NC 325: ESL: Speaking - Beginning

Citrus College Course Outline of Record

Citrus College Course Outline of Record
Heading Value
Effective Term: Fall 2021
Credits: 0
Total Contact Hours: 63
Lecture Hours : 63
Lab Hours: 0
Hours Arranged: 0
Outside of Class Hours: 126
Transferable to CSU: No
Transferable to UC: No
Grading Method: Non-Credit Course

Catalog Course Description

ESL: Speaking - Beginning is designed for English language learners at low and high beginning levels. Students will learn and apply speaking skills to gain and enhance oral communication in American English. This course focuses on vocabulary development, simple conversations, short presentations, and pronunciation. Open entry/exit. 63 lecture hours.

Course Objectives

  • Ask and answer simple questions in conversations related to basic needs and everyday activities.
  • Identify and use appropriate spoken English for various functional contexts.
  • Use familiar and learned vocabulary, language forms and structures, phrases, and expressions orally in conversation to complete common survival, work, basic needs, community, educational, and life tasks.
  • Use common conversational skills to engage in conversations with conventions similar that of native American English speakers such as combining phrases, reduced forms and expressions, sentences, and questions.
  • Produce basic orally intelligible American English words, phrases, sentences, and questions from learned and familiar material.
  • Use language structures in speech with limited accuracy to convey intended meaning.

Major Course Content

  1. Language Functions – Identify and use appropriate spoken English in various functional contexts.
    1. Ask and answer simple questions based on learned and familiar content.
    2. Use common, high frequency phrases and expressions to express surprise, agreement and disagreement, caution and warning, satisfaction and dissatisfaction, gratitude, apology, preference, and excitement.
    3. Use common, high frequency phrases and expressions to invite, accept or refuse an offer, greet, introduce, identify, obtain information, give and follow directions and instructions, compliment, and state basic opinions, likes and dislikes, and wants and needs.
    4. Interpret problems and provide suggestions, ideas, and advice for solutions.
    5. Explain reasons for choices, preferences, obligations, ability and inability, and the like.
    6. Obtain information through asking appropriate questions.
    7. Ask follow-up questions.
    8. Use and interpret common American idioms.
  2. Life Skills – Use familiar and learned vocabulary, language forms and structures, phrases, and expressions orally to (including but not limited to):
    1. Describe personal experiences and events.
    2. Inquire into and describe basic physical characteristics such as height, weight, hair color, clothing, and the like.
    3. Inquire into and describe basic aspects and qualities of people and things such as personality, places, businesses, recreational locations, and the like.
    4. Make purchases, exchanges, and returns.
    5. Give and follow directions, instructions, and commands such as emergency warnings and procedures, driving and locational directions, and the like.
    6. Demonstrate ability to communicate with medical staff regarding basic condition, diagnosis, and treatment.
    7. Answer basic questions in a job interview.
  3. Conversational Skills – Use common conversational skills to replicate features of American English speaking and enhance conversational abilities.
    1. Use clarification strategies.
    2. Use abbreviated and reduced forms of speech in informal contexts (e.g. “Want some?,” “You think so?,” “Not now,” and the like).
    3. Speak with a combination of phrases, sentences, and questions.
    4. Use syllable stress and sentence intonation correctly for various sentence and question types.
    5. Pronounce common problematic consonants and vowels.

Suggested Reading Other Than Required Textbook

Instructor supplied materials

Examples of Required Writing Assignments

None (this course focuses on speaking skills)

Examples of Outside Assignments

With a partner use this map of Citrus College and give spoken directions to the places listed on your paper.
Sit with a small group. Use the packet of cards. Take one card at a time and talk in your group to answer the questions on each card.
Use the following 10 idioms we just learned to fill in the written dialogue for each.
Listen to this short conversation about a famous person. Then answer the multiple-choice questions. Compare your answers with a partner. Then, with your partner, think of a question you would like to ask the person.

Instruction Type(s)

Lecture, Online Education Lecture