COURSE WEBSITE Accessed through MIX. The website is an integral part of the course and should be used weekly.

Transcription

1 ESL SPEAKING/LISTENING (ESL 250, sec 001) 3 Credit hours (Pass/Fail) Fall 2005 Time: Tues/Thurs, 1:00-2:15 pm Room: Chitwood 303 Instructor: Helen Huntley Office Tel: ext Office: 116 Eiesland Hall hhuntley@mail.wvu.edu Office Hours: Tues/Thurs, 2:30-3:30 pm or at other times by chance or appointment COURSE OBJECTIVES $ to equip students with the English language skills required for the successful undertaking of academic studies with a primary emphasis on academic speaking and listening skills. $ to provide guidance and practice in basic general and classroom conversation and to engage in specific academic speaking activities. $ to improve comprehensibility through pronunciation improvement $ to practice and improve general and academic listening skills $ to strengthen students' abilities to monitor and evaluate their own English language progress, initiate self-improvement, and develop compensatory language skills as required $ to provide students with a realistic assessment of academic language demands $ to foster self-confidence and a positive attitude toward language learning generally GENERAL REQUIREMENTS All students are expected to fulfill the following requirements for the course: $ attend and participate actively in all general class sessions (see Attendance Policy below) $ attend and be well prepared for any scheduled tutorials $ complete all required readings, pronunciation exercises, and any related assignments $ complete assigned computer lab, website, and pronunciation practice work $ submit a reflection journal, voice , or voice web board assignment as required $ make all assigned pair, group, and class presentations NOTE: This is a skills-based course which requires participation and effort during every class session and regular practice outside of class. Students will not improve their speaking and listening skills without a personal commitment to serious effort REQUIRED MATERIALS Texts: Targeting Pronunciation: Communicating Clearly in English by Sue F. Miller, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006 (with CD/audiotapes) Key Concepts 2: Listening, Note Taking, and Speaking across the Disciplines by Elena Vestri Solomon and John Shelley, Houghton Mifflin Company, COURSE WEBSITE Accessed through MIX. The website is an integral part of the course and should be used weekly. 1

2 GRADING: Pass/Fail Students will receive the grade of PASS by completing all of the general requirements above. Incomplete work and/or poor attendance will result in a grade of FAIL. SPEAKING/LISTENING JOURNALS Each week, students will complete a communicative and/or listening assignment which will be written up in the form of a journal in order to monitor progress. Topics for this activity will be provided on a weekly basis and will reflect the content of the class during that week. The journal will be composed of three parts: a clearly stated objective of the activity a detailed description of the activity chosen to meet that objective a reflection of the accomplishment of this activity in relation to the objective. Students should be able to monitor their progress by evaluating their own strengths and weaknesses. PRESENTATIONS Each student will make two presentations during the semester a short 5 minute oral presentation on a class topic a 20 minute pair or group presentation using Powerpoint on a topic appropriate to the audience. This presentation must include a short introduction to the topic, a clear presentation of the main points with adequate supporting details, an opportunity for the audience to ask questions, and a short oral or written quiz to assess the comprehensibility of the presentation. The instructor and students will provide feedback to the presenters. ATTENDANCE/HOMEWORK POLICY Regular class attendance is required for successful completion of the course. More than 3 UNEXCUSED absences may cause a grade of FAIL. In the case of chronic illness or personal emergencies which require prolonged or frequent absences, the student should withdraw from this course and repeat it when circumstances allow for the fulfillment of course requirements. Work is accepted only on or before the due dates specified by the instructor. If students are absent from class, they are responsible for making arrangements to have their work handed in on the due date, and for informing themselves of the information covered in class during the period of their absence. If a regularly scheduled examination is missed due to illness (properly and specifically documented in writing from a medical practitioner), an authorized university activity, or another approved reason, an opportunity will be provided to make up the exam. No other make-up work will be assigned or accepted. SOCIAL JUSTICE STATEMENT West Virginia University is committed to social justice and the expectation that instructors foster a nurturing learning environment based upon open communication, mutual respect, and nondiscrimination. Our University does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, age, disability, veteran status, religion, sexual orientation, color or national origin. If you are a person with a disability and anticipate needing any type of accommodation in order to participate in this class, please advise me and make appropriate arrangements with Disability Services ( ). 2

