THE UNIVERSITY OF THE AUTONOMOUS REGIONS OF

THE NICARAGUAN CARIBBEAN COAST

URACCAN
NUEVA GUINEA CAMPUS

VOCABULARY ACQUISITION I

Major:

English Language Teaching Course at URACCAN

CURRICULUM 2010

Nueva Guinea, July, 2014

 I. GENERAL INFORMATION:

Course Vocabulary Acquisition I

English Language Teaching Course at

MAJOR URACCAN

SHIFT OF STUDY

STUDY MODE

TOTAL NUMBER OF HOURS 64 hours

NUMBER OF CREDITS 4 credits

DESIGNED BY Lic. Juan Carlos Ortiz Altamirano

DATE OF DELIVERING

APPROVED BY

DATE APPROVED

SING

SEAL
 II. INTRODUCTION:

Vocabulary Acquisition aims to build a vocabulary level of at least 1500

English words in the learners’ mental lexicon of all the majors URACCAN
University offers. Meeting the target number of words in this course will
to a certain extent guarantee the learners’ success in the rest of the
subjects to come.

This level is also an entry – point into Let´s Go (the recommended

book) intended for students who already have some familiarity with the
English Alphabet. Vocabulary Acquisition focuses on the development of
vocabulary in basic oral language through functional dialogues, question
– and – answer patterns, and vocabulary work.

Instructors will focus on getting intelligible pronunciation of the

vocabulary words introduced in every single lesson. Therefore, it is
recommended to follow some of the principles of the oral-situational
approach and some of the principles of the audio-lingual approach,
mainly those focused on developing pronunciation skills and vocabulary
learning. The type of teaching materials for this subject must contain a
vocabulary database of the most common words used in English plus
audio CDs so that learners can have the chance to continue to acquire
as many words as possible in and outside the classroom.
III. OBJECTIVES

General Objective:

1. Master a vocabulary level of at least 1500 English words in the

learners’ mental lexicon to certain extent guarantees the learners’
success in the rest of the following subjects.

3.1. Instructional Objectives: Students will be able to:

1. Use of appropriate vocabulary for the development of basic oral

language through functional dialogues, question – and – answer
patterns, and vocabulary work.

2. Get more vocabulary to have varied opportunities to communicate

with each other in the target language.

3.2. Educational Objectives:

1. Develop professional future implementation of the transversal Axis

of URACCAN University: multiculturalism, and gender, human
rights autonomous rights, entrepreneurship, research and
business development in their daily work.

2. Encourage Students of different majors with a very professional

respect for the cultural diversity, respect for each other and for
the members of the URACCAN University community.

3. Promote and cultivate values such as companionship, discipline,

punctuality, honesty and mutual respect for the teaching-learning
process during the development of this course.
 IV. SUBJECT PLAN

Time
No. Name of the Unit
Theory Practice Total
1. Unit I: The eight parts of speech 2 4 6
2. Unit II: Things for school 2 4 6
3. Units 1 – 2 Listen and Review 2 2 4
4. Unit III: At the Store 2 4 6
5. Unit IV: People at Home 2 4 6
6. Units 3 – 4 Listen and Review 2 2 4
7. Unit V: Birthday and Toys 2 3 5
8. Unit VI: Outdoors 2 4 6
9. Units 5 – 6 Listen and Review 2 2 4
10. Unit VII: Food 2 3 5
11. Unit VIII: Animals 2 3 5
12. Units 7 – 8 Listen and Review 2 3 5
13. Final Test 2 2
14. Total Hours 24 40 64
 4.1. OBJECTIVES AND CONTENTS PER UNIT

UNIT 1: THE EIGHT PARTS OF SPEECH

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to

1) Define the eight parts of speech.

2) Recognize how parts of speech function in sentence.
3) Identify the eight parts of speech in simple sentences and oral
communication.

CONTENTS:
1) Diagnostic test
2) Nouns
3) Pronouns
4) Adjectives
5) Verbs
6) Adverbs
7) Prepositions
8) Conjunctions
9) Interjections

UNIT 2: THINGS FOR SCHOOL

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to

1) Greet and ask each other how they are and ask each other’s
names, and respond to and repeat classroom command with verb
phrases with Let´s.
2) Identify and ask about things they use in the classroom including
colors and shapes, and describe the shapes of some objects.
 3) Identify and ask about additional classroom objects, ask and
respond to Yes/No questions using the grammar pattern Is this a
+ color + object?
4) Learn the alphabet, learn to count to 100, and clarify ownership of
objects by using my and yours using the grammar pattern This is
possessive + color/shape + object.
5) Identify words beginning with A, B, and C.
6) Demonstrate comprehension of language and vocabulary taught in
the previous units.

