IN-103 English III · A1.3

Description (nature and purpose)

IN-103 General English III (A1.3) is the third of three levels of the foreign language subject at UNAH, which together aim at the complete A1 level of the CEFR. It is designed for face-to-face, blended and virtual modalities nationwide, ensuring accessible, consistent and inclusive education. It follows an action-oriented, competence-based model that promotes active and meaningful learning, supported by the UNAH Virtual Campus, physical and digital materials and multimodal resources. The program integrates pluralistic approaches such as intercomprehension between languages, interculturality and translanguaging, strengthening students' autonomy and their plurilingual and pluricultural competence. At the end of this third level, students can order at a restaurant, make and attend a medical appointment, describe health problems, talk about past vacations and places visited, talk about future plans and personal projects, write a CV in English and prepare for an interview.

Cross-curricular axes

Ethics: Takes part in activities, workshops and seminars that promote the fundamental principles of the university reform and their impact on language teaching and learning, in line with the ethical and educational guidelines of the institution.

Living conditions and quality of life: Promotes habits and practices that support quality of life, in order to enhance personal and professional development in learning and using the language, based on principles of overall well-being and self-regulation during language acquisition.

Prior capacities

• Describes their home, room or immediate surroundings, using specific vocabulary for furniture, spaces and locations with simple grammar and coherent discourse.
• Interacts in everyday accommodation situations (in person or online), asking for, offering and confirming basic information with polite expressions suited to the context.
• Presents general information about a city or a known place, highlighting relevant sites, services and cultural aspects, using basic connectors and structures.
• Expresses personal opinions and preferences about urban places and activities, using descriptive vocabulary and appropriate evaluative expressions.
• Understands simple directions to move around or find places, using common orientation and transport expressions.
• Interacts in everyday urban mobility situations, asking for and giving directions accurately, politely and with clear pronunciation.
• Interacts in basic shopping contexts, asking and answering questions about prices, quantities, sizes and product features, using appropriate polite expressions.
• Uses simple vocabulary and structures to describe and compare products, with clarity, understandable pronunciation and communicative appropriateness.

Generic competences

• Manages autonomous learning in different environments to support personal, academic and professional growth, based on self-regulation strategies, time management and reflective use of available resources.
• Analyzes, synthesizes and applies knowledge in different contexts to build meaningful learning through reflection on practice, based on criteria of relevance, coherence and knowledge transfer.
• Proposes creative solutions to changing situations to face challenges and seize opportunities for improvement in different environments, based on criteria of flexibility, relevance and innovation.
• Promotes interaction and learning practices that respect the principles of equity and inclusion to ensure coexistence and educational quality in learning environments, based on ethical norms, social responsibility and institutional commitment.
• Manages information, knowledge and technological tools to solve problems and collaborate in academic and professional contexts, based on criteria of critical analysis, innovation and informed decision-making.

Specific competences

• Understands and produces expressions about restaurants, food and diets, interacting in everyday contexts to order food in person or online, talk about typical recipes and representative dishes, and arrange meetings or bookings with friends and family.
• Identifies and uses basic expressions to interact in medical situations, describing symptoms, discomfort or illnesses, making appointments, understanding simple medical instructions and prescriptions, and communicating care needs clearly and respectfully.
• Describes vacation activities and experiences, mentioning places visited and personal situations, expressing opinions or preferences simply and coherently.
• Communicates orally and in writing about personal and professional plans, writing basic information for a CV and taking part in simple interviews, expressing goals, intentions, future plans and aims clearly.

Sub-competences

• Understands and uses expressions and vocabulary about food, restaurants and diets to order food and talk about recipes and typical dishes in oral and written contexts.
• Interacts in social situations about food and gatherings, managing bookings or meetings with friends and family, applying politeness norms and discourse coherence.
• Describes symptoms, discomfort or health conditions using basic medical vocabulary and simple structures in oral and written contexts.
• Interacts with health professionals to make appointments, understand instructions and prescriptions, and communicate care needs clearly and respectfully.
• Tells about vacation experiences and activities, describing places visited, situations and personal events in oral and written production.
• Expresses opinions, preferences and evaluations about tourist activities and destinations, using descriptive vocabulary, simple grammar and coherent discourse.
• Writes personal and professional information for basic documents such as CVs and applications, using appropriate vocabulary and structures.
• Takes part in interviews and conversations about personal plans and professional goals, expressing aims, intentions and aspirations clearly, coherently and accurately.

Thematic areas

Unit I: From the menu to a balanced diet (the restaurant)

• Restaurants and fast food
• Ordering food in person and online
• Typical recipes and representative dishes
• Meetings and bookings with friends or family

Unit II: Taking care of health and well-being (the medical appointment)

• Making and attending a medical appointment
• Describing discomfort and symptoms
• Talking about common illnesses
• Prescriptions and treatment

Unit III: Travel experiences and memories (vacations)

• Talking about past trips and vacations
• Describing places visited and activities done
• Expressing emotions and experiences in the past
• Comparing destinations and types of travel

Unit IV: Personal plans and aspirations (future projects)

• Personal and future plans
• The CV
• The job interview
• Professional goals and projects

Learning and teaching strategies

Face-to-face modality

In the face-to-face modality, students learn collaboratively through social interaction, working individually, in pairs, in small groups or as a whole class. The methodological strategies that guide the course include projects and contextualized communicative and pedagogical tasks based on the different language skills. The course combines oral, written and audiovisual reception, production and interaction activities.

