Course Guidelines

 
General Policies
 
Unlike in some classes, you can’t study to improve your skill in listening or speaking. However, you can improve both these skills simply by doing them: by listening and by speaking. Like learning to play a musical instrument or a sport, you can only improve speaking and listening by practicing.  For this reason, I've designed this class to provide you with many opportunities to practice and develop your skill in speaking and in listening.

Homework
I try not to give much homework, especially in this class.  As a consequence, the homework I give is important, and I expect you to do it.  I sometimes check homework to ensure that everyone is doing it.  The same is true of all recording assignments. 

I may decline to accept late work, especially recordings, and when I do accept it, I note in my grade book that it was submitted late. 

Grades
At the end of this course, you will receive a course grade equally weighted between listening and listening assessments.

Grades related to speaking include:
    Performance on the Powerpoint presentation
    Participation and performance in Wednesday Q&A discussions
    Performance during spontaneous, in-class summaries
        (Note: You will receive a midterm speaking assessment to help you focus your pronunciation efforts)
    Performance on recorded assignments
    Quality of work on video project

Grades related to listening include:
    Performance on outside listening quizzes
    Performance on in-class listening quizzes
    Quality of note-taking

Tests
I give no major tests in this class.

However, there are many quizzes, and I do not give make-up quizzes because I think they are unfair to other students.  Be careful not miss one of the quizzes.

Realistically, however, the unexpected may happen and you might miss a quiz.  If this happens, I will calculate your grade using only the other quiz scores.  If you miss more than one quiz, though, I will assign a grade of zero to the other missed quiz(zes).

Attendance
According to Language Institute policy, you must attend 80% of these classes to receive a certificate. If you miss more than 5 classes, your course grade will be lowered one grade. Students who miss more than 8 classes will fail the course.

I, however, expect every student to attend every class. If you do have to miss a class, you are still responsible for any material covered in the class and any assignments that are made. I suggest you get a reliable classmate’s phone number and call that classmate to find out what you missed in class.

At this level, class time is spent as much on practicing pronunciation and listening as it is in explanation of how to create accurate speech. You cannot get such practice outside of class time, so it is important for you to be in class.

Class Etiquette
In this class you will be expected to
    • turn your cell phone to off or silent during class.
    • bring your textbooks to class everyday.
    • speak English during class.
    • complete all assignments on time.
    • participate in class
    • respect the efforts of your classmates

Class Components
 

PowerPoint Presentation
Every student will create an animated Powerpoint presentation that includes voice. On the assigned day, the class will watch these presentations together and respond to them. I will evaluate the PowerPoint presentation on the basis of organization, content, pronunciation and general fluency. I will give you a copy of the evaluation worksheet that I use for every student, and it is also posted on my web site, http://web.li.gatech.edu/~rdrury/600/oral/docs/presentation_evaluation.html .

We will post each student’s PPT presentation on the class website, too.

Class Presentations (Wednesdays)
Every Wednesday, we will watch and listen to some students’ PowerPoint presentations, and there will be a Q&A period for students to ask the presenter questions about the presentation as well as the outside listening.

Outside Listening Quizes (Thursdays)
There are no outside listening reports in my class.

Instead, toward the end of each week, I will give you a listening assignment from my web site at http://web.li.gatech.edu/~rdrury/600/oral/index.html . You can listen to the assignments on your home computer, or you can go to any of the Language Institute computer labs and listen in the lab. As some of the listening material requires a lot of bandwidth, I recommend you try to listen at school for your own convenience. On-line listening is very practical because you can easily stop the play and to back it up to listen to things you miss. However, most of these assignments are somewhat difficult; they are authentic sound stories made for native speakers. I try to develop listening programs that are 10-15 minutes long.

If you have vocabulary questions about something you have heard on the assignment, e-mail me the vocabulary that you haven’t understood (or a close proximity of it). You must do this before lunch time on Tuesday. I will compile the vocabulary lists and sent them to the entire class on Tuesday afternoon before I leave school. My e-mail address is roger.drury@esl.gatech.edu .

