Course+Description

=**DEPARTAMENTO DE IDIOMAS - USB**= =**ID2126 English for Architecture & Urban Planning III (Parallel Course)**= = = =**Course Description**=

English for Architecture and Urban Planning III at Universidad Simon Bolivar is a blended course intended for the practice of the different language abilities introduced in the previous courses plus the discussion of new aspects of Architecture and Urban Planning. The course has been designed to continue practicing reading and writing making a stronger emphasis on the speaking and listening skills. Some tasks are oriented towards listening to authentic materials and others towards F2F presentations of various topics after doing some research. The course follows a task-content and project-based approach to language teaching, based on the tenets of the social constructivist theory of language learning.

=**General objective:**=

Analyze the content and discourse of different architectural and urban planning elements and effects such as Circulation (Vertical & Horizontal), Rhythm, Color, Light, Texture, Acoustics, Space and Scale to finally design their own final projects. Final Projects will consists of the integration of voice, text, and images to present all topics discussed during the term analyzing the work of a famous architect.

=**Specific objectives**=

At the end of the course students will have practiced Not all together, students will create a project integrating course content.
 * 1. //Language//**
 * vocabulary related to the content
 * reading authentic texts related to the content
 * writing different kinds of texts
 * listening to and viewing authentic videos

At the end of the course students will have discussed about these architectural elements and effects:
 * 2. //Content//**
 * **Circulation**: Horizontal and Vertical circulation, Sequences in planning
 * **Rhythm**
 * **Color**
 * **Light**
 * **Texture**
 * **Acoustics**
 * **Space**
 * **Scale**

There will be a practical part where students will apply the concepts discussed for identifying architectural elements and effects analyzing plans and descriptions of different works of the same architect/urban planner. Students will also be required to identify such elements in their own designs.

During the course, students will have the opportunity to For the timetable with the distribution of the content by week, please click here
 * 3. //Skills//**
 * use different web tools for learning: web pages, online platforms, blogs, wikis, text and voice chats
 * work in groups
 * develop collaborative skills
 * develop autonomy in learning through the use of meta-cognitive skills

=**Methodology**=

This blended course has been designed to give certain autonomy and flexibility to the students. Moodle will be used as the asynchronous center for communication, and it will be complemented with this course wiki in www.wikispaces.com, and a collaborative blog students will create. The multimedia lab will be our meeting place, especially for students who do not have easy access to computers. However, students can do the activities from elsewhere, and not necessarily at the same time the lab session is taking place. They only need to complete the activities assigned for each week (see **Timetable**). Weekly Activities will be corrected and graded every weekend, once the week is over. Using tailored made exercises and others found on the web, students, individually, and at their own pace, will practice the aspects of the language they need to work on. Students will also participate in group work, and these activities can be done at any time the groups decide to meet; in the case of chats, participants must be attentive to previous invitation and agreement with the teacher & classmates. Some activities will combine f2f and online elements, these activities will require students’ presence in the classroom. With the different activities students will develop and practice vocabulary related to the content while they read authentic texts and listen and view authentic videos.

=**Evaluation**=

The evaluation follows the principles of Alternative Evaluation. There will be teacher correction of class assignments but students will also be involved in peer and self-assessment of the work done. Rubrics and checklists will be generated to assess the different tasks. See Evaluation Plan section for details

For the online resources used in the course, see the Useful Links section.
 * Resources**