3 ESL 250 COURSE SCHEDULE The attached schedule of assignments is tentative; the class may spend more time on an area in which students experience difficulty or in which students express a particular interest. For these reasons, the professor reserves the right to add to, delete from, or in any other way amend this syllabus. However, the course grading system will not change. Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16 Course Introduction Conversation starters: Small talk Improving Your Pronunciation Preparing to listen to a lecture Pronunciation Basics Taking lecture notes Stressing Syllables and Speaking Clearly Synthesizing information from lectures Intonation Patterns Requesting for information, checking comprehension, and seeking clarification Speech Rhythms Being an active listener: giving verbal and non-verbal feedback Vowels and Speech Music Participating in a group discussion The Melody of Speech Summarizing academic readings and lectures The Speech Pathway What s Happening Where Negotiating the office hour Important Endings Describing graphs, tables, and charts Vowels and Consonants Planning a group project Conversational Speech Listening to and participating in conversations Thought Groups Strategies for presentations and interactive communication Group/pair presentations Group/pair presentations Finals Week: no classes 3

4 ESL LISTENING/SPEAKING: SPECIFIC LANGUAGE GOALS Students will engage in and practice activities designed to meet the objectives in Listening and Speaking specified below. I. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: SPEAKING A. Basic Classroom Conversation 01. to articulate a complete idea as opposed to producing fragmented utterances 02. to converse with reasonable accuracy over a wide range of everyday topics 03. to develop greater confidence in speaking in class 04. to contribute to positive group dynamics by expressing one's own ideas appropriately 05. to negotiate disagreement in group work diplomatically 06. to present and support opinion and point-of-view in a logical manner 07. to initiate, sustain, and conclude a variety of communicative tasks within the classroom on campus, e.g., the library, academic advising, registration, etc. B. Academic Speaking 01. to ask for and give focused feedback related to their studies 02. to discuss with reasonable fluency and accuracy topics related to their major 03. to discuss topics related to assignments in an informed and reasonably accurate manner 04. to paraphrase ideas as a means of clarifying and verifying information 05. to orally summarize the main ideas of articles, reading assignments, and extended oral discourse 06. to compare and contrast information and ideas from multiple sources 07. to be aware of factors which influence fluency, e.g. nervousness, topic, audience, speed, lack of vocabulary, and concern for correctness 08. to be aware of strategies for improving fluency, e.g. adequate preparation, confidence, and prediction of possible questions 09. to prepare and deliver a five-minute informal talk 10. to prepare and present a twenty-minute oral presentation individually or with a partner 11. to use correct grammar forms and vocabulary of English to improve intelligibility 12. to be aware of common idioms, classroom vocabulary, and undergraduate slang 13. to employ an appropriate level of formality inside and outside the classroom C. Pronunciation 01. to communicate with pronunciation that parallels that of native speakers as closely as possible 02. to produce individual sounds correctly that correspond to the phoneme sounds of English 03. to stress the appropriate syllables in individual words 04. to reduce vowels in unstressed syllables 05. to distinguish the stress differences in noun/verb pairs, e.g. record as a noun and verb 06. to practice pronunciation of field-specific academic terms 07. to break the sentence into short phrases with one major stress in each group 08. to use appropriate rhythm and linking in thought groups 4

5 09. to use appropriate rising or falling intonation for statements, questions, and items in a series 10. to emphasize important or contrasting words or ideas in a sentence 11. to speak with fluency to improve comprehensibility 12. to avoid starting sentences or phrases more than once before finishing them 13. to use appropriate fillers or hesitation sounds without overusing them 14. to pause between thought groups instead of between individual words II. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: LISTENING A. Global Listening Comprehension Skills 01. to understand conversational English spoken at normal rates in standard dialects with 75% comprehension 02. to understand the gist of rapid discourse 03. to identify different degrees of formality and appropriate everyday registers in speech 04. to signal comprehension and lack of comprehension verbally and non-verbally 05. to demonstrate a grasp of implied meaning 06. to process input as it is being received and to anticipate its development 07. to correctly interpret mood, tone, and point-of-view in conversational and formal discourse B. Discrete Listening Comprehension Skills 01. to understand facial, paralinguistic, and other signals that aid in processing speech 02. to detect key words identifying topics and related ideas 03. to recognize cohesive devices in limited and extended spoken discourse 04. to demonstrate familiarity with ordinary slang and colloquialisms 05. to distinguish between literal and implied meaning 06. to understand how intonation functions to highlight information 07. to recognize rhetorical markers of introduction, transition, conclusion, and emphasis 08. to recognize markers of definition, paraphrase, exemplification, and clarification 09. to recognize cause and effect" in spoken discourse 10. to recognize markers signaling series, chronology, and sequence C. Academic Listening Comprehension Skills 01. to understand the main ideas in extended discourse, e.g., in academic lectures 02. to identify, understand, and relate main ideas presented in a 5-minute informal talk on topics of interest to educated listeners, e.g., classroom presentations 03. to recognize, understand, and respond appropriately to rhetorical questions 04. to understand the nature and purpose of supporting data in oral discourse, e.g., statistics, examples, clarification 05. to identify significant supporting detail in both brief informal talks and extended formal discourse 5

6 6