Listening/Speaking Summer 12 Syllabus

Listening/Speaking Level 6

Course ELCOX706

Summer 2012

Instructor: Christina Andrade

·         Email: candrade@sandiego.edu

·         Facebook: facebook.com/christina.embassy

·         Website: crazychristinasclass.blogspot.com

Class Times: Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:15-10:35

Room: CO 132/SCST 133

Required Materials: Academic Listening Encounters: Human Behavior (Listening, Notetaking, Discussion) available at the USD Bookstore.

*You must buy your book and bring it class by Tuesday 6/26. This is worth 10% of your grade!

Course Goals

This is an academic core course. We will approach listening and speaking from a formal, academic standpoint. A textbook designed to mimic an American university level Humanities class will be used to prepare you for university level speaking and listening.

One aim of this course is to prepare students to speak fluently with little or no hesitation in formal and informal conversations on practical or academic topics and to use a wide range of vocabulary and complex grammar. Another aim of this course is to improve listening skills including summarizing, note taking, and answering detailed questions from listening tests.

If I do my job well, by the end of this course students will:

·         Produce speech which is accurate (relatively free from grammatical and mechanical error)

·         Actively listen to and comprehend a wide variety of listening materials

·         Improve understanding of a variety of English accents

·         Be confident in their ability to speak in front of an audience

Course Objectives

1.      Speak fluently with little or no hesitation in formal and informal conversations on practical or academic topics.

2.      Use a wide range of vocabulary and complex grammar, including noun and adjective clauses.

Student Learning Outcomes

Speaking

1.      Student incorporates information from other sources when answering questions.

2.      Student takes lead in interviews and synthesizes information from interviews or surveys.

3.      Student sounds fluent in speech.

Listening

4.      Student recognizes overt main ideas, makes inferences and can relate these to ideas from other sources.

5.      Student relates cohesive terms to context and is able to use the same terms to discuss own ideas

6.      Student evaluates organization to determine speaker’s purpose and may infer purpose if not stated.

Classroom Expectations

Students are expected to come to class on time, prepared and ready to participate.

This means:

1.      Do not come to class late.

2.      Come to class with your homework completed.

3.      Bring your textbook to class with you every day.

4.      Bring your notebook and pen with you every day.

5.      Volunteer to speak often.

6.      Work cooperatively with different speaking partners.

7.      Be *engaged*.

Engaged (adjective) = interested and excited to participate

*Engagement* is a very important word to Christina. You will hear it all the time.

Learn it, live, it, love it J

Attendance Policy

My attendance policy is simple: Come to class!

If you come to class regularly, Christina will like you and you will learn.

If you must miss a class, please tell Christina before the class you are going to miss.

You can contact Christina in person, by email, or by Facebook (so easy, right?)

Students are required by the US government to have a minimum of 80% attendance.

If you are more than 10 minutes late to class, you will be marked absent. This will make Christina very sad. L

Do you think attendance is important to Christina???

We have a lot of fun in this class. I promise you won’t want to miss a minute of it! J

Grading System

50%                         Class Participation

40%                         Oral Presentations

10%                         Purchase Textbook by 6/26/12

           Late assignments cannot be accepted

**Please notice that a large part of your final grade comes simply from coming to class prepared and participating. Your attendance and participation is very important to me!**

Cheating Policy

Any student caught cheating will immediately fail that assignment.

Any student caught cheating three or more times will fail the class.

Course Assignments

Class participation

Your participation in in-class discussions and activities is the most important part of this course and the key to your success in improving your English! Participation will be judged on many things including your contributions to weekly “Open Questions Time” and contribution to in-class assignments.

“Open Questions Time”

Christina thinks the absolute best way to improve your English is to participate in the English speaking world around you. I encourage you to watch movies and TV, listen to music, read the newspaper and speak to native English speakers. When you do this you are likely to encounter “real world English” (like slang, idioms, swear words). Christina encourages you to listen to find these words and bring them to class! There will be an “open questions” time each week where you can ask Christina anything you want!

These can be questions about:

1.       New Vocabulary

2.       Slang

3.       Idioms

4.       Life in San Diego/ life in the USA

This may be where you learn the most!!!

Quizzes and Exams

Vocabulary retention and listening skills will be tested by in-class listening and vocabulary examinations. Unfortunately, if you miss the test, you cannot make it up.

Oral Presentations

There will be 3 formal oral presentations in this course. Most presentations are required to be accompanied by visual aids (like a Power Point presentation). All presentations are expected to be professional, practiced, and well prepared.