OVERVIEW
Listening and speaking consist of interactive exchanges when talking with others (e.g., asking for or giving clarification) and receptive skills (e.g., listening for gist or being aware of different sounds and patterns in English). Students are encouraged to listen to many kinds of genres and talk about the main points and what they understood. Students should also be encouraged to talk to each other in English as often as possible in order to improve their oral communicative ability in face-to-face social interactions. In addition to practicing oral/aural skills, these courses are also a chance to explicitly introduce specific strategies related to maintaining conversations, negotiating meaning, and listening.
TEACHING APPROACH
We encourage teachers to expose students to a variety of topics and genres of listening text and to raise awareness of various listening strategies and techniques: predicting key vocabulary, listening for main points, identifying individual sounds and connected speech, increasing awareness of intonation patterns and rhythm. Follow-up activities could include listening to texts several times, gap fills, dictation exercises, student recording of their own voices, and peer transcribing. Students will also talk to each other to improve their interactive listening and speaking skills. Teachers could assign the university’s self-study system (ALC NetAcademy2) for homework as well as other types of out-of-class study.
DIFFERENT LEVELS
At lower levels in the first year the content of listening texts may include short recordings on personal topics and genres such as conversation and public announcements. Higher level students can listen to more formal academic genres (e.g., mini lectures) on various issues, especially in the second year.
TRANSITION FROM YEAR ONE TO YEAR TWO
The main difference between first and second year lessons will be on the choice of listening-speaking topics and genres. In the first year students will listen to texts covering general topics in a variety of genres such as conversations, telephone calls, radio programs, and podcasts. Students will also practice clear pronunciation, fluency, and personal expression. In the second year, especially for higher levels, students will listen to and discuss topics related to their majors and/or academic genres such as lectures and presentations. This can be done in a variety of ways depending on student level and major and the teacher’s approach and choice of materials.
GRADING
Grading should reflect course objectives. Below are first-year objectives with suggested evaluation methods in parentheses.
By taking this course students will:
- improve their fluency in oral communication (speaking assessment using rubrics to evaluate conversations, short presentations and speeches, poster presentations, interviews, teacher observations)
- improve their accuracy in oral communication (speaking assessment using rubrics to evaluate conversations, short presentations and speeches, poster presentations, interviews, teacher observations)
- take part more effectively in conversations (role plays, conversation assessment)
- offer their opinion and support it in discussions (group or class discussions, debates, interviews)
*It is important to combine several different ways of grading to reflect students’ use of different skills, strategies and abilities.