Every Thursday, we will have a quiz on the outside listening. You can use any notes you have during the quiz.

NOTE: Do not wait until Wednesday (or, worse yet, Thursday morning!) to listen to the file. You can be sure some problem with the site or the lab will prevent you from hearing it. Furthermore, the selections are not easy and will probably require a certain amount of time to understand.

Others
You will also listen to recorded conversations and lectures and take notes on both. Oral and written quizzes may follow these listening activities, though you will always be able to use your notes on the quizzes.

I will show you an appropriate way to take notes from a lecture so you can organize the information from the lecture at the same time you write it down. A few times, I will pick up and evaluate your notes using the -, +, ++ scale.

We will also do a small video project that will enable students to learn new idiom vocabulary as well as demonstrate their control of pronunciation.
 

Syllabus

 

 

 

Objective(s)

Required Material

Week 1

1-7

Registration & Testing

No Classes

1-8

Placement & Orientation

No Classes

1-9

Orientation + Pronunciation (vowels)

Focus on Pronunciation (FOP) Unit 1

1-10

Diagnostic Speaking & Listening Exercise

Student Impromptu Presentations

1-11

Listening + Note taking

Academic Listening Encounters (ALE) Ch 1, pp. 12-15

Week 2

1-14

Listening + Summary

ALE Chapter 2, pp.  18-26 /Outside Listening

1-15

Listening and Vocabulary Quiz A

ALE Chapter 2, pp. 27-30

1-16

Pronunciation (intonation)

FOP Unit 44-46  Intonation

1-17

Pronunciation (Intonation)/

FOP Unit 47-49  Intonation

1-18

Pronunciation (word stress)

FOP Unit  27-31 Word Stress

Week 3

1-21

MLK Holiday – No Classes

1-22

Speaking Eval #1

 

1-23

Speaking Eval #1

 

1-24

Listening and Vocabulary Quiz B

ALE Chapter 5, pp. 62-65

1-25

Listening  + Summary

ALE Chapter 5, pp. 66-71

Week 4

1-28

Listening + Summary

ALE Chapter 6, pp. 72-79 Outside Listening

1-29

Listening + Summary

ALE Chapter 6, pp. 80-84

1-30

Listening and vocabulary Quiz C

Outside Listening

1-31

Pronunciation  (rhythm)

FOP Unit 32-34

2-1

Pronunciation (rhythm)

FOP Unit 35-36

Week 5

2-4

Speaking Eval #2

 

2-5

Speaking Eval #2

 

2-6

Listening and vocabulary Quiz D

Outside Listening

2-7

Pronunciation (rhythm)

FOP Unit 37-39

2-8

Listening + Summary

ALE Chapter 7, pp. 86-90

 

Week 6

2-11

Listening and vocabulary Quiz E

ALE Chapter 7, pp. 91-98/ Outside Listening

2-12

Listening + Summary

ALE Chapter 8, pp. 99-106

2-13

Listening + Summary

ALE Chapter 8, pp. 107-112

2-14

Pronunciation (rhythm)

FOP Unit 40-41

2-15

Listening + Summary

ALE Chapter 9, pp. 113-119

Week 7

2-18

Speaking Eval #3

Formal Academic Presentation

2-19

Speaking Eval #3 

Formal Academic Presentation

2-20

Pronunciation (consonants)

FOP Unit  11-18

2-21

Pronunciation  (consonants)

FOP Unit  19-22

2-22

Pronunciation  (consonants)

FOP Unit 23-26

Week 8

2-25

Listening + Summary

ALE Chapter 9, pp. 119-125 /Last Outside Listening

2-26

Pronunciation (review )

FOP Unit 44-49

2-27

FINAL EXAM

 

2-28

FINAL EXAMS in other classes

No SL Class

2-29

Grading / Evaluation Sessions – Students do not attend