There are altogether 8 units focusing on 8 topics, including Education, Technology, Social problems, Culture, Health, Workplace, Economy, and Nature, which are the most common themes for people to talk about in communication, and are also very often tested on in English Proficiency tests.
Each unit consists of four parts:
- One-minute Presentation
In this part, you will learn to give a one-minute speech. To achieve this goal, you are to complete a one-minute speaking task for each episode. While completing the task you will learn some skills plus a video clip related to the task and the unit theme. While watching the video you are to learn some expressions which may help you with the speaking task. At the end of each episode, a student sample is given for your reference. The presentation skills include organization, topic sentence, support, conclusion, unity and coherence and how to use pauses and fluency fillers.
- Watching for Speaking
In this part, you’ll watch a longer video clip which elaborates on the unit theme. This part is meant to give you more input both in terms of language and ideas. The purpose of learning this part is to complete two tasks: a one-minute speech and a short conversation. To help you with the tasks, we have designed four scaffolding exercises: Chunks, Translation, Questions, and finally Summary. Now that you have watched the video, learned the chunks and processed the ideas and made them your own, you are armed with both ideas and language to complete the speaking tasks.
- Conversational skills
In this part, you will learn some conversational skills, which include how to initiate, respond and close a conversation. After you learn the skills, you are to complete the conversation task of the previous lecture. At the end of each episode, a student sample is given for your reference.
- Listening for Speaking
In this part, you will listen to or watch two news reports, a conversation, and two passages. This part is meant to give you more quality input about the unit theme as well as to give you opportunities to practice your listening comprehension skills. While listening and watching you are to do multiple choice exercises. After that, you are to learn some chunks which may enhance your language skills and ideas on the unit topic.
After learning this course, you will be able to give a one-minute presentation on the above mentioned 8 topics with clarity, accuracy and fluency. And you will also be able to carry out a conversation with relative ease.
