Oral Language Skills

Effective oral communication involves generating organized messages delivered with attention to vocal variety, articulation, and nonverbal signals. For a course to support the development of oral communication skills, it should:

• Be limited to a class size of 30 students.
• Require at least two oral activity opportunities.
• Provide oral activity opportunities commensurate with professional expectations (e.g., formal presentations, question and answer session).
• Incorporate feedback as part of an improvement process.

This description is based on the criteria of the National Communication Association.

Second Language 1 (Program Objectives: A1, A2, D4, D3); 2 ( Program Objectives: A3, D4)

Courses that focus on developing literacy in a Language Other Than English (LOTE) should:

• Be limited to a class size of 22 students.
• Be taught mostly in the target language.
• Aim at developing proficiency in the target language.
• Include a strong cultural component.
• Focus on areas such as (a) communication, (b) culture, (c) connections with other disciplines, (d) comparisons with other languages and cultures, (e) experiences in other cultures and relationships with linguistic communities.
• Strive to integrate technology appropriately in the instruction of the target language and culture.

Courses that have as their main focus to develop content area knowledge in a Language Other Than English (LOTE), i.e., to teach a particular subject such as history through another language, should:

• Be taught mostly in the target language.
• Focus on content from a different discipline (history, business, nursing, etc.).
• Integrate the content of the course with the cultural concepts and context of the language used to teach the course.
• Clearly identify content-obligatory language (language that must be known/taught in order to teach or reinforce the content) and content-compatible language (language for which the curriculum concept or information provides a convenient context).
• Include authentic and relevant materials in the target language.
• Include active, hands-on teaching/learning strategies.