plan and carry out the evaluation of the unit and the
students.
Moreover, teachers have reasons to plan a course and its lessons. Among others,
Woodward (2001) suggests the following:
• Thinking things through before you teach helps to reduce feelings of uncertainty or
panic, and inspires you instead with a sense of confidence and clarity.

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• It can inspire confidence in students who pick up a feeling of purpose, progression
and coherence.
• It helps you to understand what research you need to do.
• It reminds you to marshal materials beforehand, and makes it easier for you to
organize the time and activity flow in classes.
• Working on planning after lessons, as well as before, ensures that the class you are
teaching gets a balanced mixture of different kinds of materials, content, and
interaction types throughout the course.
• Course and lesson planning help you to develop a personal style since they involve
sifting through all your information, resources, and beliefs, and boiling them all down to
a distillation for one particular group, time and place. This distillation, together with
what happens in the classroom, represents a cross-section of the present state of your
art.”
(Ibid, p.181)
Although sometimes we have the chance to design a course and its units, there are
other times in which we can only adopt or adapt them taking into account the particular
needs of the institution to which we serve. The units’ (to be designed in this project)
main objective is to have students develop different tasks in order to achieve language
learning and the development of the Communicative Competence. The most important
skill to be developed is writing, specifically, academic writing (descriptive, explanatory,
and argumentative texts), through the use of correct grammar and accurate academic
vocabulary.
In recent decades, there have been several approaches which made their
contribution in learning how to interact with people from other cultures, based on the
principles of communication. This concept not only implies the statement of our own
ideas, taking into account others’ opinions and being respectful to them, but also
means taking turns to communicate feelings, thoughts and body language. According
to Rico (2004) in Evaluación por Competencias – Lenguaje – Idiomas – Lenguas
Extranjeras (María Jaime, Trans.), one of the most relevant approaches that
emphasises language as a means of communication is the Communicative Approach.

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“From this perspective the learning process become meaningful in an appropriate and
effective way”, he states.
One of the most effective strategies to develop the communicative competence is
according to Nunan (1989), the use of tasks. A pedagogical perspective defines tasks
as ‘the activity or action that is carried out as the result of processing or understanding
language’. Richards et al. (1986) claim that the use of tasks in language teaching
provides the activities a purpose that goes beyond the mere practice of the language
and achieves a more real communication. Furthermore, Nunan (1989) considers a
communicative task as “a piece of classroom work which involves learners in
comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while
their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form”.
The use of communicative tasks is an excellent tool to develop the communicative
competence since it makes our students reflect on, appreciate, and implement
communicative behaviors not only within the context of a foreign language classroom,
but also in the real world where sometimes they find it useless.
To sum up, the units proposed in this project work are based on the five steps
suggested by Richards (1997), and on the use of communicative tasks to develop the
communicative competence, specifically related to academic writing of descriptions,
explanations, and argumentations with proper grammar and academic vocabulary.
2.1.1 Online courses
Few decades ago, the governments of the world decided to invest profuse amounts
of money and resources to improve technology and its use among educational
institutions, especially, in higher education institutions. Thirty years ago, it would have
been impossible to write about online education not only because there were no
personal computers available, but because technological abilities were not considered
as fundamental skills at that time.
With the emergence and subsequent shift towards Communicative Language
Teaching (CLT) as the predominant paradigm in English Language Teaching (ESL),
Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) was recently introduced as the use of
computers in teaching and learning English aspects. Hines (2012, para. 4), states that
“these aspects include how instructional materials are presented to students, how

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students engage the instructional content, and how their understanding of the lesson
concepts are assessed”. Since power point presentations, video clips, interactive
language tests, interactive games, e-mails are used to teach students, CALL has
become increasingly popular within the ELT classroom.
These technologies have become of such importance over the last decades, that
during the World Conference about Higher Education in 1998, the Organización de las
Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura (UNESCO) claimed that
the use of the ICTs (Information and Comunication Technologies) is crucial to support
the educational and investigation processes in higher education.
One of the main outcomes of such claims and investments could be no other than
the initiation of online education. MacAnally-Salas (2004) affirms that “online education
is a modality in process of evolution and definition, so we can consider it immature”.
Nevertheless, it is necessary to recognize that it has brought paradigm changes such
centering education in learning instead of teaching, and subsequently, the arrival of
terms such online learning, cooperative and collaborative learning, and academic
community.
To define online education, it is necessary to define e-learning, a term first
coined by Rosenberg (2001) in which he refers to the use of internet technologies as a
provider of an ample range of solutions that improve knowledge and that works under
three fundamental criteria:
1. Networking: To make it instantaneously recent, saved, recovered, and
distributed, and to permit share instructions or information.
2. Internet standard technology use: To be given to the final user through the use
of computers.
3. Ample vision of learning: It goes beyond traditional paradigms of capacitation.
MacAnally-Salas (2004) also insists that “an online course, in the best of the cases,
combines the pedagogical and technological abilities of an educator in an integral
design that obtains the best pedagogical result from those available tools in the
learning environment used”. Nowadays scholars mention the knowledge society and
expect that teachers and students succeed in it through the use of technology to teach
and learn. Online education becomes then, of vital importance as a paradigm to follow
in the design of this research Project.

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2.1.2 Didactic units
Unit planning is crucial when developing an online or any course. It focuses on
learning and the language standards are integrated, preventing tutors from focusing on
class activities that do not accomplish the proposed aims. By planning the units, tutors
as well as learners can be aware of the objectives to be achieved and assess their
progress. It also gives them both the opportunity to manage the time and articulate
their previous knowledge to what they are going to learn during the specific amount of
time given.
A didactic unit is the “intervention of all the elements that intervene in the teaching-
learning process with an internal methodological coherence and over a determined
period” (Altúnez et al. 1992, p. 104). It can also give the “answer to all the curriculum
issues: What to teach (objectives and contents), when to teach (organized sequence of
activities and contents), how to teach (activities, organization of the space and time,
materials, and didactic resources), and the evaluation (evaluation criteria and
instruments); all of that in a clearly delimited time” (MEC, 1992, 87 o 91, in Cajas Rojas
de Infantil o Primaria).
In other words, it can be said that a didactic unit is a basic unit of programming that
follows a sequence of organized elements. As explained before, Lowe (2001) claims
that there are seven steps to plan a course unit: Identify needs, create a students’
profile, determine unit topic, establish the goals, select the skills to be developed,
brainstorm the learning activities, and plan and carry out the evaluation of the unit and
the students.
In identifying the needs of the students, it is necessary to conduct a survey which
will determine why the learner needs to learn English, and its language needs. By
creating the student’s profile, a comparison between the assessment and the needs
can be made, and as a result, the unit topic can be determined. Once the topic is
determined, the goal of the unit is selected and written as a rational in which what the
unit is about, and what the learners will know and be able to do, is explained.
Lowe (2001) states that when planning the goal these points must be considered:
• Decide what the students should learn and be able to do both in class as practice
and how they will use the skills when leaving the classroom.
• Summarize what you intend the learners to know about the topic and be able to do
in a few sentences or a short paragraph.

