Listening 1

I want to improve your listening comprehension as well as your speaking and pronunciation skills. Each unit will focus on the structure of the English language. It will also focus on certain recurring pronunciation features of the language, as well as short conversations between native speakers of English. You will have an opportunity to participate in various listening and speaking activities. We will have three types of speaking activities in our class in order to help you improve your speaking skills: face to face interaction in the form of interviews, partner activities with another student, and small group activities.

Course Objectives

After this course, you will be able to complete the following listening tasks:

1. Identify the main/topic supporting details of a conversation, description, or narration.

2. Guess the meaning of new vocabulary by using the context of a conversation based on general topics about American culture and survival English.

3. Recognize grammatical structures and words that signal differences among the past, present, and the future tenses.

Requirements

Late Work

No make up quizzes or tests will be allowed. If you fail to take a quiz, your overall grade for this class will be lowered. 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.).

attendance

Your attendance is required at all class meetings. Only written documented excuses for an absence may result in your making up a quiz or test. Attendance is important because all of the course work for this class will be completed during class in the Language Laboratory. 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. Please note the following calculations:

O absences = 30% of attendance grade

Extra credit on final grade calculations)

1 absence = 30% of attendance grade

2 absences = 25% of attendance grade

3 absences = 20% of attendance grade

4 absences = 10% of attendance grade

5 absences = Failure in class

Late/ Tardiness

Unfortunately, some students may occasionally arrive late for this class. If you are late, please enter quietly and take a seat closest to the door. Please try not to distract the other students. As an incentive for punctuality, the following rules should prevent most students from coming late.

1. Any student who arrives fifteen minutes late or more will be counted absent for that class period.

2. Three tardies will count as one absence.

3. Students will be given extra credit for arriving on time and for attending every class.

Quizzes and Tests

During the quarter, we will have short quizzes. The purpose of these quizzes is to help us assess our progress as we complete each of the chapters in the book. Also, the quizzes will determine if we are meeting the course objectives for this class. The quizzes will cover current material. There will be no final.

Grading

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 73-75

C- 70-72

NC Any grade below a C- will receive a no credit for this class. That will suggest that it might be best to repeat level one next quarter.

Scoring Grade

Your final grade will be broken down as follows:

Attendance/Participation: 30%

Quizzes: 50%

Homework assignments: 20%

Improving Listening Comprehension

The following ideas should help you to increase your listening comprehension during the quarter. Completing a listening task can be done successfully without 100% comprehension. Do not try to understand everything that you listen to. If you choose to listen to the radio or TV, focus on the main ideas presented. If it is too fast for you, record the program so that you can work on understanding it in smaller parts. For example, record five minutes of talk radio to a tape and then replay the tape over and over and over, until you comprehend the main points. Here are some suggestions:

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

2. Listen to and record 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, KNX 1070 AM, KVCR 91.9 FM especially "All Things Considered). Practice answering what, where, when, and how questions about the speakers.

3. Listen to and record 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, record and sing American music and try to understand the main ideas of the songs. You are also practicing pronunciation as you do this activity.

5. Attend the language lab during the open hours and review our weekly lessons. 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 taking notes and asking questions.

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

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

9. Attend all ACLP Classes. Learn to anticipate questions about the lectures so that you can improve you note-taking abilities. Don’t miss any classes. The more spoken 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.

11. Remember that learning a language involves risk taking. Don’t worry about mistakes. Mistakes help you to improve you English. Try to come into contact with as much spoken English as possible. It is especially important that you meet , talk to, or listen to native speakers. This will help make your "ears faster" and will give you valuable feedback that you can use in monitoring your own speaking and listening abilities.

12. Finally, remember the power of P.A.C.E. (positive attitude changes everything). Enjoy and have fun learning the language!! If you are positive and have a good attitude, you will learn the language easier and faster.

Class Schedule

We will start in chapter 1 of the book Now Hear This and we will work from week to week with the exercises. As we progress from lesson one, I will try to keep the lessons appropriately paced for the majority of the class. Hopefully, we will be able to get through the first 4 or so units of the book.

*We will have additional listening activities not listed above if I feel it is necessary. I will announce in class when homework assignments are due. I will announce any quizzes that we are to have in this class*