CONTENTS:

1. Introducing yourself, Greetings, Classroom commands.

1. Asking someone´s name.
2. Colors, shapes, Identifying Objects (Singular).
3. Shapes, identifying shapes.
4. Describing objects with color and shape, and asking about objects.
5. Clarifying Possessions (possessives pronouns)
6. Listen and Review Units 1 – 2

UNIT 3: AT THE STORE

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to:

1) Introduce friends and talk about abilities

2) Identify objects by number, and ask and answer questions about
quantity
3) Distinguish between singular and plural items, and be able to ask
and answer questions about plural objects.
4) Identify words beginning with D, E, and F, and describe items in
terms of color and number.
CONTENTS:

1. Introducing Others
2. Describing Abilities (Descriptive adjectives)
3. Asking about numbers
4. Identifying Objects (Singular and Plural)
5. Identifying Characteristics of Objects
6. Contrasting Singular and Plural

UNIT 4: PEOPLE AT HOME

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to:

1) Identify the members of their families

2) Describe their family members and ask Yes/No questions about
them
3) Learn to identify words beginning with hard and soft G, H, and I
4) Learn parts of the body
5) Demonstrate comprehension of language and vocabulary taught in
Units 3 and 4

CONTENTS:
1. Family members
2. Describing people (Descriptive adjectives)
3. Talking about one´s own family
4. Body parts
5. Units 3 – 4 Review
UNIT 5. BIRTHDAY AND TOYS!

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to:

1) Give birthday Greetings and ask how old someone is

2) Identify toys and ask the name of an undetermined object
3) Ask about an object they can see as well as objects they only
partially see or are not certain about.
4) Describe the shape and size of objects and ask and answer
questions about singular and plural objects
5) Identify words beginning with J, K, L, and M

CONTENTS:

1. Birthday greetings
2. Asking and telling age
3. Giving gifts
4. Identifying objects: Toys
5. Describing objects
6. Guessing based on size, shape and color

UNIT 6. OUTDOORS

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to:

1) Ask and answer questions about the weather and physical abilities
2) Identify objects by number, and ask and answer questions about
quantity
3) Distinguish between singular and plural objects, and be able to
ask and answer questions about location of objects
4) Identify words with N, O, P, and Q
5) Learn the names and sequence of the days of the week
 6) Demonstrate comprehension of language and vocabulary taught in
Units 5 and 6.

CONTENTS:

1. Weather
2. Abilities
3. Nature
4. Prepositions
5. Specifying objects and location
6. Days of the week
7. Units 5 – 6 review

UNIT 7: FOOD

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to:

1) Express what they want to eat or drink, and use habitual verb
phrases with every day
2) Learn to express the kind of food they want
3) Students learn to ask Yes/No Questions with food items
4) Learn the words and sounds beginning with R, S, T and U
5) Learn how to make and answer questions using adjectives +
nouns with want / I don´t want

CONTENTS:

1. Expressing hunger and thirst

2. Giving and receiving
3. Food (Countable and Uncountable)
4. Describing everyday activities (simple tense)
 5. Asking what someone wants
6. Expressing wants
7. Expressing wants with descriptive adjectives
8. Wants vrs. Like

UNIT 8: ANIMALS

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to:

1) Learn to express and identify feelings appropriately.

2) Ways of describing pets especially with the use of personality
adjectives.
3) Students will learn what kind of animals they should expect to find
in a zoo and then, talk about the needs of animals to live.
4) Learn how to give reasons.
5) Demonstrate comprehension of language and vocabulary taught in
Units 7 and 8

CONTENTS:

1) Feelings
2) Pet animals
3) Zoo animals
4) Giving reasons
5) Unit 7 – 8 Review
Methods of Instruction

V. ASSESSMENT

It is suggested that the assessment of this course is made on the basis

of cumulative work carried out by the students, either individually or
group work. Evaluation assessment exercises should always focus on
the practical application of vocabulary in context, in the light of their
own experiences as English teacher.

At the end of each two chapters or units there are review sessions for
studying and it is important to mention that the activities and exercises
of the suggested book in each lesson are highly student – centered.
Students are encourage to communicate with one another, first in
groups and then in pairs, after they have developed sufficient confidence
and familiarity with the language.
 VI. BASIC BIBLIOGRAPHY

Nakata Ritsuko, Frazier Karen, Hoskins Barbara, Graham Carolyn

(2006). Let´s Go Teacher´s Book 1, Third Edition. Oxford
University Press.

Nakata Ritsuko, Frazier Karen, Hoskins Barbara, Graham Carolyn

(2006). Let´s Go Student Book 1, Third Edition. Oxford University
Press.

Nakata Ritsuko, Frazier Karen, Hoskins Barbara, Graham Carolyn

(2006). Let´s Go Skills Book, Third Edition. Oxford University
Press.

The eight parts of speech

http://www2.hull.ac.uk/lli/PDF/Parts%20of%20speech.pdf

The 1500 words most used in English:

http://www.englishspeak.com/english-words.cfm

Vocabulary by Categories: http://www.english-

guide.org/category/vocabulary

List of Descriptive Adjectives for Appearance, Feelings, and More

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/list-of-descriptive-
adjectives.html#adjectives-describing-appearance

Adjective Vocabulary Word List

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/wordlist/adjectives.shtml

Singular and Plural Rules

https://www.georgebrown.ca/uploadedFiles/TLC/_documents/Plurals%20Refe
rence.pdf

Weather vocabulary and test

http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/weather-vocabulary-activities.pdf

countable and uncountable nouns

http://www.englishpage.com/minitutorials/countable-uncountable-nouns.htm

Picture vocabulary and audio: http://www.my-english-dictionary.com/

Vocabulary by Categories: http://www.speakenglish.co.uk/vocab/