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• Check that your goals are consistent with those of the course and are level
appropriate.
(Ibid, p.57)
To write the appropriate objectives, behavioral terms to describe what learner will do
need to be used. Objectives must be consistent with the unit goal. Then the activities to
be developed can be chosen. Activities should be appropriate to learner’s level and
must reflect goals and objectives, all the same must be the materials.
Once all the above have been planned and selected, it is necessary to think about
how to evaluate student’s learning and progress during the process in order to meet
the designated goals and objectives. The evaluation can be on going (or formative) or
final (or summative), and they may include activities such the realization of
communicative tasks, tests, or a final product. In the next paragraph Lowe (2001)
describes the purpose of the unit planning and points to advantages when doing the
process of planning:
“The purpose of unit planning is to connect the competencies, language
standards, and skills together so that it creates a unified picture for the students.
Instructors are able to group language standards across skills to integrate with
the competencies at the students’ level. The competencies are the subject
matter/topic or theme for the unit and are the same competencies used in the
CASAS assessments. In the end, unit planning saves the instructor time and
energy when planning lessons.”
(Ibid, p.58)
All in all, to develop the aims of this project work, planning units 9 and 10 for the
English for Academic Purposes online course is one of the key points. Therefore,
literature on this issue was reviewed and taken into account. For successful planning
and performance, the unit content and activities must be carefully selected. In the
following section we will see the criteria underlying their correct selection.

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2.1.3 Content and activities
General contents and activities are based on the English for Academic Purposes
(EAP) Research Project by Caixal (2011), in which she proposes contents that have a
connection with education and that are organized in a way that resembles the Teaching
English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) Master Program. EAP course students-to-be
will develop real-life small tasks through their participation on the forum and other tools
selected to make a participative course and a collaborative learning environment.
Additional readings and exercises will be provided to those low-track students or those
who want to go further in their knowledge acquisition and practice.
The contents will be written by the tutor and they will have clear instructions so
students find it easy to complete the tasks for each unit. Time schedule will be also
provided to students for them to plan the time they will spend on each activity.
Caixal (2011) proposes that the contents of the EAP course will have the following
characteristics:
 Abundant collaborative learning.
 All the tasks will have a connection with Education.
 Assessment and tasks: different types of texts and activities, as well as exams
and questionnaires, self-assessment and collaborative assessment.
 Assessments will be adequate and easy to understand, thanks to the comments,
explanations, pieces of advice and colour-codes used.
 Awareness:
- It will enhance language awareness in the student.
- It will enhance proper-writing awareness in the student.
- Students will become aware of their mistakes.
 It will promote autonomy, through strategic contents activites.
 Revision weeks will be deleted, and substituted by a “final task” week, where
students will review everything done throughout the subject (strategic contents
and topics about Education will also be included here).
 The course will be able to be tailored to the students’ needs.
 The course will be clearly organised and structured.
 There will be many practical activities.
 Units:
- Academic and Education related vocabulary will be studied.

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- Academic speaking will be studied.
- Advanced grammar will be studied by every student, not only by those who
English is not their L1.
- All the previous subjects of EFA will be also studied, although the contents of
some will be reduced.
- They will be comprehensive to the student’s needs, not comprehensive to the
field.
- Different academic genres will be studied: introduction, description,
argumentation, explanation, etc.
- Formal academic requirements (bibliography, footnotes, font, cover page,
etc.) will be studied.
- How to learn to learn will be studied.
- The aim of the text will be studied.
(Ibid, p.41-42)
2.1.4 Learning to learn
Learning to learn is to acquire meaningful knowledge to use it when necessary. The
Campaign for Learning website authors define 'learning to learn' as “a process of
discovery about learning. It involves a set of principles and skills which, if understood
and used, help learners learn more effectively and so become learners for life. At its
heart is the belief that learning is learnable”.
The Campaign for Learning website authors also explain that by learning to learn
students get awareness of:
o “How they prefer to learn and their learning strengths
o How they can motivate themselves and have the self-confidence to succeed
o Things they should consider such as the importance of water, nutrition, sleep
and a positive environment for learning
o Some of the specific strategies they can use, for example to improve their
memory or make sense of complex information
o Some of the habits they should develop, such as reflecting on their learning so
as to improve next time.”

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The Europe Education Council (In Hoskins & Ulf, 2008) asserts the following
definition of the concept learning to learn:
‘Learning to learn’ is the ability to pursue and persist in learning, to organise one’s
own learning, including through effective management of time and information, both
individually and in groups. This competence includes awareness of one’s learning
process and needs, identifying available opportunities, and the ability to overcome
obstacles in order to learn successfully. This competence means gaining,
processing and assimilating new knowledge and skill as well as seeking and making
use of guidance. Learning to learn engages learners to build on prior learning and
life experiences in order to use and apply knowledge and skills in a variety of
contexts: at home, at work, in education and training. Motivation and confidence are
crucial to an individual’s competence.’ (Education Council, 2006 annex, paragraph
5).
The European Council recently defined ‘learning to learn’ as a key competence that
all individuals should develop in a globalized society. Hoskins & Ulf (2008) explain that
learning to learn can be measured by learning outcomes which have been called
competences and that are usually a combination of knowledge, skills, attitudes and
values. They also refer to key competences as “those competences which are
quintessential necessary throughout the life for continuing to gain employment and be
included within the everyday life activities including those of civil society and decision
making.” (Ibid, p.12)
Learning to learn also means to develop autonomous learning on students; in other
words, learners must combine values, attitudes and knowledge to build the capacity to
solve problems and to learn new things. The units 9 and 10 will be framed under the
paradigm of making students aware of their own strategies to learn and create activities
to expand and improve them in order to foster learning.
2.1.5 Final task
Since units 9 and 10 are enlighten by the task-based learning approach, activities
and tasks will parallel as closely as possible the real world because the language is
conceived as a vehicle to develop the task; furthermore, we concentrate on language

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form and on its meaning. The main activities lead students to use language in normal
communication circumstances.
As established by Caixal (2011) ‘we learn through exploration and active
engagement.’ These units have the purpose to develop communicative competence
through communicative tasks. Furthermore, Skehan (1988, in Leaver and Willis, 2004)
explains that communicative tasks show simple but fundamental characteristics:
 Meaning is primary.
 There is an established, communicative goal.
 The activity is outcome-based.
 The task has a real-world relationship
The final task in both units will be communicative tasks they are given as the result
of previous tasks that will enable the student to become competent at communicating
in a written way. In fact, is Wilkins (1976) who proposes tasks to be presented on an
approximation approach, meaning that smaller preparatory tasks should be the
preparation for a more comprising task or product.
Furthermore, the final task is framed under the idea that students will use the same
process in future communicative situations. Task Based Learning (TBL) relies on the
learners experimenting with their knowledge and using skills of deduction and language
analysis to exploit the situation. Thus, students will be prepared to achieve the final
tasks not only by presenting previous tasks, but by making them aware of the language
they need in order to successfully carry it out as well. That is the reason why language
focus on academic grammar and academic vocabulary will be introduced in each one
of the two units. The materials to be used will be selected and adapted from authentic
resources so the learners will be exposed to authentic language use.
2.1.6 Evaluation and assessment
Martín Peris (2001) emphasises that to promote autonomy and learning, students
need to be provided with tools. Thus, for the purpose of evaluating students, they will
be given different types of micro tasks that will prepare them to complete the final tasks
on each unit. Different types of assessment will be also practiced during the course so
students not only will learn from their tutor, but from other students’ experiences and