Activities include conceptualization, language practice, information gap, pronunciation correction, simulations, role plays, gamification (kamishibai, escape rooms, storytelling), debates and intercultural reflection from an inclusive and critical perspective, as well as preparation for international exams. Contextualized activities promote intercultural reflection and plurilingual competence.

From a plurilingual and intercultural approach, this course promotes intercomprehension between related languages as a strategy to access written, oral and audiovisual texts. This practice develops receptive skills, strengthens language awareness and supports learner autonomy. Students' linguistic and cultural capital is recognized and valued as a key teaching resource. For this reason, the course includes presentations, dramatizations and plurilingual debates (translanguaging) that allow expression in different languages and encourage reflection on cultural diversity.

Authentic and teaching documents with a communicative and functional focus, adapted to young people's interests, are used: social media posts (memes, reels, TikToks), literary texts (poems, micro-stories, manga), digital materials (podcasts, vlogs), functional texts (reviews, forms, messages), visual documents (infographics, ads) and interactive resources (quizzes, escape rooms, digital portfolios).

Blended modality

The blended modality uses the flipped classroom model, combining face-to-face sessions with virtual meetings on videoconference platforms. It uses both physical resources and the university's virtual classroom, which brings together varied digital materials and language activities designed to support learning.

These include written, oral and digital reception, production and interaction tasks, as well as games, training exercises and video tutorials that help students understand grammar, vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation. The activities and types of documents are the same as in the face-to-face modality and follow the principles and approaches of online learning.

Virtual modality

This course, hosted in the university's virtual classroom, follows a learner-centered methodology in which students take an active, autonomous and reflective role in building their learning. Based on self-study, it promotes self-regulated learning and the strategic use of digital resources. Contents are organized around students' interests, giving priority to real and motivating situations that help them make the language their own. During the course, students manage their progress, choose resources and assess their own progress, developing the learning-to-learn competence and their self-management.

A key axis is the development of autonomy through metacognitive activities to reflect, set goals, manage time, adjust strategies and transfer learning. Tips, self-assessments, reflective journals and portfolios support this process.

The virtual classroom is a repository, a communication channel and an assessment space. Optional synchronous sessions are offered for tutoring or collaborative feedback. The teacher guides the process through meaningful tasks, formative feedback and virtual support. Students access interactive materials and tools, including topic video tutorials, so they can progress at their own pace and autonomously.

Learning outcomes

• Understands, interprets and produces oral, written and audiovisual messages about food, recipes and diets, using specific vocabulary, correct grammar, clear pronunciation and coherent discourse, respecting sociocultural norms.
• Takes part in oral and written exchanges to organize meals, bookings or meetings, using polite expressions, appropriate vocabulary, intelligible pronunciation and coherent discourse.
• Understands and communicates symptoms, discomfort or health conditions through oral, written and audiovisual texts, using medical vocabulary, functional grammar, understandable pronunciation and coherent discourse.
• Takes part in oral and written exchanges with health professionals, making appointments, following instructions and communicating needs, using specific vocabulary, polite expressions and sociocultural appropriateness.
• Understands and produces oral, written and audiovisual texts about vacation experiences, using appropriate verb tenses, descriptive vocabulary, simple grammar, clear pronunciation and coherent discourse.
• Communicates opinions and preferences about tourist activities and places in oral and written interactions, using appropriate tenses to narrate past experiences, descriptive vocabulary, understandable intonation and sociocultural appropriateness.
• Produces written and audiovisual texts to present personal and professional information, using future forms to express plans, coherence, appropriate vocabulary and sociocultural norms.
• Interacts orally and in writing in interviews or conversations about personal or professional goals and plans, using future forms to express aims and expectations, functional vocabulary, clear pronunciation, coherent discourse and sociocultural appropriateness.

Assessment strategies

Face-to-face modality

At the beginning of the course a diagnostic assessment focused on pragmatic, linguistic and cultural aspects identifies students' prior knowledge. This sets the route and time needed for coherence between the contents of A1.2 and this course, supporting effective progress.

Formative assessment is continuous, through direct observation, oral and written feedback and teacher support while students complete tasks. It includes self-assessment and peer assessment, which promote social learning as well as students' self-regulation and autonomy.

Summative assessment uses meaningful tasks that integrate several language skills (oral, written and audiovisual comprehension, interaction and production) and show the development of competences in real or simulated contexts. It includes collaborative projects, final task presentations, dramatizations, debates and problem solving, integrating linguistic and intercultural knowledge as well as analysis, collaboration and critical thinking. Competence- and outcome-based rubrics, checklists and portfolios are used to grade it. These instruments ensure coherent, valid and reliable assessment.

Assessment in this modality can be fully face-to-face or combined, partly online and partly face-to-face.

Distance modality

In the hybrid modality, diagnostic, formative and summative assessment are similar to the face-to-face modality. Summative assessment can be fully face-to-face or combined, partly online and partly face-to-face. Formative assessment mainly uses delayed feedback, self-assessment activities and, in group activities, peer assessment.

Synchronous videoconference meetings are used for personalized pedagogical support and direct guidance. Summative assessment is recommended at the end of each unit, using e-portfolios and rubrics based on the descriptors of competences, sub-competences and expected learning outcomes.

In these assessments, especially online, validity and reliability are guaranteed to ensure a fair and rigorous process. Assessment in this modality includes digital projects, multimedia products and online collaborative activities, as well as tasks for oral, written and audiovisual comprehension, production and interaction. All activities are set in real and meaningful situations to show the development of specific competences in the use of English.