LISTENING SKILLS

This course prepares students for their future academic careers through developing their skills in listening to and comprehending a variety of spoken and recorded English sources employing a wide range of accents and topics. The primary objective of this course is to prepare students to more readily understand English lectures in content courses at KAC and in future academic or professional situations. Additionally, students will have additional opportunities to practice pronunciation and language acquisition skills relevant to their overall comprehension abilities and these activities will be emphasized in the pre- level course. The course materials will likely involve audio-visual broadcasts from CNN, Voice of America, and other internet sources as well as pronunciation texts such as Clear Speech. Evaluation will be based on comprehension but, unlike Professional Reading class, will chiefly involve aural rather than lexical abilities.

Each student is sure to have individual goals and will certainly be assisted in attaining them. The general goals for this course are: • Foster further confidence in general communication skills and in second language communication. • Increase communicative competence. • Prepare students to more readily understand English lectures in content courses and future academic and professional contexts. • Develop listening strategies to help increase comprehension. • Develop note-taking strategies for use in other courses. • Gain an understanding of subtle aspects of English (i.e., recognizing the difference in mood and meaning created by adding stress, rhythm, and intonation). • Encourage interest in various subject matters.

First, Students are expected to attend all classes and to be punctual in both attending class and completing any assigned tasks. The rules for this course are as follows: 1. Attend all lectures. a. Classes missed without a viable excuse will carry a penalty. 2. Be on time. a. for class. b. for submission of assignments. 3. Bring all required materials to class. 4. All classroom functions will be conducted in English. a. Warning for breaking this rule will only be given once. 5. Cell phones/smart phones are not necessary in the classroom, so keep them in your bag/pocket.