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will have the opportunity to help others as well by contributing to their learning
processes.
Among the tasks students will need to complete in units 9 and 10, there are those of
writing descriptive and explanatory paragraphs, writing about specific education topics
(CALL and Learning Strategies), participating in forums and discussions about their
own learning strategies, analyse articles, and do reflective thinking activities such
creating a chart in which they measure the time they take to learn or forget a lesson’s
contents. Tasks will be mainly communicative (Ball, 2010a), which means they will
focus on meaning rather than on form. Academic grammar and vocabulary tasks will be
embedded into the communicative ones in order so students can communicate better;
these kinds of learning tasks will be proposed because they get very close to the
communicative aims of the units.
Consciousness - raising tasks, focused-communication tasks, and interpretation
tasks will be also part of the units. These three approaches permit learners focus on
both, communication and form (Ellis, 1993), and thus, communicate their ideas in a
precise and concise manner. Consciousness-raising tasks will help learners to figure
out how the language works and the reasons why they have made mistakes. Students
will then participate in forums in which they will have to analyse other students’ writings
and find their mistakes, understanding why they made them and suggesting ways to
prevent them to happen again. Through focused-communication tasks, students will
perform tasks with ‘more accurate output’ (Nuboyoshi & Ellis, 1993). Tutors who ask
students for clarifications, provide opportunities for them to build inner knowledge about
the language and how to become a better user of it. All the same, interpretation tasks
will provide students with manipulated input containing examples of the structures we
want to teach (Ellis, 1993), thus, readings and activities will try to make students aware
of academic grammar and vocabulary issues while learning about educational topics as
CALL and Learning strategies.
On the other hand, in the case of assessment, students will be assessed through
different kind of activities to reach their learning styles and needs, permitting them to
develop an autonomous learning. For example, summative assessment checks if the
student has learnt the contents of a unit, subject or course (Martín Perís, 1997-2008.),
in this way, the units will be organized in a way students will need to use the knowledge

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they have acquired through the unit contents and over previous units, so they can
perform a more difficult final task.
Another form of assessment to be used on the units is co-assessment. This kind of
assessment permits students to help each other and learn in a collaborative way.
Through forums, google docs, and other tools, students will provide and be provided
with opinions to enhance the knowledge on the studied topics and the way they learn
them. Besides summative and co-assessment, formative and self-assessment will be
also promoted during the development of units 9 and 10. The former allows the tutor to
check students’ learning processes, monitor their interlingua, and detect possible
problems and their causes (Martín Perís, 1997-2008); and the later allows learners to
reflect on their own learning processes, and identify their weaknesses and strengths.
2.1.7 The teacher’s book
Caixal (2011) explained that “The tutor designing the unit will write a teacher’s book
for those units with guidelines on: the aim of the unit, how to introduce it to the student
(what will need to be written in the Forum about the unit), how to correct the final tasks,
and when and who to give the extra tasks and readings to…”
According to the Guía didáctica de Cardón, the teacher’s book is the total book that
is addressed to the teacher among the several possible components of a manual
(student’s book, workbook, teacher’s book, among others) in a foreign or second
language course. Moreover, the same author defines the didactic guide as the
explanations given to the teacher in order to orientate and give suggestions about how
to carry out the activities and contents of the student’s book and other components of a
manual for a foreign or second language course.
2.2 Teaching EFL/ ESL for Academic Purposes
English for Academic Purposes EAP is a term coined back in 1974, but it was not
until 1975 when it became of more general use. This term “is concerned to the
development of those communication skills in English which are required for study
purposes in formal education systems” (ETIC, 1975), in other words, students taking an
EAP course prepare themselves to respond to those challenges posed by the
academic community in its formal setting. These courses “may include formal teaching

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programmes, self-access situations, distance-learning materials or CALL (Computer
Assisted Language Learning” (Jordan, 1997, p. 2). Jordan also suggests that these
courses can be taught by native speakers of English or by non-native English speakers
in short on long programmed units which can vary from 6 to 12 hours to 6 to 12
months.
Based on the development of skills, an English for Academic Purposes course has
many components, among others there are, listening and note taking, academic
writing, reading comprehension and note taking, reference and research skills, and
academic speech. These courses can take place under different circumstances: in
English speaking countries, in countries where English is taught as a foreign language
(EFL), or in countries where English is taught as a second language (ESL). In the last
two settings classes are monolingual and English is usually taught by non-native
English teachers. This might be advantageous for students if we look at the knowledge
that teachers may have about the context and the particular students’ sociocultural
background, but it can also bring some disadvantages in relation to the knowledge that
these teachers have about the academic environments abroad. Whether being or not a
native speaker, an EAP teacher must be an EAP expert in order to succeed in his/her
task.
The units to be designed under the parameters given in the EAP course are
targeted to students in both, ESL and EFL contexts. We use ESL to describe the
setting in which “students are living in the target language community and who need
English to function in that community on a day-to-day basis”, while EFL refers to the
context in which “students are studying general English at schools and institutes in their
own country or as transitory visitors in a target-language country” (Harmer, 2007, p.
39).
2.3 Teaching EFL/ ESL under the e- learning software platform
Moodle
Moodle is understood as Modular Object Oriented Distance Learning Environment.
It can also be described as “a free, open source software package designed using
sound pedagogical principles, to help both educators and researchers create effective

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online learning communities. It is quite useful and convenient to set up with some basic
databases on a server, and it is possible to teach any class or provide interactive Web
pages using it on any Web server platform that supports PHP” Nozawa (2011).
Moodle is currently used by many universities and institutions to teach several and
different courses around the world. According to its own statistics, up to 2010 there
were over 48,000 active sites, 3.5 million courses, and 35 million people from 211
countries that use this system. This e-learning software platform was created by
Dougiamas in 1998 under the philosophy called SCP (Social Constructionist
Pedagogy). According to him, “social constructivism happens when the learner is
engaged in constructing something for others to see”, (in Nozawa, 2011).
Although Moodle was not designed to teach languages, it has been reported to be a
great teaching-learning tool to develop language skills, and there are profuse amounts
of educative institutions currently offering their online languages courses based on this
platform. It is exactly because it is so popular that Moodle technical features were
made easy to understand and its surface is user-friendly.
Suvorov (2010) states that this software “consists of a set of tools that allow for the
integration of a wide range of assignments, activities, multimedia resources, electric
delivery of teaching materials, synchronous and asynchronous teacher-student and
student-student communication, and testing and assessment of student’s work”,
characteristics that make it an advisable tool for writing classes. Among others, Moodle
has the next tools:
• Forums • Chat rooms • Assignment
• Glossary • Data base • Wiki
• Workshop
Most of the listed activities promote collaboration among teachers and students at
different levels. Being collaborative in nature, the Moodle platform permits active
participation and interaction allowing students to co-construct writing in a social way.
According to Brown (1994), “the heart of communication” consists of learner-
centeredness, collaboration, and interaction, so by accomplishing these characteristics,
Moodle is a great tool to develop the principles of Communicative Language Teaching
(CLT).

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As well as is communication features, Moodle also permits pre- writing, drafting,
revising, and editing during the writing process, allowing the learner to notice how
he/she has developed his/her own process, and being aware of their learning
strategies and those ones which best help them to obtain better results.
2.4 The academic writing process for descriptive, explanatory,
and argumentative texts
Human beings usually communicate their ideas by means of written texts. Writing is
assumed to be a skill which should be taught to every literate person during their formal
education at school. It is just then, when students start to write for different purposes
and for a specific audience. Their academic texts include descriptions, explanations,
and argumentations, among others.
Montolío (2009, p. 22) affirms that “academic texts pretend to inform and convince”,
but not all of them are written with the same purpose. According to the author,
academic texts’ style and structure depend on the effect the writer wants to reach on
the reader. For example, while some texts pretend the reader to understand and/or
learn a concept; some others seek to convince the reader about a theory or a
hypothesis, or simply to make him/her interested in an unknown topic. Thus, according
to their purpose and concerning to units 9 and 10 main topics, the academic texts to
treat in this Research Project are: Description, Explanation, and Argumentation.
When describing, an author creates images on the readers’ mind, permitting them
imagine or visualize in vivid detail and with a sense of order, whatever object, person,
place, or idea is being described. According to Axelrod and Cooper (2004, p. 647),
there are three basic techniques for writing a successful description: naming, detailing,
and comparing. While naming refers to “call the readers’ attention to observable
features of the subject”, detailing is about making those features “more specific or
particularized”. Additionally, there is comparing, which can be done through simile and
metaphor and is used to make a description “more vivid to readers”.
Besides description, there is also explanation as an academic text. An explanatory
text, also called expository text by some authors, is a text in which the writer conveys
and clarifies information that is difficult to understand. According to The Purdue Writing
Lab (2012), an expository essay “is a genre of essay that requires the student to

