College English: Listening and Speaking Course 1

College English: Listening and Speaking Course 1 Unit 1: Studying English

Listening Practice Short Conversation

Studying English Unit 1: Studying English • Part A • Part B • Part C • Part D

Unit 1: Studying English Communicative Function : Greetings and Introductions Listening Strategy : Detecting Incomplete Plosion Part A

Unit 1: Studying English Pre-listening Task Listening Tasks Text: Talking about Studying English Language and Culture Notes Speaking Tasks Leisure Time: A Song Part: B

Unit 1: Studying English Additional Listening: How to Improve Listening Comprehension Part: c

Unit 1: Studying English Home Listening: English Pronunciation Part: D

Part A Communicative Function Greetings and Introductions People greet each other when they meet. And in meeting new people it is common to introduce oneself and be introduced by others. This exercise focuses on different ways to greet people and to make introductions.

Listening Practice Listen to the tape and complete the dialogues. 1. Bill : Hi, Mary. ? Mary : Hi, Bill. Bill : Fine, thanks. And you? Mary : Just fine. Bill, , Bob Smith. Bob, this is my friend, Bill Jones. Bill : Hello, nice to meet you. Bob: Nice to meet you, too. How are you doing I’ d like you to meet my classmate

Linda: Excuse me, are you Paul Johnson from London? Linda Blake from Smith and Wells. Paul: Yes I am Paul Johnson. How do you do, Miss Blake? Linda: How do you do, Mr. Johnson? Charles Green He’s our sales manager. Paul: . Mr. Green. Mr. Green: Listening Practice I’m 2. May I introduce to you Pleased to meet you It’s a pleasure to meet you

Listening Practice • Jack: Mum, I’ve brought one of my friends. • Mother: Ask him in, Jack. • Jack: , Tom. Mum, • my roommate. • Mother: Hello, Tom. • Tom: How do you do, Mrs. Brown? • Jack: And . Jane. Come and meet my family this is Tom It’s good to know you. this is my sister

Part A Listening Strategy Detecting Incomplete Plosion In connected speech when a plosive consonant like /k/, /g/, /t/, /d/, /p/, /b/ is followed by another consonant, it is not fully pronounced. This is called incomplete plosion.

Listening Practice Listen to the tape and read after the recording, paying attention to the letters in red. • I like to sing pop songs. • Basketball is m favorite sport. • I want to read science fiction in English. • Jack can speak good French • Laura is one of the top students in Grade One • Bob likes to play football after class • Listening is not a big problem for me. • I’m sorry you don’t like New York very much

Part B Pre-listening Task

Part B Questions for discussion You are going to talk about your experience of studying English. Read the following questions and discuss them with your partner. When did you start learning English? How long have you studied it? Do you like English or not? Why? What is the purpose of studying English for most people? And what is it for you? What do you think of English? Is it interesting or boring? Difficult or easy? Give reasons. Have you ever listened to English broadcasts? If you have, what programs have you listened to and how often do you listen to them? Which accent do you prefer, American or British? Why?

Additional questions for discussion What do you think is the most important thing in the study of English: a good pronunciation, a good command of grammar, or a large vocabulary? Among the four skills, listening, speaking, reading and writing, which one do you think is most important for a non-English major student? What do you intend to achieve in the first semester?

Part B Listening Tasks Talking about Studying English

Listening Practice Exercise 1: listening for general understanding Listen to the tape once and choose the right answer to each question you hear. 1.Which of the following would be the best title for the two talks? a. School Life b. studying English c. Why Learn a Language? d. Difficulties with English 2.Who are the speakers? a. English majors. b. Senior students at college. c. Beginners in English study. . d. Non-English majors at college b. studying English d. Non-English majors at college.

Listening Practice Exercise 2:listening for details Name country major Reasons for studying English Time already spent in studying English Favorite activity and difficulty yang weiping china Chemistry likes listening to English programs on radio and Tv; enjoys English pop songs Started learning English several years ago Favorite activity: listening; difficulty: speaking Virginia wang singapore Library science To get a good job one has to be fluent in English. Started learning English in high school Favorite activity: reading; difficulty: writing

Tape Script Talking about Studying English At a gathering of students from China and some other countries, Yang Weiping and Virginia Wang, both first-year college students, are talking about their learning of English. Hello, my name is Yang Weiping. I'm a freshman at Peking University and I'm majoring in chemistry. At college we have to study a foreign language. I choose English because I like listening to English programs on the radio and TV. I also like British and American pop songs. Some day I hope to visit Britain and the United States. I started learning English several years ago and I'm getting better at it. My favorite activity is listening, especially listening to songs and stories. My big problem is , however, speaking.

Listening Practice I feel nervous whenever I speak. And I never seem to know what to say when people talk to me. But I've decided to overcome my shyness and learn to speak English by speaking as much as I can. Hi, my name is Virginia Wang. I'm a library science major at the National University of Singapore. In our country, English is important. It is one of the official languages and you have to be fluent in English to get a good job. I've been studying English since high school. I'm good at reading because I like learning about new things and new ideas. There are so many books and articles written in English. Our textbooks at the university are in English, too. I know writing is also very important, but I find it really difficult. When I graduate from the university I would- like a job in the city library where I can read all kinds of new books.

Listening Practice Pair work Listen to the dialogues and repeat after the recording. Practice the dialogues with your partner, playing the role of A or B. Then work with your partner to create your own dialogues by replacing the underlined parts with your own words.

Dialogue 1 A: Excuse me, may I sit here? B: Sure. A: Nice day, isn't it? B: Yes, it's warm and sunny. Just the kind of weather I like. A: Me, too. Are you from the English Department? B: No, I'm a computer major. A: Oh, really? You speak English very well. B: Thank you.

Dialogue 2 • A: How long have you been studying English? • B: About four years. • A: Do you like it? • B: Very much. • B: Well, I find it's very useful. • A: Why's that?

Listening Practice Leisure Time

Listening Practice Cotton Fields When I was a little bitty baby My mama would rock me in the cradle, In them old cotton fields back home. It was down in Louisiana, Just about a mile from Texarkana, In them old cotton Melds back home. On, well, those cotton bolls get rotten. You can t pick very much cotton In them old cotton fields back home.

Part C Additional Listening Listen and fill in How to Improve Listening Comprehension Among the four of listening, speaking, reading and writing, I find listening most difficult, because I about the words I don't know. Now I'm trying to on the general idea, not worrying about the new words. This makes me good, because I know I've something. Then, I listen again c and if I have any I play the difficult parts again. In this way I come to better both the idea and the of the listening text skills worry focus fell understood problems carefully understand main details

Part D Home Listening Exercise : Listen and write down answers English Pronunciation 1. Do we have to sound like a native speaker of English when we speak, according to the speaker? 2. Does the teacher spend much time on pronunciation exercises in class? Why or why not? 3. What does the speaker sometimes do on her own to improve her pronunciation? No. but it is important to pronounce well enough to make ourselves understood. No. Because our class is usually very big. She listens to text recordings and reads the words and sentences aloud.

Tape script English Pronunciation I don't think we have to sound like an English person when we speak but it is important to pronounce well enough to make ourselves understood. My own pronunciation in English isn't terribly good and I need to work on it. As we are non-English major students, our class is usually very big. That means our teacher doesn't have much time for practice in pronunciation and intonation in class. So it's necessary that we spend some time after class listening to tapes and practicing reading and imitating. Sometimes, when I'm alone, I listen to text recordings and read the words and sentences aloud. I find that makes my English sound better.

College English: Listening and Speaking Course 1