ENG 101: English Listening and Speaking Skills

Course rationale

In this course, students will focus on developing their speaking and listening skills in a variety of contexts. They will learn listening strategies such as listening for main ideas and details, predicting content, dealing with distractions, and using context clues to understand what they hear while improving their English pronunciation. Students will participate in a variety of activities designed to improve their confidence in public speaking. Students will engage in active listening and speaking activities, produce audio recordings, and prepare short presentations. Students will read selected English academic texts (or extracts from them), learn skills for understanding these texts, and develop written and spoken responses to them. The course also aims to enhance students’ English grammar, academic vocabulary, and intercultural competence, necessary to communicate in a variety of social and cultural contexts

Course content

The various kinds of oral interactions, including impromptu speaking, job interviews, research presentations, and dynamic teaching; idiomatic and phrasal expressions used in such communication; accuracy in grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation; stress and intonation patterns in English; critical listening skills for specific information in professional contexts; understanding and presenting information; reporting and summarizing; using sources and referencing guidelines.

Course objectives

This English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course is one of three compulsory courses in the English Foundation program. It is designed to help develop study skills in the following areas:

  1. Expressing ideas; formulating an opinion; idea sequencing, accuracy, presenting an argument using
    academic style in both oral and written forms; paraphrasing and using academic referencing conventions;
    structuring academic essays, reports, and presentations; participating in discussions
  2.  Interpreting information, understanding spoke and written academic texts, and identifying relevant
    information, synthesizing information from listening and reading texts, and recognizing points of view
    and bias

References

Teaching and Learning Resources

  1.  Textbook(s)
    Chazal, E. & Rogers, L. (2013). Oxford EAP: A course in English for Academic Purposes. Oxford: Oxford
    University Press.
  2.  Recommended readings:
    Eales, F., & Oakes, S. (2011). Speakout – Upper-intermediate Student’s book with ActiveBook. Harlow: Pearson
    Education.
    Murphy, R., & Hashemi, L. (2019). English grammar in use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    Swan, M., & Oxford University Press. (2018). Practical English usage. Oxford: Oxford University.
  3. Supplementary Materials: Other supplementary resources (handouts) and materials (case studies) will be available in Google Classroom.