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investigate an idea, evaluate evidence, expound on the idea, and set forth an argument
concerning that idea in a clear and concise manner”. This type of text requires the
writer to have an impersonal voice. He/she does not give any criticism or argument, the
writer just elucidates the subject and with an objective tone, explains the reader what is
difficult for him/her to grasp.
Even though explanatory texts serve primarily to illustrate readers about a subject,
Axelrod and Cooper (2004) affirm that “college students are required to write
explanations not primarily to teach others but to demonstrate what they have learnt” (p.
201). For them, there are several strategies to write this type of text including definition,
classification, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, and process narration. These
are the main strategies to be developed during the course of academic writing.
Another academic written discourse is Argumentation. Arguing a position is
considered an academic text which objective is to convince the reader to accept or
reject a particular position on a controversial issue by giving plausible reasons
supported by reasoned arguments. According to Axelrod and Cooper (2004), in order
to be a convincing text, it also has to anticipate reader’s likely objections and opposing
arguments. Moreover, The Purdue Writing Lab (2012) affirms that these types of
papers “generally call for extensive research”. Thus, it “allows the student to learn
about a topic…., choose a position and support it with the evidence collected during
research”.
2.5 Academic Grammar and Academic Vocabulary
Although the three types of academic texts in units 9 and 10 are description,
explanation and argumentation, there are two significant funds to be taken into account
and taught during these two weeks as well: Academic grammar and Academic
vocabulary. None of the writings will be taken seriously if not written with appropriate
grammar and concise vocabulary. Students taking the EAP course will learn some
basic grammar and vocabulary during the first weeks; consequently, units 9 and 10 will
concentrate on developing the correct use of sentence structure, nominalization,
referencing, impersonal expressions, modal verbs, verb tenses, precise verbs, and
coherence and cohesion by using linking words and phrases.

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2.6 Knowledge about Education
Caixal (2011) proposes that students taking the course will get basic knowledge
about education issues. Units 9 and 10 will include contents about two specific topics:
Learning Strategies and CALL, respectively. If these topics are previously introduced
within the units, it would be easier for students to study them in depth during the TEFL
masters. The pedagogic texts on these two topics will introduce the main topics of the
units.
2.6.1 Learning Strategies
Learning strategies are used to help students learn both academic language and
content. They can be defined as “the special thoughts or behaviors that individual use
to learn” (O’Malley & Chamot,). The main objective is to help students to become
independent and to auto regulate their own learning process. There are different types
of strategies and educators must be aware of how to select them in order to produce
the correct effect on the learner:
• Metacognitive Strategies: Used in planning for learning, self-monitoring, and
evaluating achievements.
• Metacognitive Knowledge: Understanding one’s own learning processes, the
nature of the learning task, and the strategies that should be effective.
• Cognitive Strategies: Manipulating the material to be learned through rehearsal,
organization, or elaboration.
• Social/Affective Strategies: Interacting with others for learning or using affective
control for learning.
The essential topic to be treated in unit 9 is the use of the Learning Strategies when
given frequent cues and feedback to students. While reading a Learning Strategies
article, learners will be given examples of academic explanations and descriptions, and
academic grammar.
2.6.2 CALL

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As well as the Learning Strategies topic, learners will be enlighten about CALL by
reading texts on the importance of this matter and how to deal with it in the language
classroom. In recent years, the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
use has become a main topic in education since it has brought great changes to
society. The use of the internet as a tool for communication permits the intercultural
relationships among the countries in relation to politics, socio-economics and
education; as a consequence, tutors for online courses usually find intercultural
classrooms, as well.
Teachers from all over the world face situations in which computers are the tools and
the internet is the media to learn. The EAP course, to which units 9 and 10 are part of,
is actually an example of it. This is one of the key arguments to introduce this topic
related to real-life expectations of the target population to whom the units will be
designed for. Unit 10 will include texts related to CALL in the language classroom as
the pedagogic topic to introduce academic argumentations and academic vocabulary.
3. Aims
In this section, the aims of this project will be presented in three groups: Project
aims, which describe the general goals of this project work; the EAP Course aims,
which describe the broad aims of the course the two units to be designed are part of;
and finally, the Unit aims, which describe the competences students who successfully
complete the units will acquire.
3.1 Project Aims
• Design two units for the syllabus of an online course in English for Academic
Purposes (EAP.)
• Put into practice the knowledge acquired in the Master on Teaching English as a
Foreign Language (TEFL).
• Create and provide solutions to the individual academic writing problems and
needs to the participants of the EAP course.

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3.2 EAP Course Aims
According to Caixal (2011), the general aims of the EAP course lead the students to
be able to:
• Reach the necessary proficiency in English (or Spanish) for Academic Purposes as to
cope with the language contents (use of language, writing skills and the ability to
discuss pedagogical issues) required in the TEFL (and FOPELE) programme.
• Develop linguistic awareness; that is, explicit knowledge about the language, and
perception and sensitivity towards learning, teaching and using it.
• Reflect upon their mistakes as a means of detecting and solving problems.
• Become an autonomous learner, and keep on learning well after the course.
(Research Project (RP), 5.3.1, General aims)
3.3 Unit Aims
• To develop specific academic writing skills related to descriptive, explanatory and
argumentative texts on students who lack of linguistic and content knowledge
requirements of the Funiber TEFL program.
• To identify, analyze, and characterize the student profile and design two units that
can tackle their needs to successfully help them acquaint the linguistic and content
knowledge requirements of the Funiber TEFL program.
• To provide all the participants with tools and tasks to successfully learn the contents
of the two designed units and develop their academic writing skill.
• To promote reflective and autonomous learning on students through the use of
learning strategies, communicative tasks, and cooperative work.

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4. Methodology
In this section, the methodology of this project will be introduced by the investigation
paradigm, the process for data gathering, analysis and interpretation, the approach for
unit design, the analysis of the population and their needs, and finally, the course
structure and unit creation process will be presented.
4.1Investigation
This research project will be framed under the paradigm of Curriculum Investigation-
Action. According to MacKernan (1999), the curriculum investigation action takes place
when a professional analyze documents in order to investigate any aspect of the
curriculum. He also explains that the analysis helps to improve the learners’ evaluation
and it can be made through the examination of the next documents:
 Former tests,
 Official update documents about evaluation,
 Documents by the government that establish parallels to follow,
 Alumni assignments,
 Standardized tests,
 Alumni evaluation tests records,
 Official curriculum guides,
 Others.
(ibid, p. 13)
By examining the information in the former documents, the teacher or researcher
creates a list or schema of the backgrounds and the context in which the investigation
will take place. This process can lead to the research questions of the research project
and its development. All the same, the final document will be read by other
professionals at the end of the investigation. Thus, it must be carefully written and
supported.

