ELI L/S
Curriculum Philosophy
1
Curriculum Philosophy
—ELI Listening & Speaking—
(Updated on November 20, 2003)
 This draft is based on the Curriculum Philosophy written by a former Listening/Speaking Lead
Teacher, Priscilla Faucette, in Fall 2001.
 It was drafted by Yasuko Ito and reviewed by Kenton Harsch (the Assistant Director of the ELI),
Priscilla Faucette (the Curriculum Coordinator of the ELI), Sumi Chang (Listening/Speaking CoLead Teacher), and Honnor Arganbright, Christopher Davis, Greg Nakai, and Paulo Seidl in Fall
2003.
Recognizing ESL students’ listening/speaking needs in their content courses (Ferris, 1998; Ferris & Tagg,
1996a, 1996b), the ELI Listening/Speaking curriculum area aims at developing students’ aural and oral
skills to help them succeed in their academic career, mainly focusing on skills to comprehend, critically
evaluate, and respond to materials including lectures and presentations. This process takes various
formats, such as listening to lectures and asking questions, giving, listening to, and responding to
presentations, and leading and participating in discussions.
The Listening/Speaking curriculum area adapts a listening “strategy-based” approach (Mendelsohn,
1995) and an interactional strategy approach (based on the Interaction Hypothesis (Long, 1996)). A
listening strategy-based approach enables learners to find out appropriate strategies that aid their listening
comprehension. Through an interactional strategy approach, students will work as a whole class and in
small groups to facilitate their interactional skills, including critical thinking and responding to materials,
as well as second language learning in general.
Our curriculum area also encourages students to become autonomous learners so that they can continue
developing their listening/speaking skills even after completion of the course(s). We do so through
strategy instruction and other assignments in and outside the classroom (e.g., investigating their own
academic listening/speaking needs, analyzing and critiquing their own listening/speaking strengths and
weaknesses).
Ferris, D. (1998). Students’ views of academic aural/oral skills: A comparative needs analysis. TESOL
Quarterly, 32, 289-318.
Ferris, D., & Tagg, T. (1996a).Academic oral communication needs of EAP learners: What subjectmatter instructors actually require. TESOL Quarterly, 30, 31-58.
Ferris, D., & Tagg, T. (1996b). Academic listening/speaking tasks for ESL students: Problems,
suggestions, and implications. TESOL Quarterly, 30, 297-320.
Long, M. H. (1996). The role of the linguistic environment in second language acquisition. In W. Ritchie
& T. Bhatia (Eds.), Handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 413-468). San Diego, CA:
Academic Press.
Mendelsohn, D. J. (1994). Learning to listen: A strategy-based approach for the second-language
learner. Carlsbad, CA: Dominie Press.
Yasuko Ito & Sumi Chang
ELI Lead Teachers, Listening/Speaking
Fall 2003