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: 293-3604 ext. 1102
Office: 116 Eiesland Hall Email: 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 email, 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, 2006.

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

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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 (293-6700).

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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 Course Introduction

Conversation starters: Small talk
Week 2 Improving Your Pronunciation
Preparing to listen to a lecture
Week 3 Pronunciation Basics
Taking lecture notes
Week 4 Stressing Syllables and Speaking Clearly
Synthesizing information from lectures
Week 5 Intonation Patterns
Requesting for information, checking comprehension, and
seeking clarification
Week 6 Speech Rhythms
Being an active listener: giving verbal and non-verbal
feedback
Week 7 Vowels and Speech Music
Participating in a group discussion
Week 8 The Melody of Speech
Summarizing academic readings and lectures
Week 9 The Speech Pathway – What’s Happening Where
Negotiating the office hour
Week 10 Important Endings
Describing graphs, tables, and charts
Week 11 Vowels and Consonants
Planning a group project
Week 12 Conversational Speech
Listening to and participating in conversations
Week 13 Thought Groups
Strategies for presentations and interactive communication
Week 14 Group/pair presentations

Week 15 Group/pair presentations

Week 16 Finals Week: no classes

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 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

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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

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