英語総合講座III-3
　　Means and strategies to improve your listening comprehension of broadcast news in American English
HISAIZUMI TSURUO　
久泉　鶴雄		 4単位　
3〜4年　
前期　
11002103

CNN and ABC TV news on NHK satellite TV, and radio news programs such as "Paul Harvey's News and Commentary", the National Public Radio news, AFN local news, and announcements broadcast during station breaks on AFN, are recorded into a cassette tape in LL and studied in full details in class and at home.
The students are requested to acquire certain strategies to cope with the difficulties in understanding varieties of sound changes resulting from fast speed in speaking. The hardest and the most important part of the class activities is the detailed study of perceptual problems in listening comprehension. The most outstanding difficulties in comprehending news in English to the speakers of Japanese are the various types of sound changes in quickly spoken English. Those changes are related to reduced forms of function words, assimilation and linking of sounds in two adjacent words, stress shifting, ellipses, and other sound changes that are less familiar to speakers of the Japanese language.
Don't forget, however, that precise comprehension is accomplished only when you combine your efforts of perceiving sounds of English precisely and your efforts of understanding the overall meaning they are carrying.
If you wish to study further news broadcast in American English during the fall semester, you can take my Proficiency English -45, in which you will learn different materials from those you study during the spring semester. You can also switch from the study of news in American English to the study of news in British English in fall semester, because the content of each course is not the same.

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 100% grade points. If a student is absent from one 45-minute class period, he or she will lose 2% out of 100% grade points. If they are late for class three times, they will lose 4%. （２） Class participation: 50%. （２）Students must prepare for the class participation at home by listening to the tape, by examining the meaning and usage of unfamiliar words and phrases using dictionaries, by trying to interpret the meaning of each sentence, and by transcribing whatever they can catch by intent listening. The degree of students' preparation will be checked individually during the class and the evaluation will be kept in record. （３） Quiz: 50%. A quiz will be given in each class in order to check whether or not the students have completed the reviewing of the activities in the preceding class.

テキスト名： Handouts ／ photocopied newspaper articles and other materials

参考文献： Radio news program on AFN / International news programs on NHK-TV BS 1

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．Information on TV and radio news programs in English available now. Listening to some sample news. Recognition of news topics.
２．Introduction to strong and weak forms of function words in English. Listening to the latest news in American English. What is the core, the central idea of each news story? Can you find the headlines?
３．What does each paragraph tell you? What does each sentence tell you? Listen to some of the latest news in American English.
４．Can you explain to the class the story of the news you've just listened to? Summarization of a news item in your own words is useful for practicing listening. Listen to some of the latest news in American English.
５．After approximate understanding of the news you go into the details. Find out all the unclear parts of the expressions you've tried to interpret. What are the causes of difficulty? Analyze the natures of difficulties. Listen to some of the latest news in American English.
６．Transcribe all the sentences in a given news item. Check whether or not you have completely understood the news by the transcription. Listen to some of the latest news in American English.
７．Integrated skills in reading, listening, speaking, and writing will help you to make better your listening comprehension. Listen to some of the latest news in American English.
８．Analysis of varieties of difficulties in listening comprehension. Common sense, background knowledge, cross-cultural information, difference in viewpoints, interference by your mother tongue, association difference in the meaning of words, collocation, grammatical information, etc. will affect the interpretation of difficult expressions. Listen to some of the latest news in American English.
９．Stress, pitch, and juncture. Listen to some of the latest news in American English.
10．Distinguishing one sentence from another. Study the pitch change in the end of a clause. Listen to some of the latest news in American English.
11．Strong and weak forms of conjunctions. Listen to some of the latest news in American English.
12．The analysis of the inner structure of a clause will help you to distinguish one sentence from another. Listen to some of the latest news in American English
13．Ellipsis. Pay attention to word endings when listening. Listen to some of the latest news in American English.
14．How to cope with the problem of catching definite or indefinite articles? Listen to some of the latest news in American English.
15．The importance of studying a context to identify a dubious expression. Listen to some of the latest news in American English.
16．Strong and weak forms of prepositions. Listen to some of the latest news in American English.
17．Strong and weak forms of auxiliaries in English. Listen to some of the latest news in American English.
18．Strong and weak forms of pronouns in English. Listen to some of the latest news in American English.
19．Assimilation and other sound changes resulting from "linking", connection of a word ending with a word-initial vowel of the following word. Listen to some of the latest news in American English.
20．Detailed study of definite and indefinite articles in broadcast English. Listen to some of the latest news in American English.
21．Comparison of the weak forms of and, in, and an. Listen to some of the latest news in American English.
22．Concentrated study on with. Listen to some of the latest news in American English.
23．Concentrated study on from. Listen to some of the latest news in American English.
24．Concentrated study on the pronunciation of personal pronouns. Listen to some of the latest news in American English.
25．Sound patterns of a verb phrase beginning with a cluster of auxiliaries. Listen to some of the latest news in American English.
26．Set expressions used in news broadcasting. Listen to some of the latest news in American English.