N/A

To successfully complete the course, you must take all quizzes and participate in assigned activities. Your final grades are determined by the following course components:

   ?  Participation & Attendance: 15%

   ?  Notes, journals, and assignments: 25%

   ?  Individual speeches: 25%

   ?  Midterm exam: 15%

   ?  Final presentation: 20%

ATTENDANCE, PUNCTUALITY & ASSIGNMENT POLICIES

Attendance is mandatory. Students who are absent for more than 1/3 of total class hours without an appropriate reason are prohibited from taking the final exam and receive a mark of zero for the final exam. All required assignments must be submitted to the instructor on or before the due dates. Late assignments will be given a lower grade unless there is an acceptable explanation for their late submission. No make-up exams for the mid-term and final exams.

ASSIGNMENTS & EXAMINATIONS

Quizzes/In-class exercises

At regular times throughout the semester, lecture-listening and note-taking exercises and pop quizzes will be given in class. These exercises and quizzes CANNOT be made up. See the attachment for the grading rubric for note-taking exercises.

Assignments

Throughout the semester, you will give three or four talks on a topic discussed in class and post your peer feedback on the course platform. Each talk on the academic field will focus on a relevant subtopic of your choice, last five minutes, and include PowerPoint slides. Before or after the class, you need to upload the slides and then give your online feedback on your partners’ talks after this activity. More details will be provided in class.

Group presentations

You will give one group presentation at the end of the semester. For the group presentation, each group will conduct a panel discussion on a subject-matter topic containing numbers and statistics. The panel discussion should last approximately 20 minutes, followed by a five-minute discussion. While presenting, each group will be evaluated by the instructor (see grading rubric attached) as well as by their peers. After the presentation, each group needs to upload the PowerPoint slides to Moodle. Each student is encouraged to give their feedback on the task according to a peer evaluation form, which will be available on the course platform.

Examinations

The exams contain a listening test and an integrated speaking test. The listening test aims to test the ability of students to use appropriate strategies to understand lectures. In the integrated speaking test, you will be required to answer one independent and three integrated questions as in the speaking section in TOEFL. You need to demonstrate your ability to respond to the questions clearly and coherently and the ability to accurately convey the information about what you have read or listened to. See the attachment for the grading rubric for the integrated speaking test.

• Textbook: To be posted on Moodle for students to download and print.


• References:

1. Dunkel, P. A. & Pialorsi, F. (2014): Listening & Notetaking Skills, Level 3. (4th ed.)  Cengage Learning.

2. Maclntyre, P. (2013): Pathways 4, Listening, Speaking, and Critical Thinking. National Geographic Learning, a part of Cengage Learning.

3. Sarosy, P. & Sherak, K (2013): Lecture Ready 2. (2nd ed.)Oxford University Press.

4. Lebauer, R. S. (2010): Learn to Listen Listen to Learn 1 & 2 (3rd ed.). Pearson Education.

5. Beglar, D. & Murray, N. (2009): Contemporary Topics 3. (3rd ed.) Pearson Education.

6. Preiss, S. (2004): NorthStar: Listening and Speaking, Advanced Second Edition. New York: Pearson Education, Inc.

• Supplementary readings: To be distributed in class


• Resources:

1. TED talks: https://www.ted.com/talks

2. BBC Learning English: http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish

3. VoiceTube: https://tw.voicetube.com

4. VOA Learning English: https://learningenglish.voanews.com/

5. Elllo: http://www.elllo.org/