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4.2 Process for data gathering, analysis and interpretation
The information for this research project will be gathered from different sources. The
main source to be taken into account is the research project by Caixal (2011) to which
units 9 and 10 belong. The author mentions that in order to gather the information to
design the EAP course, she asked tutors and students their opinion about the course
and the aspects to be improved. The main purpose of her research was to create the
EAP course. Now, in order to create units 9 and 10 for the EAP course, there is a four-
step process to consult and recollect the information.
First of all, there is need to consult texts related to the creation and design of units,
tasks, online courses, final tasks, and learn to learn. Secondly, texts about the main
topics of the two units will be consulted: academic writing, explanations, descriptions,
argumentations, and academic grammar and vocabulary.
A second step to follow is to analyze TEFL assignments and theses to look for the
main problems students show in relation to academic writing including grammar and
vocabulary. The analysis purpose is to tackle the students’ problems through the
design of extra exercises and readings to different learning styles and mother tongues.
The teacher’s guide will also be created and along with the others, they will be adapted
to the virtual e-learning platform Moodle. The work plan will be further illustrated in
5.6.8.
4.3Approach for unit design
The approach to design units 9 and 10 is based on three main focuses: Task-
based, student centered learning and collaborative learning. Each one of these
paradigms is crucial to the successful understanding and meaningful learning of the
students taking the EAP course.
Tasks-based course
The task-based approach is based on the idea that people learn through exploration
and active engagement. According to Ellis (2003), a task has the following criteria
features:
 A task is a workplan.
 A task involves primary focus on meaning.

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 A task involves real-world processes of language use.
 A task can involve any of the four language skills.
 A task engages cognitive processes.
 A task has a clearly defined communicative outcome.
Ibid (p. 9-11)
Since Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) aim is to develop the ability of
students to use the language for real communicative purposes, task-based learning
serves to CLT strong version, where tasks are seen as a vehicle to enable students to
learn the language by experiencing it for real communication. In units 9 and 10 learners
will have the opportunity to learn through communicative tasks which lead them to
create a final product. The process to create the final product is more important than
the product itself; thus, students will elaborate outcomes for real-life purposes, getting
immersed in the use of the language for communicative purposes.
Student-centred learning
Collins & O'Brien (2003) explain that in student-centered instruction, students are
who influence the content, activities, materials, and pace of learning. They also explain
that while the center of the learning process is the student, the instructor supports and
provides students with opportunities to interact and develop their skills. When correctly
implemented, this approach is believed to improve learning through motivation,
understanding and positive attitudes. According to Di Napoli (2004), there are certain
characteristics that make Student-centred learning a useful method to follow:
• Students are not considered to be empty vessels. They come with their own
perceptual frameworks.
• Focus is not just on what is taught but on how effective learning should be promoted.
• Student learning becomes the main preoccupation of the teacher (not his/her
performance as a teacher or a raw number of facts to be transmitted to the students).
• It is recognized that students learn in different ways and have different learning styles.
Personalized / individualized responses are encouraged. This helps to foster creativity
in students.
• Learning is recognized as an active dynamic process in which connections (between
different facts, ideas and processes) are constantly changing and their structure is
continually reformatted.

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• Assessment is ‘formative’ in character.
• Syllabi and curricula are organized around the processes through which learning is to
be developed.
(Ibid, p. 3-4)
Therefore, both units (9 and 10) will make echo of the annotations of Collins &
O'Brien (2003), and Di Napoli (2004). Students’ needs will be taken into account in the
construction of the activities. Making a flexible unit structure will be favorable for
students who have different problems, levels and languages. In consequence,
selection of readings, tasks, and extra activities and exercises will also recognize
students’ profiles, as well as their learning styles.
Collaborative learning
As the student-centred learning model considers the student the most important
actor of the learning process, creating a collaborative learning environment facilitates
students’ interaction and consequently, non-traditional experiences to improve their
skills and create group knowledge construction. Smith & McGregor (1992) defined
collaborative learning as an “umbrella term” for a variety of educational approaches. It
involves work and efforts by teachers and students to develop understanding, and
students are the key actors who discuss and construct knowledge through interaction.
When designing the tasks, a more social framework will be taken into account and
many of the tools provided by the online software Moodle will help the tutor to organize
a collaborative environment for learning to take place.
4.4 Population and students’ needs
Although the participants may have similar needs and interests, their cultural and
learning backgrounds, and learning styles are likely to be different. So it is important to
bear in mind that students may come with their own experiences and attitudes, and will
follow their own method to succeed. Thus, two strong elements to be developed in the
course and consequently in the two units are, as explained before, a learning to learn
component which will help them to identify their own learning styles, and a collaborative
learning approach through which they will help each other to enhance their own
learning strategies.

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Students’ profile
According Caixal (2011), student’s profiles are stereotypical because most of them
could belong to “more than one profile at the same time and at different levels”. She
classifies students’ profile in the following way:
a) Students with language problems: These candidates are divided into two groups:
Those whose language level is lower than a B2, and those whose level is very close to
C1. Among their main errors we find: grammar, vocabulary, register, and spelling
problems.
b) Students with poor knowledge about education: These applicants do not have
previous experience as teachers, have not studied educational-related courses and/or
have been out of the field for many years and their knowledge is very out-of-date.
c) Students lacking writing and academic skills: These students are also divided into
two groups:
• Firstly, we find those candidates with writing problems: reading and understanding,
ideas for text writing, coherence, typography, punctuation, paragraphs and sentences
building, etc.
• Secondly, candidates with a lack of academic writing knowledge. For example, they
are not familiar with formal requirements (bibliography, length, font, etc.), writing
resources (rhetoric, syntactic games, etc.), and different academic texts (introduction,
conclusion, explanation, etc.)
(Caixal, 2011, p. 31-32)
Students’ needs
This material was specifically designed in order to fulfil student’s needs and the
academic writing skill for descriptive, explanatory, and argumentative text with proper
grammar and academic vocabulary in a total time of 10 hours per unit from Monday to
Saturday during two weeks.

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As stated before, this research project will be framed under the paradigm of
Curriculum Investigation-Action. This paradigm permits the evaluation of documents to
find the needs of students in order to improve their academic performance. According
to Thornbury (n.d.), it in EAP courses where the needs analysis can be particularly
acute. The same author proposes (based on Munby, 1978) to gather information under
the following categories:
1. Learner: The units are designed for professional students who are interested in
improving their academic writing skills. Caixal (2011, p. 33) states that “Most of the
participants come from non-English Speaking countries and from different
educational traditions. That means that their writing culture (the way they express
ideas, how they write, which topics are taboo, etc.) differs greatly from that of the
English Speaking World”.
2. Purpose and domain: Students taking units 9 and 10 of the EAP course aim to
improve their academic writing skills in order to be part of the Master in Teaching
English as a Foreign Language offered by FUNIBER.
3. Setting: According to its official website, the Ibero-American University
Foundation´s (FUNIBER) purpose is “to spread and share the European and Ibero-
American knowledge”. This institution was founded in 1997 in Barcelona, Spain,
and since then, it has become an academic and professional network providing
experience and knowledge to give equal opportunities for international first-level
education. One of the Masters offered by FUNIBER is Teaching English as a
Foreign Language, specially targeted to those teachers who devote their lives to
teach the language. This program relates theory to practice and stimulates
autonomous and collaborative learning with constant support by its tutors.
Based on the Research Project Designing an Online Course in English for
Academic Purposes by Elena Caixal (2011), these two units belong to a fifteen-unit-
course designed by the author to fulfil the requirements to obtain her title for the
TEFL program. The target population are the applicants that had not passed the
Entrance Exam to reach the required language level to enter the Funiber TEFL
programme. The two units will be developed by means of the virtual platform
Moodle under a task based approach.

