Graduate English Listening and Speaking Course (2) Teacher's Reference Book = Instructor's Manual, Take on Listening: Listen

Author: Scholnick Nadia F.
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2010-04-22
Features: Since China's entry into the WTO, its foreign exchanges have increased significantly. To meet the societal demand for high-level applied English talents, Higher Education Press has introduced and launched the Graduate English Listening and Speaking Course (Import Edition). This series of textbooks revolves around hot topics in social life, providing abundant lively and practical listening and speaking materials while integrating nine common listening and speaking techniques and strategies into the learning and training processes of each unit. Additionally, the listening materials incorporate a wealth of sociocultural knowledge. The recordings in the listening materials are authentic and natural. The Graduate English Listening and Speaking Course (Import Edition) emphasizes listening strategies and micro-skill training while cultivating students' speaking and writing abilities through extensive exercises. The course consists of two volumes. In both volumes, micro-skills are first introduced through various exercises, enabling students to truly understand their significance and role in improving listening skills.
The first volume focuses on training around seven micro-skills. The second volume further spirals the training of these seven micro-skills while adding two more advanced ones: scanning for background information and revising assumptions. It is worth noting that this textbook also emphasizes combining common and practical scenarios, with each chapter centered around a specific theme for listening exercises. These themes are broad and realistic, covering both daily life topics (e.g., supermarkets, hobbies, travel) and subjects of great concern to students (e.g., career choices, personal dilemmas, interviews, future careers).
Since this textbook is designed for students learning English as a foreign language, it not only introduces foreign scenarios to help students understand the cultural customs of English-speaking countries but also guides them to compare and discuss in the context of their own country. This approach not only gives students something to talk about but also creates a sense of familiarity. Another feature of this textbook is its rich variety of exercises, all centered around practice. Instead of theoretical explanations, the textbook helps students master these micro-skills through extensive exercises, achieving the effect of "learning by doing" and achieving proficiency.
Therefore, it can be said that this is a textbook with listening skill training as its core, comprehensively developing students' overall English proficiency, which is fundamentally different from many of the purely listening-focused textbooks we currently use. The exercises come in various forms, including individual assignments, as well as interactive pair and group activities. Most exercises are open-ended, requiring students to actively provide answers, making the learning and practice process more proactive and student-centered.
This series of textbooks is rich in content and highly practical, with a certain level of difficulty. It is suitable for graduate students with intermediate to advanced English proficiency. It can be used in conjunction with other textbooks that develop other skills, such as reading, or as a standalone textbook. The entire set consists of a student workbook, an instructor's manual, listening cassettes, and an MP3 disc, making it very convenient to use.