Intermediate

Level
General Guidelines for
Students

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 Course Overview
The course material belongs to the
American Big Picture series.

• In this series, content is presented in a way that

will allow you to consolidate and build up your
knowledge gradually and sequentially.
• This material comes with additional components
to offer you plenty of opportunities to practice
outside the classroom.
• These books will help you to develop and improve
your critical thinking skills. You will have the
chance to analyze, rank, evaluate, etc., among
others.

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 Developing autonomy
Along the course your teacher may decide to assign some of the
ABP book activities to be worked on your own and at your pace.
By doing so, you will come to class better “equipped”.

Please, when working on the activities at home:

• Spend time to comfortably do the assigned activities.
• Connect what you are learning with what you already know.
• Identify the items you need your teacher to help you with and
talk about them the next class.
• If you prepare for class there will be more time for practice.
Remember that you will be expected to participate in the
discussion of the answers to the assigned tasks
• Being prepared will help your teacher attend to your needs
better.
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 Course Overview
At this level, you will be evaluated based on your
ability to:
• use more complex grammar structures accurately.
• use more precise vocabulary and expressions.
• develop better understanding of main ideas in longer
texts on concrete and abstract topics.
• elaborate longer stretches of spoken and written texts
(paragraph-length).
• participate actively providing additional information,
supporting ideas, and examples.
• be able to explain your opinion on a wider range of
topics (from personal experience to more global issues).

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 Evaluation
Regarding scores, you will be awarded points based on your
performance. Make sure you always do your best. See chart below.

COMPONENT SCORE PERCENTAGE

A. Learning objectives / outcomes 12 points 60%

B. Final written exam 4 points 20%
C. Autonomous learning project (ALP) 4 points 20%
TOTAL 20 points 100%

The minimum passing grade for the level is 14

points.

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 Evaluation
You will be assessed by means of tasks done in class
In-class ongoing corresponding to speaking, writing, and reading outcomes.
assessment (LOs) Make sure you provide supporting ideas and examples
when participating to show your command of the language.

You will have to show your degree of understanding and

correct use of the language.
Final written exam
Remember the exam includes a section for skills worked on
during the course.

This is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your ability

Autonomous Learning to use the language accurately and effectively in a
Project (ALP) creative way.
Make sure you use the target language structures as
well as the key vocabulary and expressions in the units.

Additional details on the evaluation system can be found

in the Evaluation Guide.

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 Evaluation
Remember you are expected to:
• attend classes on a regularly, and
especially on assessment days.
• discuss with your teacher ways in
which you could improve your
performance.
• use all of the additional tools
available (workbook, online
platform) for practicing and
reinforcing your language skills
outside the classroom.

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 Unit Walkthrough
Here you will find some suggestions
you can follow when working on
specific tasks.

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 Welcome Unit
It can be found at the beginning of the book and
focuses on presenting learning strategies to
help you become an autonomous learner.

The strategies presented in this section will be

useful during your language learning experience.
Make sure you read them in advance and apply
them whenever possible.

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 Unit Openers
Most lessons start with pictures.
These sets of images serve two
purposes:
1. To activate what you know
about the topic
2. To present key vocabulary

Be ready to describe the

pictures and speculate
about the unit’s topic.

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 Vocabulary

Make sure you use the new

expressions when you
participate.

Look up the words you don’t

know in the dictionary and
keep a log to maximize your
learning experience.

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 Grammar

Make sure you use

the structures
accurately.
Otherwise, your
message may mean
something very
different.

Try reading the Grammar References

beforehand and remember to do the extra
activities that accompany them.

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 Pronunciation

The pronunciation aspects

are usually linked to the
grammar points, so use
them when participating.

Using more accurate and

authentic pronunciation
will help you get your
message across more
easily and clearly.

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 Reading

Before you read, try to

make predictions based on
the title and the pictures in
the text.

Keep the task objective in

mind: Am I reading for
main ideas? Details?

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 Listening

Make use of your previous

knowledge to predict what
the listening will be about.

When listening, remember

you don’t need to
understand everything;
focus on the key words
and task.

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 Speaking

These tasks will usually

focus on you, so refer to
your personal experience
when discussing these
questions.

When giving an opinion,

make sure you give
supporting information and
examples to enrich it.

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 Writing

While preparing to write,

organize your ideas first. Use
an outline to do this.

Editing is an important step

of the writing process. It
gives you the opportunity to
correct any mistakes in
spelling, grammar, word
choice, etc.

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 International Exam Preparation
In this section, you will find exercises similar
to the ones found in international exams so
you can practice and become more familiar
with the test format.

Holding an international
exam certification is highly
appreciated when
applying for a job or
obtaining a degree.

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 Review Unit and Bring It Together Section

Review Units offer The Bring It Together

additional practice on section integrates
the topics studied in most topics in the
the course. units to help you
reflect on your
learning.

Take some time to work on these sections before

final exam day, since they can serve as good
practice.

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 Other useful tools
Read the grammar references in advance. They will offer
you an extended explanation on a given grammatical point.
Grammar References
Take some time to do the additional exercises as extra
practice and to be better prepared.

Your teacher will work with you on these activities in class,

Writing Bank but feel free to do them at home as writing practice.

These activities are meant to be done in class with a

Communication Bank partner. Your teacher will let you know how to use these
for practice.

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 Other useful tools
Read these transcripts to find new words or expressions
Selected Transcripts you may want to add to your vocabulary.

Refer to these useful charts if you want to check: (1) the

Irregular verbs and past tense and past participles of irregular verbs or (2) the
phonetic charts pronunciation symbols you may find in the dictionary.

Do these exercises as additional practice, especially if

Online platform (RLP) you notice you need more help in consolidating a
specific vocabulary item, grammatical structure, or skill.

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 Final recommendations
Don’t forget to…

• read the course documents

and tutorials available in
Chamilo to be better
informed of the course.
• use the online platform for
extra practice.
• work hard because practice
makes perfect!

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 Let’s get to work and enjoy
ourselves!

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