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4. Interactans: Teachers and students will interact among them by completing tasks.
The tasks of these units promote whole group work, small group work
(discussions), pair work (peer revision and suggestions), and individual work
(developing the macro skills of reading and writing, and their micro skills) through
communicative tasks. It also promotes the use of technology and tools from the
web 2.0 (forums, e-mail accounts use).
5. Mode: Students will basically interact through receptive and productive writing.
6. Skills and Functions: Studying reference material and reading current literature
about the educational topics Learning Strategies and CALL in order to introduce
academic descriptions, explanations, argumentations, grammar, and vocabulary.
7. Proficiency: The units aim to achieve a B2+ level according to the Common
European Framework for Languages.
In order to attain students´ academic writing needs, about 50 students’
assignments will be evaluated as well.
4.5 Course structure
According to Caixal (2011) the EAP course to which units 9 and 10 belong, follows
the following structure:
 Before the course: Students get a fail in the Entrance exam for the TEFL
Funiber Program. Students will be informed about the course and will decide
whether taking it or not in order to proceed with the register.
Introductory Tasks: Once the student has registered, he will be given the
student’s guide with all the information about the course as well as introductory
tasks to perform during the first week. These tasks are related to the correct
use and familiarization to the Moodle platform and its components to
successfully communicate and complete the tasks.
 Course: Once completed the first week students will begin the first subject and
subsequently they will continue the course during 13 more weeks. During the
process they will be in constant communication with tutors and will collaborate
with other students to carry out the proposed tasks. After they have completed

32
the total number of subjects, they will do a final task that summarizes what they
have learnt during the unit.
 Final Project: During the last week of the course, students will do the Final
Project where they need to show their learning process.
 After the course: Once students have proved they reached the desired
language level and have received their certificated, they will begin the TEFL
program.
A graphically explanation of the above the EAP course to which units 9 and 10 are
part of, is referred in Appendix I.
4.5.1 Content
The general content of the EAP course is divided into fifteen units which will last 10
hours each. As explained before, this is a collaborative project. A group of work will
receive the general course structure and will design the content, the student’s book
with extra activities and exercises, and the teacher’s book. To complete this purpose,
the designers will complete two analysis based on actual TEFL student’s assignments
provided by the coordinator of the project. Once more, to graphically explain the above
the EAP course, refer to Appendix I.
4.5.2 Units aims
In relation to the specific units 9 and 10 aims, Caixal (2011) also proposes the
development of linguistics skills, general writing skills, and academic writing skills.
According to her, in relation to linguistic skills and academic skills, at the end of the
units 9 and 10 the student will be able to:
• From a grammar standpoint, the student will be able to use correctly:
- Become proficient at English or Spanish grammar rules.
- Be familiar with complicated grammar problems.
• From a vocabulary standpoint, the student will be able to master:
- Acknowledge the importance of vocabulary.
- Learn technique to increase the quality of the vocabulary used.

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• From a strategic contents standpoint, the student will be able to master:
- Talk about past English or Spanish learning and writing experiences (it must be
taken into account that English or Spanish may be their mother tongue, and, so the
student can talk about the L1 classes he/she has at school or how he/she learnt
his/her L1 through his/her family).
- Learn to learn.
- See his/her most used strategies.
- Develop autonomy.
• Write academic projects about:
- Current education issues debates and discussions.
- Case studies activities.
- Tasks-solving activities.
- Analyze and do reflective thinking activities.
- Materials design.
• From a “description” standpoint, the student will be able to:
- Describe a case/situation in an understandable and organized way.
• From an “explanation” standpoint, the student will be able to:
- Explain a case/situation in an understandable and organized way.
• From an “”argumentation” standpoint, the student will be able to:
- Argue consistently.
- Convince the reader.
(RP, 5.3.2, Specific aims)
In order to achieve these general and specific aims, it is essential for the tutor to use
academic articles in which students can identify proper grammar rules and vocabulary
use, as well as to analyze writing strategies to develop a description, an explanation,
and finally an argument in an organized and structured way. The tutor will also explain
the basic features for each one of the academic texts by means of a writing guide.

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Students will be then guided through the process of writing individually and/or
collaboratively. A specific topic on Learning Strategies (for unit 9), and CALL (for unit
10), along with a logical plan to present the text will be assigned.
At the same time, by means of a forum, and before submitting the assignments,
students will discuss and reflect on plausible reasons for an argument, concepts found
on different sources, and how to use senses to describe. Not only critical thinking but
supporting reasons and research will be needed to give and get feedback to and from
classmates generating thus, collaborative and meaningful learning.
4.5.3 Unit structure
Each one of the fifteen units is organized to follow the same structure. Based on
Tano (2008), Caixal (2011) proposed that each unit needed to follow the next pattern,
for visual information on units 9 and 10 structures, please check Appendix II:
 Cover: The student will be introduced to the main topics of the units and will
activate his/her previous knowledge on the matter. Basic information about the
final task and the contents, time and resources to complete the unit is also
given.
 Language in context: Students will be provided with authentic texts to introduce
the main topics of the units. These texts will permit the student work on his/her
knowledge about Learning Strategies (unit 9) and CALL (unit 10), while at the
same time they are being introduced to the genres, description, explanation,
and argumentation.
 Knowledge Bank: Here, students will find a systematization of functions of the
language the units deal with.
 Check your knowledge: In this section, students will be provided with a series of
self-evaluated tasks in which they will practice what they have learnt.
 Communication: The final task is expected to be completed in this section. The
final task will assess not only the educational topic of the unit and its main
contents, but it will also include knowledge they have acquired in previous units
of the course, for example, planning a task or advanced grammar.

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 Additional readings: This section contains easier-than-the contents additional
readings to be used by the tutor according to students’ needs. These readings
aim to provide opportunities to broad understanding on the unit’s topic,
especially to those students who have been identified to have different mother
tongues. The additional readings are self-assessment tasks.
 Additional exercises: These exercises provide three different levels of exercises
starting with an easy to a more difficult one. These exercises are also aimed at
students with different mother tongues. The additional exercises are self-
assessment tasks.
4.6Unit creation process
The process for creating the two units has been well - planned and structured by our
project coordinator Elexa Caixal and it was established in her research project (2011).
There was a selection process and each one of the participants had to follow some
steps to successfully complete the unit creation process:
1. Designers were elected according to their performance on the entrance exam.
Thus, designers had to write a short essay in which they described their interest in
participating on the project, and their ability to write academically.
2. Designers were given the course program from which they had to choose two
subsequent units. They were also provided with a schedule with tasks and timing
to be developed during the creation process. The schedule and tasks correspond
to the work plan on 5.6.8.
3. Designers were given the EAP Research Project by Elena Caixal (2011) as the
main source to be followed.
4. The selected group worked on their designs through the collaborative platform
Google groups.
5. Designers read extensively on basic topics and also on the ones linked to the units
to be designed as well as those related to education knowledge to be developed
during on students taking the EAP course.

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6. Designers analyzed 50 of the TEFL first assignments looking for the problems
related to academic writing skills and the influence of their mother languages when
writing.
7. Designing of the units started. Designers had to design the unit structure, the
student’s book, the teacher’s book, extra readings and extra exercises structure
and material following the parameters given by the coordinator of the project.
8. Designers uploaded the created materials on the Moodle platform and tested their
efficacy and efficiency to the purpose they were created.
9. Designers finished their Research Project and submitted it.
4.6.1 Unit organization and features
Every activity and task planned for the two selected units follow a structured plan
and rules provided by the project coordinator to make the course coherent with the
sequences used in the TEFL Master. Ball (2011) suggests that when programming
tasks, the programmers should follow some basic rules. Thus, the units are organized
in a way that the students-to-be find it easy to understand and complete. One of the
rules is that the main tool for communication between students and tutors is the forum
and it is through that tool that clear instructions with all the information necessary to
complete the tasks will be posted every Friday by the tutor designing the unit.
Another rule designers will need to follow is the formal requirements to write their
materials which are: Font: Verdana, size: 10 (16 for main titles and 12 for secondary
titles), length: between 5 and 10 pages (not including extra readings and exercises into
account, this can account for 6 extra pages, but not more), line height: 1.5, and
alignment, Word Format and PFD format. Moreover, they will contain between 3 and 6
self-evaluated tasks that will be given feedback by Moodle when completed. This
feedback will be written in another Word document with the same formal requirements.
Besides the two first mentioned rules, the two units are divided into six
components which are: Cover, Language in context, Knowledge bank, Check your
knowledge, Communication, Additional readings and additional exercises. All the
same, the teacher’s book has also four components which are: Previous observations,
Before starting, Assessment, Additional tasks.

