ELI 70 (2): Intermediate Listening and Speaking
Fall 2001; Tues. & Thurs. 10:30 – 11:45
Moore 207
Instructor:
Barbara Schulz
Office:
586
Office hours: Tues. & Thurs. 12-1 p.m.
Email:
bschulz@hawaii.edu
Office phone: 956-2789
Course Description
The intermediate level course provides students the opportunity to improve their listening
and speaking skills in an academic context, paying particular attention to those skills
which will facilitate the comprehension of university classroom lectures, and promote
their ability to make more organized and comprehensible academic presentations, both
individually and in groups. In addition, students will be exposed to a variety of listening
opportunities in the media and the community around them, in order to become more
familiar and comfortable with different registers and accents in spoken English.
I did not assign them listening tasks involving the community around them and only once
where they had to turn to some form of media, and I wish I had done more of that.
Course Materials
The following textbook is required:
• Hartmann, B. & L. Blass (2000). Quest: Listening and Speaking in the Academic
World, Book 3. Boston: McGraw Hill.
I think the book is quite good in its structure. It gives various pre- and post listening
activities and helps student approach the listening task both from a structural and a
thematic perspective. However, they way I used the book was pretty boring (I thought
so and my students thought so, too), and I guess one needs to supplement it with some
more interesting activities.
Course Requirements
• Class participation: Attendance and participation are crucial in all language courses,
especially those that deal with listening and speaking. Included in class participation
will be conferences in which students will meet with me on a one-to-one basis to
receive feedback on their progress.
I actually never did that. For their individual presentations we gave each presenter
feedback as a whole class, and I also commented on their presentation in written form.
I really felt that for a listening/speaking class conferencing is not that important, and I
didn't want to give up class time for it.
Lack of preparation and lateness will also be
reflected in your participation grade.
• In-class assignments and written homework: Many assignments will be completed in
class and cannot be turned in after that class. No make-up work will be accepted for in
class assignments. Homework assignments can be turned in up to one week late. After
one week no make-up work will be accepted, even in case of illness. For any
homework turned in late, you will only receive half credit for that assignment.
I guess it's good to say something like that on the syllabus, but I never seriously
inforced this and was very lenient with late homework, probably because only few
people didn't turn in their homework on time.
• Three oral presentations: Students will be asked to give three oral presentations
-an individual presentation to a small group
-an individual presentation to the whole class
My students actually thought that these individual presentations were very useful, but
they didn't like the presentation in a small group, because they felt they couldn't give
themselves feedback on it.
-a group presentation
I changed this last presentation into a group discussion, since I felt there was not enough
opportunity for structured discussions in the class otherwise. So for the last project,
student got into groups and together prepared one discussion topic, for which they had
to lead a discussion during the last week of the semester (in a different group, which
consisted of one expert for each topic). I would do it that way again, only I would then
turn around their order and have the discussion in the middle of the semester, since
this way there was no opportunity for students to make up leading the discussion.
Grading
ELI 70 is graded Credit/No Credit. In order to receive credit for this course, students must
receive at least 80% of the total number of points.
• Class participation
• Assignments
• Presentations
30 points maximum (30%)
40 points maximum (40%)
30 points maximum (30%)
Each assignment receives one of three marks:
‘Honors’
‘Credit’
‘No Credit’
100%
80%
0%
Absences and Lateness
Although there is no formal attendance policy, each day that you are absent, you will
receive a ‘0’ for that day’s in-class assignment(s). No matter what, you cannot make up
the class that you missed. Therefore, absences might jeopardize your chances of getting
credit for the course. Lateness will be reflected in your participation grade.
For an ELI class this doesn't seem to be a good absence policy because it's somewhat
vague and difficult for the students as well as the instructor to decide when the student
has had too many absences.