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Topic outline

    • Time: 15 hours
    • Free Certificate
    • CEFR Level B1
    Developing skills in a second language involves understanding how the language works and taking the time to practice using it. ESL002 encourages you to work with new grammar ideas and word choices and practice using those topics to write about yourself and develop your writing skills. In Unit 1, you will learn how past and present tenses change the meaning of what you read and write. Unit 2 improves your ability to read actively as you skim, scan, and read intensively. In Unit 3, you will read more to collect new vocabulary and learn strategies to develop it more with synonyms, antonyms, and suffixes. Unit 4 brings these skills together as you write a narrative paragraph about something you learned in the past. By the end of ESL002, you will be able to use different tenses to describe past experiences and explain to a reader how you best learn.

  • How Good is Your English?

    • Read the story and answer the questions to assess how well you understand what you read in English. You can try this activity again after you have completed this course to see if your comprehension has improved.

    • Find out if you know the parts of speech in the English language that you will need for this course and a lifetime of learning!

  • Unit 1 introduces you to basic concepts related to using verbs in Standard English: tense, aspect, and mood. This will help you explain two things when you speak or write in English. First, you can show when the actions you describe take place. Also, you can show your attitude toward those actions. In this unit, we will focus on the most commonly used tenses in English. We will review how each is formed, what makes them different, and when each is used. Finally, you will practice recognizing these tenses and then using them to create your own sentences.

    Completing this unit should take you approximately 5 hours.

  • Unit 2 reviews active reading strategies discussed in ESL001, focusing on careful reading and features of narrative texts. Skimming, scanning, careful reading, making predictions, and using context clues will help you better comprehend (understand) what you read. In this unit, you will practice these skills to improve your comprehension of different texts in English.

    Completing this unit should take you approximately 2 hours.

  • In Unit 3, you'll learn to find synonyms and antonyms and create word families with suffixes. Building your vocabulary with synonyms will help you avoid repetition and be more specific when you explain yourself. In this unit, you'll practice finding multiple meanings for words and their synonyms. This unit concludes with an activity where you'll build your vocabulary using the strategies we'll cover.

    Completing this unit should take you approximately 3 hours.

  • Unit 4 combines the lessons in units 1, 2, and 3. In this unit, you'll read about events in the past and see how timelines are used to write about events. Then you'll write about an event in your past and share it in the class discussion forum.

    Completing this unit should take you approximately 4 hours.


  • Course Feedback Survey

    Please take a few minutes to give us feedback about this course. We appreciate your feedback, whether you completed the whole course or even just a few resources. Your feedback will help us make our courses better, and we use your feedback each time we make updates to our courses. If you come across any urgent problems, email contact@saylor.org.

  • Certificate Final Exam

    Take this exam if you want to earn a free Course Completion Certificate.

    To receive a free Course Completion Certificate, you will need to earn a grade of 70% or higher on this final exam. Your grade for the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you can take it again as many times as you want, with a 7-day waiting period between each attempt.

    Once you pass this final exam, you will be awarded a free Course Completion Certificate.