Department of EnglishINHA UNIVERSITY

Effective Communication in the Classroom - Course Syllabus

This course is primarily designed for students who are planning to become English teachers.

Teacher: Chris Gunn

Office: 5 Nam 469

Telephone: 032-860-8283

Email:

Course Goals

By the end of this course,students will:

1)Improve their ability to communicate effectively in English. Students will look at ways to actively clear up miscommunication in an ESL context.

2)Be able to conduct a greater portion of their English class in English with confidence. Students will examine specific classroom interactions and how they can be accomplished in English.

3)To sample a variety of activities and teaching styles that can be used in their own classes. As part of the learning process students will participate in a variety of activities that illustrate modern teaching techniques.

4) To examine the role of teachers in an ESL context and look at ways of fostering learner independence.

Course Description

This course is about getting your message across in English. In the first part of the course, we will look at concrete ways to improve how you communicate in English. Important to this aim is the concept of negotiating meaning: Often when we speak to each other, the message that is received by our partner is not the one we intended to send. Sometimes the message is not received at all. To make sure our partner understands what we mean, we will look at a variety of language structures that can be used to clarify, rephrase, check, and summarize our message.

In the second part of this course, we will look at concrete ways to conduct an English class in English. To this aim, we will look at very specific interactions that are common in the classroom such as defining a vocabulary item for a student or posing a hypothetical situation to a student, and ask,"How can we accomplish this task in English?" My hope is that students will take what we learn and apply it to their own classes and increase the amount of English they actually use in class. In other words, I hope to encourage students to move away from talking about English in Korean to talking to their students in English.

Along the way, we will sample activities that help develop these communication skills and practice classroom interactions. In particular we will look at a broad range of learner-centered retelling activities that will not only help you develop your skills, but can also be taken back to your classroom to develop these skills in your students.

Finally, throughout the course we will examine the role of the teacher in the ESL classroom and look at how these activities reflect out teaching philosophy. In other words, we will examine how they foster learner independence and

Textbook

All materials will be prepared by the instructor.

Assessments*

Students will be assessed on the following criteria:

(1) Active in class participation.

(2) Midterm: Negotiating Meaning: 20 minute task based group discussion.

In the group discussion you must demonstrate that you have learned the skills for

negotiating meaning. You will receive marks based on whether you can clarify,

rephrase, summarize, or check comprehension.

(3) Project: Power Point Presentation-Putting Vocabulary in Context

You will be given a list of words and you will be required to create context for

those words and present a Power Point vocabulary demonstration.

(4) Weekly homework plus quiz: Neither the weekly homework or quiz will be difficult to do.

These are just to ensure students are constantly reviewing the notes from class.

Week / Topic / Activities
Week 1 / Introduction to the Course and Classmates / Icebreakers
Week 2 / Negotiating Meaning: What's in a word?
That's D as in dog. Spellings, Synonyms, Antonyms, Rhymes / Classroom English
Week 3 / Negotiating Meaning:Checking comprehension.
Do you see what I mean? You lost me. / The Balance
Week 4 / Negotiating Meaning:Rephrasing
So what's you're saying is . . . / Special Delivery
Week 5 / Negotiating Meaning:Clarification
Are you saying that . . . ?I'm sorry. You did what with who? / You Went Where?
Week 6 / Negotiating Meaning:Summarizing Arguments
There are three main criticisms. First . . . / Two Articles:
Franken Monkeys/ Franken Fish
Week 7 / Negotiating Meaning:Practicing These Skills
(Side Topic: Incorporating structure in content-based ESL) / The Incas
Week 8 / Negotiating Meaning:Assessment / In class, task-based discussion
Week 9 / Conducting a Class in English: Defining Vocabulary
Teacher, what does that mean? / Define this.
Week 10 / Conducting a Class in English: Defining Vocabulary
If you . . . that means . . . / Speedy Definition /
In class quiz
Week 11 / Conducting a Class in English: Putting Vocabulary in Context
The plane was ???????? due to the weather. / Guess the word.
Introduce Project
Week 12 / Conducting a Class in English: Putting Vocabulary in Context
(We may also begin hypothetically speaking here as well.) / Project Presentation
Week 13 / Conducting a Class in English: Posing Hypothetical Questions
Imagine you could have any superpower . . . / Hypothetically Speaking/
Create a Hypothetical Worksheet
Week 14 / Conducting a Class in English: Giving instructions.
What I want you to do is . . . / Programming Your Robot
Week 15 / Conducting a Class in English: Explaining Reasons and Causes
Do you know why. . . ? / Amazing Science
Week 16 / Conducting a Class in English: Explaining Solutions and Logic
Giving hints/And CluesIf both hats were black . . . / Men in Hats Riddle
Week 17 / Conducting a Class in English: Praise and Criticism/ Suggesting Corrections. That needs a capital letter. / Common Mistakes Students Make
Week 18 / Conducting a Class in English: Summarizing a Story
The story takes place in space in the future. / Movie Riddles/
Elements of a Story

*(assessments have been put in bold in the syllabus)