English for Effective Communication II: Listening and Speaking

Welcome to ENGL 2210EED English for Effective Communication II: Listening and Speaking.

ENGL 2210EED is a one-term, 3-credit-unit, 2000-level English proficiency course designed for programmes offered by the School of Education and Languages, focusing on listening and speaking skills that would enable you to succeed in your university studies.

Before you begin to study the course content, you need to understand how ENGL 2210EED operates, what the course covers and how its various parts fit together. You will find the answers to these questions in this Course Guide. Please read it thoroughly now and refer to it while you are studying the course.

ENGL 2210EED aims to:

• enhance learners’ understanding of academic and vocational applications of English; and
• develop learners’ listening and speaking skills for study and work purposes.

Upon the completion of ENGL 2210EED, students should be able to:

• Identify main and supporting points in academic lectures and talks.
• Recognise and produce language and content that are appropriate for both academic and vocational contexts.
• Express themselves effectively in academic discussions and job interviews.
• Present their views and arguments in a coherent manner.

The first three units in ENGL 2210EED focus on listening and speaking skills that would enable students to succeed in their university studies. These skills include active listening and note-taking, formulating and presenting sound arguments, as well as delivering effective academic presentations. The remaining two units cover workplace communication, where students are expected to build on what they have learnt in the previous units and apply those skills to the workplace.

The following table provides an overview of the course units, as well as the number of weeks and the assessment for each unit.

ENGL 2210EED consists of this Course Guide, five study units and assignments, all of which are provided by HKMU.

Course Guide

The Course Guide tells you briefly what this course is about, what it contains and how you can work through it. It also gives you some information about tutorials and assessment.

Study units

As you saw in the “Course overview”, ENGL 2210EED contains five study units:

• Unit 1 deals with academic lectures and seminars. You will learn how to identify factual information, make appropriate inferences and take effective notes.
• Unit 2 deals with presenting opinions and arguments. You will learn how to identify and use appropriate rhetorical, negotiation and persuasion techniques.
• Unit 3 focuses on delivering academic presentations based on the needs and characteristics of the audience. You will learn how to organise your presentation and utilise appropriate non-verbal elements.
• Units 4 and 5 are concerned primarily with workplace communication. You will learn how to perform well in job interviews and participate actively in work-place conversations.

Each unit includes specific objectives and a very wide range of practice activities to help you improve your English listening and speaking skills.

Recommended books

There is no set textbook for ENGL 2210EED. You will, however, be encouraged to read the recommended references and supplementary readings included at the end of the study units.

Audio-visual material

Frequent audio and video-based activities will be included in this course.

You will be required to refer to the Online Learning Environment (OLE) and relevant websites.

Assignment File

This file gives you details of what is required in your assignments, their due dates, how many marks each is worth and how each will be graded. Assignments must reach your tutor on or before the due date. Please read the Student Handbook for the University policy on late assignments.

Your tutor

Before the course starts you will be advised by the HKMU Registry of the name, address and phone number of your tutor. Your tutor will:

• conduct tutorials for your group;
• assess and comment on your assignments; and
• be available at certain times to help you by phone. (You will be advised of these times separately.)

Your tutor is your first point of contact with HKMU. Please consult him/her first if you face any problems. Your tutor will advise you if you need to contact the Course Coordinator.

Please note that it is not your tutor's role to give lectures on the course material. His/her job is to assist you when you run into difficulties and to arrange opportunities for you to put into practice some of the course concepts. HKMU encourages you strongly to make use of this assistance.

Tutorials

There are 14 hours of face-to-face tutorials. The times, dates and locations of the face-to-face tutorial sessions will be sent to you before the semester starts. To benefit fully from the sessions, you are recommended to go through the relevant unit(s) beforehand.

Online communication

Students enrolled in ENGL 2210EED have an additional means of communication with their peers, tutor and Course Coordinator through the Online Learning Environment (OLE). Please refer to the OLE User Guide and try to log in to the OLE system.

We recommend the following strategies for working through ENGL 2210EED. Remember to contact your tutor for assistance and advice if required.

1. Read this Course Guide thoroughly.
2. Organise a study schedule. Refer to the course overview and the suggested Study Schedule for more details. Think about how much time you plan to spend on each unit and the assignments related to the units.
   When you have created your own study schedule, do all you can to stick to it. The major reason for student failure is falling behind with the coursework. If you get into difficulties with your schedule, please let your tutor know before it is too late for help.
3. Turn to Unit 1 and read the overview and objectives for the unit.
4. Work through the unit, carry out the activities, and use the audio-visual material when indicated. Attempting the activities and checking your responses against the feedback provided at the end of the unit are very important for developing your skills.
5. Regularly review the objectives for the unit to confirm that you have achieved them. Keep a note of any problems and discuss them with your tutor as soon as possible.
   Repeat Steps 3 to 5 for Units 2–5.
6. Submit your assignments on time. You will learn a lot by completing the assignments and by carefully studying your tutor’s comments on them. The assignments have been designed to help you fulfil the objectives of the course.
7. After completing the final unit, review the course and prepare for the final examination.

To complete ENGL 2210EED successfully, you are required to pass both the continuous assessment (the assignments) and the examination.

Assignments

There are two assignments for continuous assessment purposes in this course. These two assignments, which are equally weighted, are together worth 40% of the total course grade. Detailed information on the questions, how to approach them and the submission dates are provided in the Assignment File.

Final examination

The examination, which accounts for 60% of the overall course grade, will last for two and half hours. It will include listening comprehension tasks and oral components. It will thus assess your mastery of the two language skills — listening and speaking. If you have completed the assignments and have acted on your tutor's feedback on your work, you will be well prepared for it. Further information about the examination, including a specimen examination paper, will be sent to you later in the course.

We hope that you find ENGL 2210EED English for Effective Communication II: Listening and Speaking interesting and useful. The effort you put into studying it will be worthwhile, as good listening and speaking skills can help you perform more effectively in academic, work and social situations.

We wish you every success in your studies.

Miranda Fung Mei-yan (MA, MA, MSc, CertTESOL) is an English language educator and a lecturer of applied linguistics in Hong Kong. Besides teaching, she has extensive experience in supporting various universities to enhance quality of teaching and learning through curriculum development and assessment design.