Houston Community College Gulfton Campus

Intensive English Program

ESOL 0356, Advanced Conversation 4c

FALL 2007

Instructor: Grace Bishop Phone: (713) 718-7752 Email: grace.bishop@hccs.edu

Class meets M W 11:40-1:20, Room 118 Audio Lab meets M 10:20-11:10, Room 111

Required Books and supplies:

Optional textbook: Contemporary Topics 3, 2^nd ed., Beglar & Murray (Longman)

English-English dictionary: Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary OR

Longman Dictionary of American English

Course Description:

In this course you will practice speaking and listening and will learn a lot of useful vocabulary. You will learn to take notes from academic lectures. You will practice making the connection between spoken and written English, and you will work on pronunciation, stress, and intonation. Practicing will be very important, both in class and outside of class.

Course Statement of Purpose:

This course seeks to prepare students for college classes and general speaking assignments by accomplishing the following objectives:

• Making inferences regarding complex ideas.

• Refining stress and intonation skills.

• Refining note-taking skills, and using notes to summarize in both oral and written form.

• Functioning in everyday academic interactions.

Course Outcomes:

After completing this course, you should:

• Be able to understand and make complaints, apologies, requests, commands, offers, refusals, and compliments.

• Be able to successfully prepare and deliver a 5-7-minute oral presentation and answer questions from classmates afterwards.

• Be able to participate in pairs, small groups, and large groups when discussing current issues and relevant topics.

• Be able to deliver an oral summary of a written text or a brief spoken passage typically found in an academic setting.

• Be able to compare or contrast an experience or situation in your home culture and in the United States.

• Be able to take fairly accurate and comprehensible notes from an instructor’s class lecture

Course requirements and grading:

• Good attendance

• Comple all homework and classwork

• Give three oral presentations

• Complete three listening examinations

Activities and participation 15%

Listening quizzes and exams 20%

Oral presentations 30%

Audio Lab (notetaking) 15%

Final examination 20%

Total 100%

Class Policies:

Attendance: No absences are excused, and anyone who misses more than eight hours of class may be dropped from the class. Please let your instructor know (in advance, if possible) if you must be absent so that you can make up any work that you miss. When absent, you are responsible for finding out what you missed, and for making up the work.

Tardiness: Please come to class on time. If you miss more than 5 minutes, you will be counted absent for that hour of class.

Withdrawals: The last day students can withdraw or be dropped from a class with a grade of “W” is 11/8. Students who have excessive absences after that date will receive the grade that they earn.

Cell phones and pagers: Please turn them off before you enter the classroom.

Missed tests, presentations, quizzes: Please do not be absent on testing days. Presentation and examination grades will be lowered if they are late. If you miss classwork, you cannot receive full credit for making it up.

Late homework: If homework is one day late, the grade will go down ten points. Two days late = 20 points down. Late homework will not be accepted after the second day.

Grades: Some of your work will receive “letter grades”; some will receive percentage grades. It means this:

A = 90-100% = Excellent work

B = 80-89% = Good work

C = 70-79% = OK work (not good, not bad)

D = 60=69% = Not passing

F = below 60% = Not passing

At the end of the semester, your grade for the course will be one of these:

A = Excellent B = Good C = OK IP = Good effort, but not passing

F = Poor effort and poor work, and not passing

Academic dishonesty: Any form of copying, cheating, or plagiarism will result in a grade of 0 for the assignment. The instructor will decide whether to permit you to make up the work, and under what circumstances it might be made up. See the HCCS Student Handbook for further information.

Students with disabilities: Students with a learning or physical disability which might affect their performance in class should contact the HCCS disabilities counselor, Dr. Becky Hauri, at (713) 718-7781.

Sexual harassment policy: Sexual harassment is not tolerated in any form at Houston Community College. See the HCCS Student Handbook for further information.

Three-peater policy: Students taking the course for the third time are required to pay an additional $75 in tuition.

Tutoring is available from 1:30-2:30 TWTh Rm 115; 9-11:00 F 111

Weekly Syllabus, subject to revision as needed:

Week One: Intros and orientation to the course. Listening/reading. Begin culture unit.

Week Two: Continue culture unit; choose topic for first presentation. Listening/reading.

Week Three: Begin audio lab. Complete culture unit. Begin first presentations.

Week Four: Complete first presentations. Participating in a class discussion. First listening exam.

Week Five: Continue notetaking and listening/reading. Complete listening exam.

Week Six: Learning strategies unit. Things you need to know about college.

Week Seven: Midterm listening exam. Choose topic and partner for second presentation.

Week Eight: Second oral presentations. Learning styles inventory.

Week Nine: Online inventory and class discussion.

Week Ten: Third listening exam. Test-taking strategies.

Week Eleven: Choose topic and partner for third presentation; begin gathering information.

Week Twelve: Third oral presentations. Critical and creative thinking skills.

Week Thirteen: Finding information online.

Week Fourteen: The global village: understanding and expressing implications.

Week Fifteen: Preparation for final examination.

Week Sixteen: Final listening and speaking examination.