37
For a more visual perspective, units 9 and 10 and its components will be presented
in the appendixes. Each one of them compresses the following information:
 Appendix I: Course syllabus. This table shows the course structure and the parts to
be designed. The course contains 15 units and it is the base document of this
research project.
 Appendix II: Course syllabus for units 9 and 10. Even though they are contained in
Appendix I, it is necessary to separate the units to be designed. Units 9 and 10 deal
with academic writing skills development as well as the use of academic grammar
and vocabulary.
 Appendix III: Problem analysis on CM and SLA assignments. The table contains the
problems related to academic writing and the use of academic vocabulary and
grammar in the CM and SLA assignments of current students of the TEFL master
program.
 Appendix IV: Problem analysis from Spanish and Portuguese-speaking students.
This document presents the current mistakes that students make when writing due
to the influence of their mother tongues. This analysis helps the designer to
implement extra readings and extra exercises for those students whose mother
tongues interfere with their ability to write academically descriptions, explanations
and argumentations.
 Appendix V: Contents Unit 9. The table contains the components and the specific
design of the unit. Each one of the components contains objectives, contents,
abilities and activities to be developed by students and tutors.
 Appendix VI: Contents Unit 10. The table contains the components and the specific
design of the unit. Each one of the components contains objectives, contents,
abilities and activities to be developed by students and tutors.
 Appendix VII: Student`s book Unit 9. This is the material which students of the EAP
course will be provided by in order for them to accomplish the goals proposed on the
appendices V and VI.
 Appendix VIII: Student`s book Unit 10. This is the material which students of the
EAP course will be provided by in order for them to accomplish the goals proposed
on the appendices V and VI.

38
 Appendix IX: Teacher`s book Unit 9. This document is the tutor’s tool to help
students to develop the course. Its components are included and its different
sections generate an organized way for the tutor to help his/her students develop
the units’ contents. Extra reaing and exercises are suggested for those students
who might have problems during the progress of the units. Answers to the exercises
and activities will also be found in this paper.
 Appendix X: Teacher`s book Unit 10. This document is the tutor’s tool to help
students to develop the course. Its components are included and its different
sections generate an organized way for the tutor to help his/her students develop
the units’ contents. Extra reading and exercises are suggested for those students
who might have problems during the progress of the units. Answers to the exercises
and activities will also be found in this paper.
4.6.2 Final tasks
The final task for units 9 and 10 is writing a 250-word essay. Students will choose a
topic from a list given by the tutor. For unit 9 the text must include descriptive and
explanatory paragraphs in which students will make use of the academic grammar and
precise vocabulary learnt during the unit. For unit 10, the text must include arguments
with plausible reasons to convince the reader about a point of view. Both documents
must be sent to the tutor in order to assess the product and provide feedback.
It is necessary to make clear that for the final task the tutor will follow the task-based
approach, so this task will parallel an activity that they normally use in communicative
circumstances. To complete these tasks, students would previously have developed
smaller tasks such writing paragraphs or completing self-assessment readings and
exercises. Focus on language and meaning will be also key premises to be taken into
account when writing each essay. The formal requirements to be fulfilled when writing
the final task are: Length: 250 words, Type of font: Arial or Times New Roman, Size:
11, Line height: 1.5, Alignment: Justified. The final tasks for units 9 and 10 are
referred in Appendices VII and VIII.

39
4.6.3 Evaluation
The units’ evaluation will take place all over the time the units last (10 hours per
each) and will have different presentations. Active participation by students is expected
in every single activity since they are beneficial for academic language learning.
Previous micro tasks will prepare students to complete the final task, allowing them to
have a better chance to succeed in the course.
In unit 9 students are asked for participation in two forum activities, two self-
assessment activities and three individual activities to be sent to the tutor’s mail for
feedback. All the same, unit 10 proposes five self-assessment activities, one
collaborative writing wiki and an individual activity to be sent by mail. The self-
assessment activities are consciousness – raising tasks and the collaborative and
individual activities are focused – communication tasks. Consciousness – raising tasks
will also take place in those activities in which students will be asked to clarify what
they have interpreted about any of those activities, thus, students will build inner
knowledge about the language and how to become a better user of it.
The forum activities and the creation of a wiki will permit co-assessment, since
through these tools for nature students have to create collaborative content and post
their opinion to build knowledge. Formative assessment will be also carried out by
means of the feedback the tutor will provide students once they have submitted their
assignments. All the same, for the final task in both units, the tutor will carry out a
summative assessment where not only he/she will take into account the units’ acquired
practical knowledge, but the practical applicability of the contents from former units.
Finally, when self-assessing themselves, students will deal with the identification of
their strengths and weaknesses, especially with the topic of Learning Strategies.
4.6.4 Learn to learn
Each one of the units contains five sections related to the development of students’
ability to pursue and persist in learning, also called ‘learn to learn’. Their aim is to make
students aware of their own learning process so it becomes significative and leads
them to be independent learners. The activities will develop autonomous learning on
students; in other words, they will build the capacity to solve problems and to learn new
things.

40
At the very beginning of unit 9, students will have to plan their learning by identifying
what they already know about the unit and what they want to find out. Then at the end
of the unit, they will have to check if they accomplished their objectives by comparing
the first to columns of the chart with the last ones, which ask them to write what they
actually learnt and how they learnt it. In this unit they will also identify their reading and
writing strategies and will propose ways to improve their own and others’ learning
strategies.
In unit 10, students will have to activate their previous knowledge by anticipating the
content of the unit. They will also identify and evaluate the efficacy of their memory
when remembering what they have learnt, as well as the strategies they use to
remember their lessons. By completing these tasks, students will have the chance to
receive suggestions and suggest others ways to overcome the problem of forgetting
what one has learnt. At the end of the unit, students will complete a ‘now I know’
checklist to self – evaluate their progress on the unit.
For both, units 9 and 10, additional readings and exercises are also activities in
which a component of ‘learn to learn’ is included. Here, students will complete the tasks
to consolidate and enhance their knowledge on the strategic contents of the unit. For a
more graphically explanation, please consult Appendices V and VI.
4.6.5 Teacher’s book
The teacher’s book for units 9 and 10 will be designed as a general basic guideline
which can be enriched and adapted to the specific needs of future teaching-learning
contexts in which the units will be delivered. According to Caixal (2011) the guidelines
for the teacher’s book will follow the following pattern:
 Prievious observations: the aim of the unit, all the contents and tasks.
 Before starting: the instructions the tutor will post in the Forum. Please check the
first paragraph.
 Assessment: the way the assessment will be carried out.
 Additional tasks: when and who to give the extra tasks and readings to.
Ibid, (p. 57)

41
5.6.6. Work Plan
The work plan is the list of activities and schedule in which the design, elaboration
and implementation of the two units will be carried out. There is a list of actions,
activities and their distribution in time taking into account that the project will last for
one year.
ACTIONS ACTIVITIES
A/2012 B/2012
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dic
Bibliography
Reading
 Reading the TEFL Project
by Caixal (2001).
 Reading about unit design,
tasks and final tasks, online
courses, and learning to
learn topics.
 Reading about planning and
pre-writing, general writing
skills, academic writing,
description, explanation,
argumentation, CALL and
Learning Strategies.
Unit Design
 TEFL assignments and
thesis analysis looking for
the main problems the
students show for
description, explanation,
argumentation, grammar
and academic vocabulary.
 Unit design according to
chart given by Caixal (2001)
 Extra exercises and extra
readings design according to
different student’s profiles.
 Additional reading search or
design per unit.
 Teacher’s book design.
Material
adaptation
to the
Moodle
Platform
 Upload the design materials
to the Platform.
Research
Project Writing
 Research project will be
written throughout the year
taking into account the
deadlines given by the
TEFL Master Program to
hand out the advances of
the project.
 The final project will be
submitted on Sep/13.

