NC 327: ESL: Speaking - Advanced

• Interpret and utilize a range of new words, phrases, expressions, and idioms related to a variety of functional and more complex life topics.
• Identify and use appropriate spoken English to perform various functional language tasks e.g. give conditions needed to achieve a task; present various hypothetical outcomes; defend and justify opinions; express regret and past advice; describe and make logical assumptions Interpret and express various points of view Make logical inferences.
• Use common conversational skills to replicate features of American English speaking and enhance oral communication abilities e.g. maintain and lead discussions; identify, interpret, and utilize various types and degrees of politeness and agreement; use abbreviated and reduced forms of speech in informal contexts; use casual and formal registers.
• Produce comprehensible spoken American English through pronunciation conventions e.g. use thought grouping, content word emphasis, and function word de-emphasis.
• Use grammatical forms in oral speech with some accuracy to convey intended meaning.
• Infer meaning of unfamiliar words and phrases through contextual cues.
• Give a 5-8 minute oral presentation.

1. Vocabulary – Interpret and utilize a range of new words, phrases, expressions, and idioms related to a variety of common, functional, more complex life topics.
   1. Topics covered may include but are not limited to
      1. Current events, getting acquainted, person expression, laws and legalities, education and learning, biographies, jobs, careers, the environment, technology, health, financial issues, self-improvement, and community.
   2. Utilize various common aspects of word families.
2. Language Functions – Identify and use appropriate spoken English in various functional and more complex life contexts.
   1. Use and interpret common American idioms.
   2. Describe in more detail.
   3. Make more detailed comparisons.
   4. Formulate, prioritize, and relay various strategies for success.
   5. Identify and convey accurate sequence of events in a variety of time frames.
   6. Respond to objections and criticism.
   7. Give conditions needed to achieve a task.
   8. Present various hypothetical outcomes.
   9. Defend and justify opinions.
   10. Express regret and past advice.
   11. Describe and make logical assumptions.
   12. Interpret and express various points of view.
   13. Make logical inferences.
   14. Interpret, discuss, and present more complex problems and provide detailed suggestions, ideas, and advice for solutions.
   15. Negotiate compromises.
   16. Hypothesize.
   17. Respond to and formulate interview questions.
   18. Tell stories, narratives, and personal and impersonal experiences.
   19. Use common, high frequency phrases, expressions, and tone to express various states such as basic sympathy, frustration, excitement, support, idea, desire, preferences, abilities, complaint, accusation, defense, and justification.
   20. Use common, high frequency phrases and expressions to perform various functions such as giving advice, persuading, emphasizing points, giving opinions, stating preferences, inviting, complimenting, complaining, making observations, and so forth.
3. Speaking Skills – Use common conversational skills to replicate features of American English speaking and enhance oral communication abilities.
   1. Begin, maintain, extend, and lead conversations by making various types of statements and questions.
      1. Retrieve requested information, gather information, ask follow-up questions, use basic tag questions, confirm or deny assumptions at a very basic level, give advice, summarize, paraphrase, keep focus, and shift focus.
   2. Identify, interpret, and utilize various types and degrees help.
      1. Differentiate between command, admonition, advice, suggestion, idea, lack of ability to offer help, lack of desire to help, and/or indifference.
   3. Identify, interpret, and utilize various types and degrees of politeness and agreement.
   4. Use clarification strategies.
   5. Use abbreviated and reduced forms of speech in informal contexts (e.g. “Want some?,” “You think so?,” “Not now,” and the like).
   6. Use syllable stress, word stress, and sentence intonation correctly for various sentence and question types.
   7. Use thought grouping, content word emphasis, and function word de-emphasis.
   8. Identify and relay main ideas.
   9. Identify topics and subtopics.
   10. Identify and relay important details.
4. Grammar expression – Use grammatical forms in oral speech to coherently express various time frames and functions.
   1. Verb Tenses
      1. Simple present – current experiences and observations, habits, routines, facts, general truths, schedules
      2. Present continuous – current conditions, actions in progress, near future
      3. Past – past experiences, sequential narratives, focus on completion of action
      4. Past continuous - past experiences in progress at a specific past time, interruptions of a longer past action, temporary actions in the past
      5. Future
         1. Near future vs. remote future
         2. Definite and indefinite plans in the future
         3. Requests, invitations, offers, decisions made in the moment, future necessity, threat/warning
      6. Present perfect  – indefinite past time, unfinished past time, repetition from past to present, duration from past to present
      7. Present perfect continuous – duration from past to present
      8. Modals

b. Present and future real conditionals

c. Unreal conditionals

d. Comparative adjectives and adverbs

e. Comparative forms with nouns, verbs, phrases, and clauses

f. Tag questions and negative questions

g. Phrasal verbs

h. Time order words

i. Signal words and phrases

j. Various clauses

k. Participial adjectives