Course Description:

Pre-academic speaking and listening course is a course designed for selected Graduate Fulbright foreign students.This three-week course is designed to increase proficiency in spoken English and enhance listening skill. It also allows the students to prepare for different kinds of presentations in an academic setting and develop practical techniques and effective strategies for communicating in an academic environment such as orally citing information and using visuals to help when presenting. The content of the course is not tied to a specific graduate discipline, but rather focuses on the acquisition of speaking skills necessary for student success at the graduate level. At the end of this course, students will be able to speak more comfortably and clearly in both planned and unplanned situations. This will be accomplished through activities such as communication workshops, group discussions, and presentations.

Course Objectives:

Students will be able to give oral presentations in an academic setting.
Students will be able to use discussion management and communication techniques in presentations.

Course Structures:

The duration of this course is 3 weeks long. Each week, there will be assignments and practices. Also, students will be joining 3 workshops altogether, 1 for each week, to practice academic speaking in different areas. There are 2 main presentations that students will be giving; impromptu speech and book chapter presentation. Students are required to come to class as this is a face-to-face course. However, some assignments require students to research and look into certain information outside the class time.

Materials:

Week 1:

Course Syllabus
Electronic devices for researching purpose
Reading article: https://www.depts.ttu.edu/tlpdc/Resources/Teaching_resources/TLPDC_teaching_resources/Documents/CommunicationStrategiesforInternationalGraduateStudents.pdf (p.6-19)

Week 2:

Electronic devices for researching purpose
Reading article:
https://www.comm.pitt.edu/structuring-speech

Week 3

Electronic devices for researching purpose
Reading article:
https://virtualspeech.com/blog/visual-aids-presentation

Student Responsibilities / Expectations:

Class Attendance: Students are expected to be present and may have no more than three excused absences. In case of an emergency or illness, please notify the teacher ahead of time. When missing a class, it is still students’ responsibility for any assignments assigned in class.

Participation: Students are expected to actively participate in class discussions and all activities as well as to read the assigned reading materials before coming to class. Students should also refrain from engaging in activities that are disruptive to the class.

Course Grades:

Students are expected to attend lectures and workshops, participate in class and give assigned presentations. All scores on assignments will be based on 100 points. The final grade will be calculated according to the following process:

Personal Information 10%
Show and Tell: 10%
Speech Organization 10%
Impromptu Speech#1 10%
Impromptu Speech#2 15%
Designing visual 10%
Book Chapter Presentation 20%
Attendance and Participation 15%

Since this course adopts a pass and not pass grading policy, please note that the students who have received below 70% of the final grade will not pass the course.

Course Communication:

Students who may need assistance with the course updates, questions or concerns will be able to contact the instructor via personal email (bupphach@msu.edu)

Office Hour
If you wish to see me, please contact the instructor via email to make an appointment.

Academic Honesty:

Dishonesty is not a choice in this course. This includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarizing, fabricating information or citations, facilitating acts of academic dishonesty by others, having unauthorized possession of examinations, using work of another person or causing damages to the academic work of others. Students who are found to be dishonest will receive a Not Pass on the assignment or in the course.

Assignment Guidelines:

Make sure to understand every part of the syllabus and ask questions when needed
Students are responsible to understand the reading materials before coming to class to be able to have in-depth discussions.
For the final presentation, students are responsible for finding a book chapter that is relevant to their field of study. Please choose that topic that is academically challenged.
Students are expected to bring electronic devices on the Using Visual Aid workshop day. Please let the instructor know ahead of time if you are unable to find one.

Technology:

Cell phone use for the purposes of texting, email or other social media is not permitted. Meanwhile, it must be on silent mode and put away during the class time.
Students are welcome to use a laptop or tablet in this class as long as it contributes to learning. However, Using laptop or tablet to take notes often leads to checking email and social media or browsing the internet. This will hinder learning and can be a distraction to other students. Therefore, I highly recommend taking notes on paper.