42
5. Conclusion
As I mentioned in the introduction of this RP, the design of units 9 and 10 for the
EAP course is just a small but important link. They both make part of a fifteen unit
course which has a bigger objective. Through this time I have put into practice the
theoretical knowledge acquired during the Master on TEFL, so I have had the chance
to learn more and to improve my skills as a designer and a team worker.
Units 9 and 10 for the EAP course are well structured because they follow unit
design principles that not only take into account the specific population’s needs, but
the e-learning software in which they are going to be developed by those students. I
can state that this Research Project has met its aims (see 3.1 Project Aims):
• Design two units for the syllabus of an online course in English for Academic
Purposes (EAP.)
• Put into practice the knowledge acquired in the Master on Teaching English as a
Foreign Language (TEFL).
• Create and provide solutions to the individual academic writing problems and
needs to the participants of the EAP course.
One of the major difficulties I found when designing the unit was the amount of time
it takes to complete the package of student and teacher’s book, and extra readings and
exercises, especially in the creation of extra readings and exercises, since most of
them were completely designed by me. Likewise, despite my personal belief of this
being a fructiferous and complete project work, I think that every group of people has
different needs and in consequence, the tutor in charge of the development of these
two units must take into account that there might be activities which need further work
or that can be not appropriate for students taking the course. Also, I think that changes
and improvements can be made to the lay out to make it more attractive to those
students whose learning style is more visual.
Moreover, I would like to point out that this is only a design which needs to be
implemented and developed, so further action-research will be needed to evaluate the
efficacy of the design. I would personally like to be part of the team that will implement
and evaluate these two units so I can improve whatever needs to be improved in this
project work.

43
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asured%20final.pdf

47
Appendices
Appendix I: EAP Course contents
Week 1: 7 days, 10 hours
Subject & Unit: Introductory Tasks
Objectives Main contents Proposed Tasks Proposed assessment
 Know how to use the
Moodle Campus and
make the most of it.
 Become a part of a
learning community
and interact with the
tutor and the
classmates.
 Become familiar
with the Moodle
Campus and the
course schedule.
 Focused communication task:
Student Guide with tasks that help
the student master the use of
Moodle, understand the course
schedule, aims and tasks, and
create a good and collaborative
atmosphere among students.
 Summative assessment: tasks will be partly
assessed automatically by Moodle and partly
assessed by a tutor. For instance, those that just
check if the student can sail in Moodle can be
automatically assessed. But those which help the
students interact with each other and the tutor,
will have to be assessed by the tutor
 Acknowledge the need
for an EAP course.
 Realise his/her
writing problems.
 Interpretation task: A commented
version of his/her Entrance exam
with notes and suggestions from
the teacher.
 Diagnostic assessment: A short chat or Skype
with the tutor about why these are mistakes.
Posible strategic
contents
 Portfolio
  

48
Subject: Planning and Pre-writing
Unit: Planning the task, and Generating and organising
Objectives Main contents
Planningthetask
 Know his/her profile as a writer and a learner.  Define his/her profile as a writer.
 Increase writing awareness.
 Understand texts better.
 Analyse the communicative situation.
 The addressee.
 Outline the aim of the text.
 Develop cognitive processes and planning writing techniques.
 See himself/herself as an effective addresser.
 Follow the instructions.
 The formal requirements of the text.
Generating
and
organising
 How to generate and organise useful ideas for text writing.
 Methods to generate ideas.
 Methods to organise ideas.
Strategic
contents.
 To choose depending on the objectives of the unit:
http://cvc.cervantes.es/ensenanza/biblioteca_ele/plan_curricular/niveles/13_procedimientos_aprendizaje_introduccion.htm
 Each unit needs to focus on a different strategic content.
 Proposed strategic contents for this unit, according the the website above:
o Planificación y control del propio proceso de aprendizaje
o Planificación

49
Educatio
n
knowled
ge
 Basic knowledge about: Methodological Approaches.
Proposed
Tasks
 Reflective learning task: Test about his/her profile as a writer that helps the student talk about his/her relation with English.
 Consciousness-raising tasks: Analyse texts specially written in order to distinguish between efficient and inefficient texts.
 Focused communication task: Guided writing exercises where the student has to plan texts where collide different disciplines,
addresses, addressers, time and cultures.
 Focused communication task: Choose a preferred method to generate and organise ideas about a topic linked with education.
Proposed
assignment
 Self-assessment: But the tutor may point out some interesting issues about the test.
 Summative assessment: Automatic assessment made by Moodle.
 Co-assessment: With another student, where they both share their analysis. And a final summative assessment by Moodle and
the tutor.
 Summative assessment: Where the tutor corrects.
Subject: Planning and Pre-writing
Unit: Final task
Finaltask
 Improve the student knowledge about the aforementioned
education knowledge content.
 ¿
 Review everything done in the subject
 Writing awareness.
 Strategic contents.
 Planning the task
 Generating and organising.

50
Strategic
contents.
 To choose depending on the objectives of the unit:
http://cvc.cervantes.es/ensenanza/biblioteca_ele/plan_curricular/niveles/13_procedimientos_aprendizaje_introduccion.htm
 Each unit needs to focus on a different strategic content.
 Proposed strategic contents for this unit, according the the website above:
o Planificación y control del propio proceso de aprendizaje
o Planificación
o Evaluación y control
Educatio
n
knowled
ge
 Basic knowledge about: Classroom Management.
Proposed
Tasks
 Focused communication: Reading where the student finds a short summary of the subjects linked with education.
 Focused communication and Reflective learning task: Plan, generate and organise the ideas to write a text on what the student
wants to improve about his academic skills in this course. The student will be given a sketch where he/she will have to talk about
writing awareness, strategic contents, and intertwine this ideas with the information learn through the topics about education.
Proposed
assignment
 Summative assessment: The reading will contain self-evaluated tasks. Moodle will give feedback for these tasks but the tutor will
be able to add feedback too.
 Formative assessment: The tutor will correct the assignment pointing out if the student has followed what has been learned.
Language problems will not be yet taken into account.

51
Subject: Writing: General writing skills
Unit: Spelling, Vocabulary and Grammar
Spelling
 Become proficient at English spelling rules.
 Be familiar with complicated spelling problems.
 Adding -er/-est
 Adding -ing/-ed
 Adding -ly
 Adding -s
 -ible or -able
 -ie- or -ei-
 Varieties of English
Vocabulary
 Raise awareness about the importance of vocabulary.
 Learn technique to increase the quality of the vocabulary
used.
 Inappropriate words.
 Empty words.
 Crutches.
 Inkhorn terms.
 Synonyms and antonyms.
Grammar
 Become proficient at English grammar rules.
 Be familiar with complicated grammar problems.
 Adverbs and adjectives.
 Articles.
 Count and noncount nouns.
 Prepositions.
 To + inf. vs. –ing forms.
 Active and passive voice.
 Concordation.
 Word order.

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