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:
Attendance & class performance: 10%
In-class Listening Exercises (Note-taking, Quizzes, Dictations): 15%
TED Sharing: 5%
Informative Talks: 30%
Final Listening Exam: 20%
Final Group 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. Make-up exams for the mid-term and final exams may be held for the students with appropriate reasons but will have 20 full points (20%) deducted from the grade awarded.
ASSIGNMENTS & EXAMINATIONS
In-class Listening Exercises:
In addition to oral training, every class in the semester is an opportunity for students to exercise their listening comprehension and note-taking ability in English. Students should come to class with the mindset of getting proactively involved in listening activities rather than passively comprehending information without involvement. To this end, students will take notes in every class on a variety of listening training exercises, including dictations, interviews of classmates, and quizzes based on the textbook unit content. Notes will be collected and graded on effort and/or comprehension, depending on the activities. These activities and in-class quizzes cannot be made up.
TED Sharing:
This is an individual presentation, approximately five minutes, in which students share a short clip from a TED Talk of their choice from their own personal interest. Students should show the clip, summarize the speaker’s main point of the talk, and discuss what new information from this talk most benefits them and why.
Informative Talks:
Throughout the semester, students will give three talks on a topic discussed in class, focusing on a relevant subtopic of their choice. These “TED Talks” will be pairs or three-member group presentations, should last approximately five minutes, and include Power Point slides. Each talk is worth 10% and focuses on a different aspect of oral presentation style as explained below.
Informative Talk 1 – Article Interaction: Students will find an informative article related to their subtopic and present the findings of the article to the class. The students should also present their opinions using critical thinking and logical reasoning based on the content of the article. They must also discuss how their classmates can specifically benefit from knowing this information.
Informative Talk 2 – Testimonial: For this presentation, students must present their personal opinion related to their chosen subtopic and support that opinion with personal experience. Students must find partners for this talk who have had a similar personal experience in which he or she has come to a similar conclusion. For example, if two students have studied abroad, they might share how living abroad can help us connect with the world in ways we can’t at home. Then they can support that claim by sharing how they discovered this from their separate experiences. Students may also include information from an article in which someone else had a similar experience and come to a similar conclusion.
Informative Talk 3 – Persuasive Talk: For this presentation, students must share an opinion based on their chosen subtopic and support their claim with numbers, statistics, and quotes from authorities on the subject. In order to get their supporting information, they may use articles online or conduct personal surveys and interviews.
Final Listening Exam:
Students will be tested on their listening comprehension in three parts. In Part 1, students will listen to one of the informative articles from the textbook and answer questions based on what they hear. In Part 2, students will watch a new TED Talk and answer questions based on content comprehension and implications of the speaker. Taking notes on the lecture will also count in Part 2. In Part 3, students will dictate sentences from the TED Talks in the textbook.
Final Group Presentation:
Students will make a presentation in large groups (4-5 students per group) to present a problem and solution to a controversial issue facing university students today. This presentation mirrors the Integrated Speaking portion of the TOEFL Speaking Test. Each student in the group takes a different role and is graded on how well they perform their role. Clarity (including pronunciation, fluency, and grammar) as well as confidence (memorizing or reading notes) will also be part of the final score for each student in the group. The roles for each student are as follows:
Student 1 and 2: Present a conversation/drama to show a dilemma. Student 1 explains her dilemma and Student 2 presents a suggestion or advice for how Student 1 can solve this problem.
Student 3: Summarize the problem/dilemma of Student 1 and the suggestion or advice that Student 2 gives.
Student 4: Discuss the group’s opinion about a solution based on the conversation, i.e. whether or not to follow Student 2’s advice or choose an alternative solution. Include reasons as support for the solution.
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