Course Syllabus (ALS1)

Course name: Advanced Listening and Speaking One

Course code: ALS1

1. Course description:

The Advanced Listening and Speaking course is an important complement to language proficiency
development as it aims at enhancing listening and speaking skills/sub-skills. It is intended to build up
vocabulary, present current topics of world interest, provide practice to improve pronunciation and
grammar competence, develop critical thinking skills, and develop speaking strategies and
presentation techniques. Other key goals comprise developing students’ ability to formulate pertinent
questions and provide supported responses in oral paragraph form.

Advanced Listening and Speaking One (ALS1) course covers units 1 to 3. The course topics are:

 Unit 1 – Urban challenges

In this unit you will identify and introduce a topic, discuss pros and cons, agree and disagree.
 Unit 2 – Protecting our planet
In this unit you will learn how to take notes, introduce examples, brainstorm; and evaluate and
respond to arguments.
 Unit 3 – Beauty and appearance
In this unit you will learn to paraphrase, ask for clarification, conduct a survey, and ask for
clarification.

2. General Course Goals:

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

1. Listen for main ideas and details.

2. Introduce a topic, apologize for interrupting, introduce examples and provide
additional information.
4. Respond to and refute an argument.
5. Conduct a survey.
6. Ask for clarification and keep a conversation going.

3. Course Content

Listening Skills Speaking Skills Grammar

 Listening for main  Introducing a topic  The passive voice
ideas  Apologizing for interrupting  Passive voice with agent
 Listening for details  Responding to and refuting an  Restrictive adjective clauses
 Predicting content argument  Non-restrictive adj. clauses

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  Making inferences  Expressing encouragement  Adjectives
 Asking about personal opinions  Tag questions

4. Course material and purpose / use

Learning Material Purpose / Use

Pathways Listening and The Listening and Speaking course focuses on the development of
Speaking 4 listening sub-skills (identify main ideas and details, and make
inferences) and speaking strategies (communicating in a meaningful
way).
Think and discuss This opening page includes a few questions that help introduce the topic
section of the unit and generate interest about it.
Exploring the theme This section provides a visual introduction to the topic of the unit and
section introduces additional information to contextualize it. The suggested
questions promote the analysis of images, maps, charts, etc. and to go
further into the topic.
Building Vocabulary & This section helps familiarize with key academic and high-frequency
Using Vocabulary vocabulary. The vocabulary is introduced in context, and there are
opportunities for practice, and use.
Developing Listening This section follows a before, during and after listening approach with
Skills opportunities to develop listening skills and sub-skills (main ideas,
details, making inferences, etc.)
Exploring Spoken In this section, specific grammar structures and functions are examined
English and practiced in order to improve listening and speaking skills.
Speaking This section provides opportunities for using the language orally in a
variety of activity types, fostering pair and group work.
Viewing: Video In this activity, different listening and speaking skills are reinforced by
using a video from National Geographic.
Engage This section provides more complex project-like tasks that require group
work and collaboration by interacting in academic situations.
Independent Student Features sections oriented to improve listening skills, Note-Taking skills,
Handbook building Vocabulary, improving Speaking Skills, and other resources.
MyELT platform This tool offers online additional practice exercises including: Listening,
Vocabulary, Grammar, Speaking, Pronunciation, and Video activities.

5. Evaluation Criteria

The evaluation system is based on four components as follows:

COMPONENT SCORE PERCENTAGE

A. Learning objectives/ outcomes 10 points 50%
B. Autonomous learning project (ALP) 3 points 15%
C. Final written exam 4 points 20%
D. Final Oral exam 3 points 15%
TOTAL 20 points 100%

 The minimum passing grade for the level is 14 points.

 If you are interested in learning more about each component, please refer to your “Evaluation Guide”
available in Virtual ICPNA.

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