Goals and Objectives
This course seeks to support college-aged international students in their acquisition of communication skills in English. Students in this course have the need to improve their language skills, critical thinking skills, management of affective factors, communicative skills, and performance skills. This class is specifically designed to address those needs. In this proposal, the goals are the general statements that provide guidelines, focus, and general purposes for teaching. The objectives are statements of more specific purposes; they address observable outcomes, are the basis for activities, and are the building blocks of goals. Based on the needs and situation analyses, the following goals and objectives have been identified as essential to this course.
A. Aim:
1. This course aims to help ESL students improve their communication skills in English, through the use of role-play, script-writing, and improvisation.
B. Goals:
1. Language Skills: Students will listen and read for details, and improve comprehensibility in speaking and writing, for the purpose of communicating to an audience in English.
a. Objectives:
i. Students will be able to:
1. read drama scripts in English
2. understand main ideas and details in different kinds of dramatic scripts
3. improve listening comprehension of different types of spoken texts – for main ideas, details and speakers’ attitudes and emotions
4. speak on a given topic for an extended period of time in an improvisation
5. speak clearly enough (pronunciation, stress, intonation) to be understood by classmates and audience
6. write dramatic scripts for different purposes and audiences
7. formulate, express and defend individual ideas and opinions in an improvisation
8. develop and use language learning strategies for all language skills
2. Critical Thinking Skills: Students will learn how to think critically in order to successfully participate in dramatic impromptu improvisations.
a. Students will be able to
i. acquire thinking skills to make critical and rational judgments
ii. interpret input and understand inferences in a dramatic script or improvisation
3. Affective Factors: Students will learn how to manage affective factors that can inhibit or enhance their English language proficiency.
a. Students will be able to
i. cope effectively and efficiently with change, extended speaking tasks, and unplanned, impromptu speaking
ii. develop positive attitudes toward constructive ideas and values that are transmitted and dramatized in oral and/or written forms
iii. develop confidence in their ability to speak English spontaneously
4. Performance: Students will learn how to perform in English
a. Students will be able to perform in front of an audience in a complex culminating task
b. Students will be able to manipulate body movements and facial expressions to convey appropriate emotion and meaning in dramatizations
5. Communicative: Students will develop communicative skills in English
a. Students will be able to
i. formulate, express and defend individual ideas and opinions when working on dramatic productions
ii. speak and perform on a given topic for an extended period of time
iii. participate in pair and group dramatizations on a variety of topics
iv. acquire good speaking and listening habits to understand, enjoy, and appreciate dramatic texts
v. understand extended input (from reading and listening to dramatic scripts) and respond (in speaking) appropriately
vi. communicate (through speech and writing) effectively, in both imaginary and everyday situations, to meet the demands of society
vii. develop the ability to express themselves imaginatively and creatively