Course Description
This course is for English language learners who wish to refine their academic listening and notetaking skills. Students will improve their ability to understand longer lectures and other presentations, discussions and interviews, particularly those in which the participants are presenting or discussing views on unfamiliar subjects or controversial issues. Activities will focus on developing students’ critical listening skills and on developing more efficient notetaking skills. Students will practice using notes to complete a variety of assignments typical of first-year university level coursework. Students will continue to develop language skills including grammar, sentence structure, and vocabulary.
Course Content
Listening
- To follow discussions and presentations
- Use pre-listening techniques to prepare for a listening task
- Identify purpose and/or issue, overall key idea, main ideas, and key details
- Use active listening strategies
- Identify and use discourse and conversational markers to follow the organization of a discussion or talk
- Follow ideas and information in both informal and formal presentations and discussions
- Identify relationships among ideas
- Refer to pre-listening and reference materials, and use context clues to determine meanings of unfamiliar words and phrases
- Use a variety of note-taking techniques
- Use notes to complete assignments
- Use notes to prepare for quizzes
- To listen for discrete items
- Write from dictation
- Transcribe speech
- Listen for specific pronunciation elements (problematic sounds, special intonation patterns)
Reading and Writing
To prepare for, support, and extend listening
- Follow written instructions
- Recognize purpose/issue, overall key idea, main ideas, and key details
- Use context to determine meanings of unfamiliar words and phrases
- Write notes, outlines, interview questions and answers, reports, summaries, and paragraphs
- Use written materials in speaking tasks (e.g., presentations)
Accuracy
For self-assessment
- Identify errors and develop a needs analysis chart
Classroom Skills
Take responsibility for the following:
- attendance and punctuality
- class work and assignments
- participation and teamwork
Learning Activities
The instructor will facilitate, observe and evaluate students’ participation in communicative activities. Whole and small group instruction will be combined with individual assistance and student-directed learning. Students will participate in the setting of goals by identifying their communicative and language development needs, and will participate in the selection of learning activities.
Means of Assessment
- Complete assigned skill development tasks. These should include:
- notes on discussions, interviews, reports, presentations and lectures
- reports on outside listening tasks/projects
- dictations and dictocomps
- transcriptions of prepared and impromptu taped materials
- Identify topic, main ideas and details in conversations and presentations
- Complete at least two listening and notetaking tasks/projects. These could include:
- listening to/taking notes on a 20-40 minutes video lecture or documentary or an academic or professional topic
- attending/taking notes on a discussion, seminar or debate
- attending/taking notes on a College committee or student meeting
- attending/taking notes on a community meeting or local issue
- conducting a survey
- Complete at least two listening projects. These could include:
- planning and participating in a seminar discussion, panel presentation, or debate
- leading a discussion or panel presentation
- interviewing a College administrator, business owner or professional
- presenting a summary of an educational video
- Complete quizzes, both skill based and content based
- Complete at least 2 self-assessments of learning strategies, progress and classroom skills to be discussed with the instructor.
This is a Mastery graded course.
Learning Outcomes
Overall Objectives
Extend communicative proficiency and language accuracy for a broad range of academic purposes
Specific Objectives
- Understand complex academic oral communication on sometimes unfamiliar topics to obtain detailed information, to explore academic content, and to develop critical thinking
- Take notes for academic purposes
- Communicate proficiently in culturally-appropriate ways on abstract, conceptual, or technical topics to obtain and give detailed information, explore and analyze current community and global issues.
- Read to prepare for, support, and extend listening skills and to expand vocabulary
- Write with a specified level of accuracy to extend listening skills
- Assess progress
- Participate effectively in a college classroom using strategies for effective and ethical collaboration
- Apply knowledge of the interplay of culture and communication in order to understand intercultural interactions and communication behaviours
Textbook Materials
Students may be required to purchase a textbook and/or audio materials.