I.

Course goals: 1. Provide a fun, safe and relaxed environment for students to practice English speaking and listening skills. 2. Assess student speaking and listening skills on a continual basis, providing review of spoken English grammar, word choice, word usage etc. on an as-needed basis. 3. Provide a range of useful conversational vocabulary on a variety of practical and real life topics. 4. Engage each student in speaking English for between 2 5 minutes per session. 5. Use a variety of tools to keep students interested in topics and communication in their new language. II. In the opening sessions of the course, it is important for the students to understand what is expected of them and how they will be graded. It is also important that they get a sense of who I am, and that they are able to relax with me so that the class environment is safe as well as interesting. 1. First week of class: a. Teacher introduction; b. Introduction of course requirements and scoring method (60% exams; 40% attendance and class participation); c. Discussion/question/answer period including teacher and class member expectations; d. Homework assignment for students to prepare their own introductions. 2. Second week of class assessment of student English speaking capabilities a. Each student presents a two-minute introduction about himself/herself, including Chinese name, English name (or desire to have an English name), university major, where they are from, family details, hobbies, interests and a life dream. b. Time permitting, once the speeches are completed, we have a discussion about common mistakes in speaking English as a second language. III. Beginning the third week of class, cycles of two or three weeks are spent working on a given topic area. Topics include: relationships and communication styles, travel, food, entertainment, business and economy, environment, climate and weather, health and body care, sports, computers and related technology, western vs. Chinese culture, and other topics as selected by student votes. At least one time during the semester, the class walks the campus together in order to identify common features in the world around us (followed by a map-making exercise and treasure hunt in which results are reported to class). The general flow for a topic is: 3. First week of topic: a. Introduction of the topic and related vocabulary. This is accomplished through any of the following methods or combination thereof: lecture, watching a film, a reading or

Spoken English Course Outline for the 2011 2012 School Year Teacher: Scott Heidecke

 In some cases, the second week on a topic is omitted and the focus to get students using the language shifts to the first week with a high degree of dialog question and answer. IV. The last two weeks of class is an oral final examination. Two weeks prior to the final, each student selects a topic of interest and is expected to prepare a 3 5 minute speech to present to the class.

listening exercise, general question and answer dialogs. On occasion, we sing English songs or play games. 4. Second week of topic: a. Engage the students in speaking about the topic. This is accomplished by one or more of the following methods: Question and answer dialog between teacher and each student or round robin conversations by students, pairing or group formation in which students must use the correct topic vocabulary in their discussions. 5. Third week of topic: a. Scored, verbal examination about the topic. Exams take the form of individual speeches, pair dialogs, panel discussions or skits in front of the entire class. Show and tell is also acceptable. i. Each student must speak for 2 5 minutes, depending on the nature of the exam, and must use correct vocabulary as introduced for the topic.