This course is intended for students who need to begin to improve their ability to converse in English and to increase their understanding of American culture. This course is intended for intermediate students who need to improve their ability to converse in English and to increase their understanding of American culture. American body language and typical conversational protocols will also be emphasized. This course helps students begin to develop fluency and confidence by using a variety of activities. These may include videos and taped exercises, recordings of radio and television broadcasts, and group discussions.
Emphasis is placed on contemporary expressions, idioms, reduced speech and pronunciation.
Idiomatic expressions, the use of vocal and verbal cues in lectures, and note-taking techniques will be presented. Audio taped and video taped lectures on a variety of topics will be used. This course also attempts to enhance the student's cultural literacy through a review of information often encountered and assumed in academic lectures and texts. Reading is intended for non-native speakers who wish to improve their reading skills in English. Comprehension, common sentence and paragraph patterns, story and essay formats, and vocabulary development are stressed, and cultural differences and idiomatic expressions are considered in class discussions of assigned readings.