Fulbright EGSP: Schedule

Week 1	Topic	Tasks	Readings
Mon	1. Review of Syllabus 2. Basic Communication Theory 3. Self-introduction and get to know each other	1. Asking and answering questions regarding course details 2. Talking about personal information 3. Telling a story about a personal experience in the past
Tue	1. Techniques and Strategy workshop: Using eye contact, body language and gesture	1. Show and tell activity of the item from home country (practicing techniques and strategies) Note: Bring any object from your home country, prepare to talk about it.
Thu / Fri	1. Leading and participating in seminar-based discussion about American Norm (using discussion management techniques to lead discussion sessions) 2. Responding to questions in discussions about different aspects of understanding the Americans e.g., eating habits, door opening behavior, touching behavior 3. Agreeing and disagreeing with opinions; Persuading others	1. Completing a reading assignment and discussion the article “Culture: American Norm” 2. Asking questions and engaging in the discussion 3. Practicing small group facilitation	Before class reading: Communication Strategies for International Graduate Students: Surviving and Thriving in American Academiahttps://www.depts.ttu.edu/tlpdc/Resources/Teaching_resources/TLPDC_teaching_resources/Documents/CommunicationStrategiesforInternationalGraduateStudents.pdf (p.6-19)

Week 2	Topic	Tasks	Readings
Mon / Tue	1. Speech organization (speech organization: beginning, body, ending; and speech presentation) 2. Using supporting ideas of a speech to make the speech more meaningful	1. Organizing argument and the content of the speech from given topics	Structuring the Speechhttps://www.comm.pitt.edu/structuring-speech
Thu / Fri	1. Impromptu speech and its theory 2. Developing and organizing content 3. Peer Evaluation workshop 4. Techniques and Strategy workshop: Presenting, supporting an argument; orally citing sources	1. Group discussion and brainstorming possible topics 2. Giving a very brief impromptu speech (2 min) 3. Peer Evaluation 4. Giving a very brief impromptu speech (5 min) 5. Peer Evaluation

Week 3	Topic	Tasks	Readings
Mon	1. Techniques and Strategy workshop: Using visual aids workshop	1. Designing a visual aid to help with presentation	Using visual aids during a presentation or training sessionhttps://virtualspeech.com/blog/visual-aids-presentation
Tue / Thu / Fri	1. Preparing content and visuals, presentation practice for the final presentation 2. Giving presentation of an academically challenging topic from a book chapter 3. Course Reflection	1. Choosing a book chapter and determine the main idea 2. Outlining and organizing presentation structure 3. Presenting a book chapter (5 mins) 4. Peer and Self assessment	Student’s chosen article from a book chapter

Course Design Rationale:

As a start of this course design, the need analysis of the learners was examined. As Van den Branden (2016) suggested, needs analysis is an essential step for teachers to come up with the task which is the goals of learning. Therefore, before designing any course, teachers need to know what their learners’ objectives and their expectations are in order to design the course and activities. In this case, one of the major objectives is to enhance student’s academic speaking performance. So then I came up with different activities to give them chances to practice. As for the final presentation, learners will have to present a book chapter, in which there will be various other activities that facilitate them along the way. From the analysis, these activities will for sure be useful for them in the future as graduate students.

Even though most of the activities are individual tasks, there are also a couple group activities and discussions for them to share their ideas as well as building relationships with others. This will be a great opportunity for learners to practice having discussions which is a big part of the U.S. education system. The learners will also go through a peer evaluation process in order to practice giving feedback to the other classmates. Weaver (1986) stated that there are many great reasons for doing a peer evaluation, some may benefit the instructors, and others may benefit students. Since the learners will be giving each other’s feedback on impromptu speech, this process will directly benefit the learners as it will encourage involvement.

As for the final project, learners will be giving a 5-minute presentation of a book chapter. They will not only be practicing giving presentations, but also get to practice processing the reading from authentic materials of their own field. They will also have a chance to practice outlining the ideas for the presentation which is believed to be one of the most important steps in preparing the presentation. Most graduate students tend to jump right into the script without putting their ideas together properly. This will help them become more aware of the organization of the presentation.

Over this 3-week listening and speaking academic course, learners will be joining three sessions of a 90-minute workshop that will help them perform better when presenting academically. Through these workshops, learners will practice maintaining eye contact, body language and gesture, orally citing sources, as well as using visual aids to better the presentation. Apart from the content or the information of the presentation, these components will help the presenter convey the message in a more engaging way. All in all, these workshops will surely help them to become better speakers.

References:
Branden, K. (2006). Introduction: Task-based language teaching in a nutshell. In K. Branden (Ed.), Task-Based Language Education: From Theory to Practice (Cambridge Applied Linguistics, pp. 1-16). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511667282.002

Weaver, R.L., Cotrell, H.W. Peer evaluation: A case study. Innov High Educ 11, 25–39 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01100106