21st Century College English Audio-Visual Course. Book 1

Author: Fudan University
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features: College English for the 21st Century is a national key textbook for the "Nine-Five" period of general higher education. Since its publication, it has been highly favored and widely adopted by universities across the country. Recently, the Ministry of Education issued the Teaching Requirements for College English Courses, setting higher standards for college English teaching. To adapt to the changing circumstances, we have developed the College English for the 21st Century: Listening and Speaking Course. This course is closely integrated with the Reading and Writing Course, emphasizing functional-notional training throughout and adopting a combination of video, audio, and speaking methods. It fully utilizes modern teaching tools to comprehensively improve students' listening and speaking skills. The course is rich in content, covers a wide range of topics, and features diverse formats, authentic language, and a progressive structure. It consists of eight units, each divided into four parts.
Part 1: "Communicative Skills"
This section primarily focuses on functional-notional training and the integration of video (video watching), audio (listening), and speaking. It emphasizes the organic combination of input and output. A notable feature of this course is the inclusion of video content, which undoubtedly helps enhance students' listening and speaking abilities.
Part 2: "Theme-Based Listening and Speaking"
This section centers on theme-based listening and speaking exercises. The authors have carefully arranged the themes in order of complexity, from simple to complex and from concrete to abstract, taking into account the characteristics of language learning. In addition to traditional listening and speaking exercises, this section also includes listening practice based on the VOA Special English Program, enabling students to understand and master authentic English. Naturally, the selection of materials has been carefully considered in terms of difficulty and relevance to the themes.
Part 3: "Listening Strategies"
Each unit in this section is organized around a specific listening strategy, helping students master these techniques through practical exercises. The selection of materials and the arrangement of exercises have been carefully designed to suit students' English proficiency and feasibility, reflecting a student-centered approach.
Part 4: "Extensive Listening"
This section includes movie watching, which is one of the highlights of the course. It not only enhances students' learning interest but also assesses their comprehensive English proficiency. Teachers can view this section as a supplement and reinforcement of the first three parts, using it flexibly based on actual circumstances.
Network-based three-dimensional teaching is a brand-new model of teaching and learning. This course series adopts the most advanced network teaching system in North America as its platform for teaching and learning, providing teachers and students with excellent interactive support and facilitating self-directed learning amid current shortages of teaching resources.
This course series is edited by Professor Zhai Xiangjun as the chief editor, with Professor Qiu Donglin as the editor-in-chief of this volume. Contributing editors include Wang Meidi, Cai Jigang, Liang Zhengliu, and Xu Zhen from Fudan University. Ni Qinfen and Ji Meijuan of Fudan University Press have also provided significant support and care for the writing and publication of this book. We express our gratitude to them here. Due to time constraints and limited expertise, errors may inevitably occur. We sincerely invite fellow educators and students to kindly correct any mistakes.
Editors
July 2004