Listening & Speaking 1 (NAJD 114)

• The listening component of this course is designed for intermediate students. Materials used here are longer and require some sophisticated skills that were introduced at the preparatory level. The passages grammatical and semantic structures are elaborate. The students are taught the importance of the mechanics of speech, i.e. intonation, rhetoric, pitch, and their effects on meaning assignment. The emphasis is on note-taking and understanding contextual clues. Because the listening course is meant for prospective novice interpreters and translators, students are trained to pay attention to what they listen to, to practice quick storage of language and content in memory, and to exhibit speed in message retrieval.
• For the speaking part of this course the following objectives are to be achieved:

1. An awareness of formal / informal language and practice at choosing appropriate language for different situations accepting and refusing invitations, understand and use expressions of locations in contexts, open and close phone conversations, request and give advice, apologize and reconcile, ask for help…etc. .
2. The awareness that informal spoken language is less complex than written language. It uses shorter sentences, is less organized and uses more 'vague' or non-specific language.
3. To be competent at either ‘message-oriented’ or transactional language and interactional language, language for maintaining social relationships.To be taught patterns of real interaction like talking about abilities, recognizing expressions of advice, giving opinion, politely interrupting an action or a speaker...etc.
4. To have intelligible pronunciation and be able to cope with streams of speech.
5. Rehearsal time. By giving students guided preparation / rehearsal time they are more likely to use a wider range of language in a spoken task in addition to making presentations using projectors and visual aids that support their topics.
6. The ability to participate in classrooms discussions.
7. Learn to give short presentations about a novel/play to discuss the plot, theme, characters, or setting.