Level 5 Language Lab

Spring Quarter 

Class Meetings: TR 8:00-9:50 AM

Instructor: Michael Buckhoff 

Office Hours: 12:00-1:15 p.m.

Phone:                      Classroom: EE101        TR 8:00-9:50 AM Lab 

The goal of this class is to help you increase your listening comprehension skills. To accomplish this, we will listen to short lectures and then answer questions to test your comprehension. In addition, we will listen to a variety of informal and formal dialogs and mini-talks in an effort to help you improve your listening skills for the TOEFL.

Come to class and be ready to talk! Always review the handouts before class and be prepared to discuss the topic on the day that it has been assigned. It is important that you come to class since we will be listening to lectures and dialogs on a week to week basis. Your grade will be based on attendance, participation, and completion of assignments. I will announce in class any homework assignments that will be due.

The number letter grading scale is set as follows:

A 95-100

A- 90-94

B+ 87-89

B 84-86

B- 80-83

C+ 76-79

C 70-75

NC 69& below

Your final grade will be calculated as follows:

Attendance and Participation 30%

Completion of Assignments 70%

Total 100%

Assignments submitted after the due date will not be accepted. In other words, you will receive no points. I will only allow you to make up missed work if you have a written documented excuse from someone stating the urgency of the situation (e.g. Doctor’s note, CHP accident report, etc.).

Your attendance is required at all class meetings. Only written documented excuses for an absence may result in your making up an assignment or graded daily work. Absences endanger your grade simply because you are missing out in the learning process. Three absences will result in an overall reduction of one full letter grade and five absences will result in a failing grade for this class.

For the ten weeks that we will be attending this class, we will work on listening comprehension, as well as note-taking and speaking skills in English. We will also have some listening comprehension tests in class. We will go as fast or as slow as I feel the class can handle. I will also have homework assignments in which you will do additional listening preparation.

1. Talk to a native speaker five times a week for a period of 15 minutes each time.

2. Listen to news and informational broadcasts on a talk radio station for at least 15 minutes a day five days a week (i.e. KFI AM 640). Practice answering what, where, when, and how questions about the speakers.

3. Listen to news and informational broadcasts on television for at least 15 minutes a day three days a week (i.e. CNN, Discovery, CBS-60 minutes). Practice answering what, where, when, and how questions about the speakers.

4. Listen to American music and try to understand the main ideas of the songs.

5. Attend the language lab during the open hours and listen to academic lectures. Practice taking notes on what you hear. Afterwards compare your notes to the tapescript.

6. Join a club (i.e. ISS, ASI) on campus or attend open forums, university discussions, or debates so that you can hear spoken English. Attend 1 or 2 meetings a week. Be an active participant by asking the speaker/participant questions.

7. Join the quarterly ESL conversation group to talk and make friends.

8. Join an intermural sports team so you can have contact with native speakers of English.

9. Attend all ACLP and Open University Classes. Learn to anticipate questions about the lectures so that you can improve you note-taking abilities. Don’t miss any classes. The more academic English you can hear, the better your listening will become.

10. Don’t spend all your time talking with people from your own country. Use the above list of ideas to help you break out of your comfort zone by finding more and more opportunities to speak and listen to English.