Course Description

This course aims at the balanced development of four skills in communicative competence in English. First, we will use a textbook to improve listening. You will engage in listening exercises, practice saying the dialogue lines in pairs, and study tips for listening. Next, you will practice reading by learning vocabulary, skimming, and recognizing important grammar. After this, you will make sentences including the target grammar of the unit, and express your opinion about the content of the reading.
　Apart from the textbook, you will experience extensive reading with an e-book website. You will read e-books in and outside of class. Selecting the e-books you are interested in, you will practice reading at your own speed. After reading each book, you will answer the comprehension quizzes. These activities will steadily enlarge your vocabulary and improve your reading rates. Each of you will also write a composition about the book you recommend.
　This class is designed to achieve Learning Goals 1, 2, and 3 of the General Basic Subjects, incorporating active learning.

Course Objectives

The purpose of this course is to enable students to attain an advanced level of proficiency in English.　By the end of this course,
students will be able to:
1.　read and understand a passage including 4000-word-level vocabulary of "New JACET 8000."
2.　listen to a clearly spoken conversation or passage with liaison, assimilation, and elision including some intermediate vocabulary.
3.　choose appropriate graded readers for students' proficiency and read them 30 minutes in class and more than 30 minutes outside class.
4.　answer three quizzes after reading each graded reader.
5.　write a composition about a book with no fewer than 70 words.

Grading Policy

　Those of you who experienced e-book reading last semester will be graded with the following evaluation standards:
Final examination (40%), the Number of Words Read & Quizzes (30%), Composition on the Book I Recommend (10%),
Book Reports (10%), and Participation (10%)

　The rest of you who are starting e-book reading this semester will be graded with the following evaluation standards:
Final examination (40%), the Number of Words Read & Quizzes (30%), Composition on the Book I Recommend (10%),
VELC Test (10%), Book Reports & Participation (10%)

Textbook and Reference

Requirements(Assignments)

[Preparation with the textbook]
1. You can download the voice data file of the textbook from the Internet. Listening to the voice data, try answering the questions in the listening section.
　Check unfamiliar expressions. (20〜25 minutes)
2. Unfamiliar expressions in the reading section should be checked before class. (25 minutes)
3. Try answering "Check the Points," "Practice More," and "Say What You Think." (15-25 minutes)

[Review]
1. You will practice giving correct answers to the questions you have mistaken. (10-20 minutes)
2. Practice saying the dialogue in "Check the Details" naturally. (5-10 minutes)
3. Listening to the voice data of the passage in "Find Out" as they are and reading the passage at the same time help you raise your reading rate.
　 (10 minutes)

[Extensive reading]
1. Read e-books suitable for your interest and proficiency outside class. (More than 30 minutes per week)
2. Jot down the title of the book you like. (after reading, whenever you find a good one)
3. You will check your grades and corrections of the book reports and the composition through the LMS on your smartphones, etc. (5 minutes)

Note

・Bring in English-Japanese and Japanese-English dictionaries for each class. (Either paper or electronic dictionaries are OK. If you are
　an international student, the dictionaries that translate English into your mother tongue and vice versa are preferable.）
・You can borrow tablets at school, but if you prefer your own tablet or PC, bring it to class.
・Bring earphones in order to listen to the audio of the e-books.
・If you feel your eyes tired easily, prepare glasses that block blue light to reduce your eyestrain.

Through various activities in this course, I hope that you will be able to improve your communicative ability in English.

Schedule