ESL 110/510

English Pronunciation for Academic Purposes

Course Description

            ESL 110/510 is a single course, serving two groups of students. Undergraduates register under ESL 110; graduates register under ESL 510. To enroll, undergraduates and graduates must be either required or recommended to take the course on the basis of results from their Illinois ESL Placement Test (EPT) Oral Interview.

     The course is designed to improve the international student's ability to speak and understand educated English at normal conversational speed and to give the student the ability to continue improving pronunciation skills after the course is finished through training in self-monitoring and self-teaching.

     Class time is focused on these areas of pronunciation:

●          Vowel and consonant articulation work, as indicated by a diagnostic test of the student's oral skills

●          Rhythm and rhythm facilitators (vowel reduction, linking and trimming of sounds)

●          Word stress and construction stress (compound nouns, compound adjectives, multiword verbs, etc)

●          Primary stress and intonation of phrases in discourse

     The specific objectives of in-class and out-of-class work are to enhance the learner's skill in perception (listening), production(articulation), and prediction (before speaking, judging which vowel, consonant, stress position or intonation pattern is appropriate for a word, phrase or sentence). Students learn to use standard English orthography to predict vowels, consonants, and stress in novel words and phrases so that they can be independent learners after the class concludes.

     Students are expected to attend class sessions regularly and the ESL language laboratory when assigned. Students will create tape recordings of their own voice at home for evaluation by the instructor. They are expected to successfully pass periodic oral and written tests.

     Credit: Semester Hours 0-4 (for undergraduates and graduates). You will pay tuition for this course if you enroll for more than 0 hours; you will not pay tuition for the course if you enroll for 0 credit. For purposes of visa status, assistantships, loans, etc. this course is recognized university-wide as equivalent to 4 hours or 1 unit of work regardless of the credit you enroll for, even if it is for 0 credit.