Dept/Number/Title:
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ESL 500 - English for Oral Communication
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Credit:
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0 hours/0 units
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Contact hours:
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4 hours
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Prerequisite:
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A minimum score of 550 on the TOEFL is assumed by
the university for admission purposes. Placement into ESL 500 is by EPT
score. Students may proficiency out of ESL 500 on the basis of their performance
on a diagnostic written test given to all students in the first week of
instruction. In this case, they are promoted to ESL 501 (formerly ESL 111).
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Relation to other courses:
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ESL 500 is the entry level course in the graduate
sequence of required courses (ESL 500-501).
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Audience:
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International non-native speaker graduate students
enrolled at UIUC.
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Textbook:
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Course Packet of activities; recommended text Simon
& Schuster Handbook for Writers, Troyka, Prentice Hall.
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Abstract:
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This course is an "all-skills" course which focuses
principally on academic speaking skills such as oral presentations in seminars
and other academic contexts; in addition, students are introduced to the
principles of academic writing at the paragraph level.
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Course contents:
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Students are introduced to the conventions of group
discussions and formal oral presentations. They are given extensive practice
in large group discussions, small seminar presentations and formal speeches.
The students also work on improving fluency by giving impromptu speeches
and oral summaries. To develop their ability to interpret and comprehend
spoken English, students learn various active listening strategies such
as listening for key words, identifying main ideas, taking notes and formulating
questions. They develop these skills by listening to academic lectures,
videotapes of news broadcasts and short segments of films, and presentations
by other class members. Students are introduced to the conventions of paragraph
development and organization of American academic writing including the
topic sentence, supporting sentences, conclusions, cohesion, coherence,
and unity. Grammatical topics are discussed as they emerge as problematic
in the students' writing. To make the connection of reading to speaking
and writing, students learn to summarize and synthesize written source
material in their oral presentations and written assignments. In addition,
students are introduced to basic reading skills such as skimming and scanning
and making inferences from context clues.
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| Type of work:
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Students do a variety of individual, pair, small
group and whole class activities which are supplemented by homework assignments.
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| Grading basis:
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Letter grades are based on performance of students
on class assignments and participation in class. A passing grade for this
course is a grade of B- or higher.
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