Syllabus: PreTOEFL Listening Spring 2010

ROOM CHANGE:
WE WILL MEET IN 269 CH
FOR THE REST OF THE TERM.

Syllabus: PreTOEFL Listening Spring 2010

INSTRUCTOR: Margaret Young	OFFICE HOURS: Wednesday 3:20-4:00, and by appointment
OFFICE: 229 East Hall	CONTACTS: (503) 725-4143; e-mail youngm@pdx.edu

Textbook: The Heinle and Heinle TOEFL Test Assistant: Listening; by Milada Broukal; Heinle & Heinle 1995

Grading: A minimum passing grade is C-, or 70%. Grading is based on attendance and participation. See the table below.

Attendance. It is important to come every day and be on time, especially when practice tests are scheduled.

There are no excused absences.
If you are late more than 10 minutes, it counts as one hour of absence.
If you are late more than 5 minutes, two times, it counts as one hour of absence. It is very important to be on time, because your classmates will hate you if you interrupt their listening.
It is your responsibility to sign the attendance sheet at the beginning of each class, or when you arrive.
You must bring your book to class; if you do not, you will be marked absent and asked to leave. Sharing is not allowed during tests and timed work.
In order to receive a particular grade, you are only allowed a certain number of absences, shown in the table below. If you register late for the class, your grade will be based on the percentage of classes that you have attended since your registration.

ABSENCES (HOURS)	% BASED ON 20 HOURS	LETTER GRADE
0	100	A
1	95	A
2	90	A-
3	85	B
4	80	B-
5	75	C
6	70	C-
7	65	D
8	60	D-
9 or more	55 and below	F

Participation. Inappropriate behavior and lack of participation may affect your final grade negatively. Participation includes several elements:

Being on time and ready to start class;

Having all of your materials (book, answer sheets, pencil) ready to use at the beginning of class;

Working well in groups by sharing work equally and paying attention to the task;

Paying attention in class and asking questions.

CELL PHONES: This is a listening class, and a cell phone ringing interrupts and destroys the listening activity for all of the students. All cell phones MUST be turned off during class. If your cell phone rings during class, your grade will drop one level (e.g., from A to A-, from B+ to B, and so on).

Objectives: In this course you will practice different types of questions on the Listening part of the TOEFL in order to become familiar with them. You will also learn about and practice strategies so that you can maximize your effectiveness on this part of the test. In addition, you will take some full-length practice tests in class for the purpose of becoming more comfortable with and working more effectively under simulated testing conditions with time constraints.

Homework: This is not required. However, we will not be able to cover all of the material in the book this term. If you wish to improve your TOEFL score significantly, you might wish to do extra work in the book, and practice outside of class, especially in the Learning Center. Tapes for the book are available in the Learning Center. HOWEVER, please do not work ahead in the book; in other words, do not do work from a chapter in the book until we have covered it in class.

The Learning Centers: To find out the open hours for the LCs, call 503-725-9199, or drop by. There are several software programs in the Learning Centers which can help you improve your scores on the TOEFL. In addition to the TOEFL software, I strongly recommend Issues in English. The higher levels in this software are especially good preparation for the Internet-Based TOEFL, as well as the lectures and talks in the paper-based TOEFL.

Tentative Calendar

WEEK	DATE	CONTENT
1	3/30	Introduction to the course; Knowledge, skills, and strategies; Listening Practice Test (handout)
2	4/6	Short conversations: Predicting; Specific vocabulary; Language functions (agreeing, disagreeing, making offers, making requests) [Book pp. 7 - 10, pp. 15 - 22]
3	4/13	Short conversations continued: Language functions (suggestions, invitations, questions, assumptions, contradictions, having someone do something); Inferring meaning. Book pp. 23 - 32]
4	4/20	Extended conversations: Predicting topics and questions; question types (main topic, who/what/when/where). Practice Test 1 [Book pp. 40 - 52, pp. 93 - 97]
5	4/27	Extended conversations continued; Practice Test 2; voting for students' choice Day 6 [Book pp. 49 - 60, pp. 99 - 104]
6	4/4	NOTE: The (IELP) Institutional TOEFL is scheduled for Saturday, May 8. STUDENTS' CHOICE: (A) Lectures and talks; Practice Test 3 [Book pp. 69 - 77, pp. 105 - 110] OR (B) (Teacher Recommended) Full TOEFL Practice Test (Listening, Structure, and Reading)
7	5/11	Activities depend on the voting outcome for Day 6 (A) Lectures and talks continued ; Practice Test 4 [Book pp. 79 - 90, pp. 111 - 116] OR (B) Lectures and talks; Practice Test 3 [Book pp. 69 - 77, pp. 105 - 110]
8	5/18	(A) Practice Test 5 [Book pp. 117 - 122]; additional practice OR (A) Lectures and talks continued ; Practice Test 4 [Book pp. 79 - 90, pp. 111 - 116]
9	5/25	(A) Individual Conferences--email me the week before for an appointment if you would like special help with your TOEFL problems OR (B) Practice Test 5 [Book pp. 117 - 122]; additional practice
10	6/1	Post-test (handout); student course evaluations

If you have difficulty hearing, seeing, walking, or if you have an illness or other condition that will make studying in this class difficult, please tell the teacher.
3/25/10