神田外語大学2004年度シラバス

　　英語総合講座

-4
　　Pursuing Strategies for Listening Comprehension of Broadcast News in British English

HISAIZUMI TSURUO　久泉　鶴雄	4単位
	3～4年
	前期

11002104

The goal of this course is to acquire skills and strategies for comprehending broadcast news in British English. The BBC TV news broadcast early in the morning on NHK Satellite is recorded into your cassette tape and will be studied at home.
In order to develop high proficiency in comprehending broadcast news in British English, it is necessary first to have a basic knowledge about RP (received pronunciation）（standard British English), and to have ample knowledge about the people and the society in the United Kingdom. Taking a course of English phonetics and reading an English newspaper on a regular base is recommendable. A routine work in and outside the class is understanding of the main point of each sentence as well as the central idea of a given piece of news, and also continuing a strenuous studying of various sound changes in spoken English.
The first step to comprehend broadcast English is to recognize the topic of the news, the second step is to comprehend the headline of each news and to be able to grasp the central idea of the entire news if the headline is not provided, and the third step is to comprehend the main point of each sentence. If you pass through all these steps successfully you can summarize the whole news in your own words.
If you fail to comprehend fully the main ideas of some sentences, you should select key words in each sentence and try to guess at the information those sentences are carrying by giving full play to your imagination. Predicting the development of a news story, or predicting what type of English expression may follow the part of the expression you are listening to will also help you to perceive more precisely the sounds of English you are studying.
It is almost impossible for many Japanese college students to catch every word or phrase in a sentence completely and understand their meaning when it is spoken.
Therefore, it is necessary for the students to explore various types of sound changes in oral English and also to cope with other difficulties peculiar to listening comprehension.
The hardest and the most important part of the class activities is the detailed study of perceptual problems in listening comprehension, i.e., the exploration of ellipsis and various types of other sound changes.
Those difficulties can be coped with the knowledge of the English grammar and the usage of the English language.
You can take English Proficiency Course III E-3 if you wish to study news broadcast in American English during the spring semester because the content is different from
that in this course. If you wish to study further news in British English take the English Proficiency Course III-44 during the fall semester because the content of that course is also different from this course by taking up other news items than taken up already in this course.

評価方法：

（１） Attendance policy. If a student is absent from one 90-minute class period, he or she will lose 4% out of the 100% final grade points. If they are absent from one 45-minute class period, they will lose 2%. If they are late for class three times they will lose 4%.
（２） Class participation: 50%. Students must prepare for the class participation at home by listening to the tape, by examining the meaning and usage of unfamiliar words and other expressions, by interpreting parts of the news that they can manage to, and by transcribing whatever they can understand by intent listening. The degree of students'preparation will be checked individually during the class and the evaluation will be recorded. I do not appreciate it, if you do not show good preparation.
（３） Quiz: 50%. A quiz will be given each time to check whether or not the students have completed the reviewing of what they have learned in the preceding class.

参考文献：

Handouts, and photocopied newspaper articles.
CVS News, ABC News, CNN News, National Public Radio News on AFN / Paul Harvey News and Commentary on AFN / AFN local news / Public announcements during the station breaks on AFN / The World, BBC international radio news, broadcast on Saturday through AFN / BBC news, ITN news, CNN news, ABC news on NHK satellite TV / BBC and CNN news on CS satellite

Handouts in English

注意事項：

Bring two 60-minute normal type I cassette tapes to the first class in LL. Students need to have a strong motivation for comprehending broadcast news in English. Perseverance is highly requested to study spoken English in full details.

授業計画――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

１．	The difference between RP ad GA / The difference of vocabulary between BrE and AmE / Information about watching and listening to BBC TV news.
２．	Let's listen to several items of latest BBC TV news. What's the topic of each news item?
３．	Do you understand the content in each event? Did you find the headline of the news? What is each news about? Can you tell me the central idea of each news?
４．	Pick up one of the news items. Are there any parts of the news you cannot understand? What are they? In which sentences? Do you understand the other sentences? Can you say the main point of each sentence in the news?
５．	Watch and listen to the entire news story once again. Do you understand it very well now? If so, how about writing the summary of the news in your own words within 70 words?
６．	Let'transcribe every sentence in the news to find whether or not we've understood everything in the news correctly, and also to find several parts of the news the pronunciation of which are unfamiliar to speakers of Japanese.
７．	Let's analyze and identify the nature of difficulties in perceiving some specific sounds of English which appear to be unfamiliar to speakers of Japanese.
８．	Let's review part of English phonetics that is related to sound changes, and also part of English phonology which deals with pitch, juncture, and stress shifting.
９．	Can you distinguish each independent sentence from another in case you listen to a group of sentences spoken quickly with one breath, i.e. without any pause in between? How do you cope with that problem? Let's think about the importance of some strategies to help you on such occasions.
10．	Keep up with the flow of the main stream of meaning; in other words, try to follow the context, first of all.
11．	Does a declarative sentence always end in a falling tune? Are all of the sentences ending in a rising tune yes-no questions? Pay attention to pitch.
12．	Try to find conjunctions between sentences. Be well acquainted with the distinctions between strong and weak forms of conjunctions.
13．	Check the presence of conjunctions and analyze the inner structure of a longish sentence, if you cannot say the number of clauses included in what seems to be a sentence.
14．	Pay attention to inflectional endings. Don't miss the plural and possessive -s endings in nouns, the conjugational -s or -(e)d endings in finite verbs, and the final -s ending in some adverbs. You must cope with ellipsis in spoken English. Study the latest news in British English.
15．	Article appear quite often in English sentences. Don't miss them in listening. Make full use of your knowledge about the use of articles in English, pay attention to the rhythm of spoken English, and study the relation between the reduced forms and the weak stress. Study the latest news in British English.
16．	Study the reduced forms of prepositions. Make full use of your knowledge about some verbs and adjectives requiring specific prepositions to be followed. You can also make use of your knowledge about multi-word verbs which comprise of （１） prepositional verbs <V + Prepositional particle> （２） phrasal verbs <V + Adverbial particle> and （３） phrasal prepositional verbs<V + Adverbial particle +.Prepositional particle>. Study the latest news in British English.
17．	Study the weak forms of auxiliaries. Memorize some typical sound patterns of verb phrases which consist of several auxiliaries and a main verb and pronounced quickly in a breath. Study the latest news in British English.
18．	Study the weak forms of pronouns. Study also the relation between the selection of strong forms and the semantic emphasis of a certain pronoun in a context. Study the latest news in British English.
19．	Study ellipsis in spoken English and get acquainted with the causes of ellipsis. Study the latest news in British English.
20．	Study the pronunciation alterations resulting from the linking of a word ending to the initial sound of the following word [Linking]. Study the latest news in British English.
21．	Study set phrases which are often used for the introduction of a regular news program, the changing of topics, attracting the audience'attention, and so on. Study the latest news in British English.
22．	Study the reduced forms of and, in, and an, which are not distinguishable unless you study the context where those function words are used. Study the latest news in British English.
23．	Study the pronunciations of preposition with which is often hard to identify in spoken English. Study the latest news in British English.
24．	Study the latest news in British English.
25．	〃
26．	Study the latest news in BBC English.