This one semester course is designed to improve students English listening, speaking, reading and writing skills through focusing on events of today in the media. Each week a news item from either T.V., the Internet, radio or the print media will be presented in class. Students will be directed through various tasks in order to develop their listening, reading and writing skills. There will also be a strong focus on vocabulary development. Students will also participate in classroom discussions, role plays and debates in order to improve their speaking skills.

On completion of the course, students should be able to: 1. apply the listening skills presented in class to everyday situations; (prediction skills, listening for general comprehension, listening for specific details, guessing meaning from context and inference skills.) 2. express opinions and provide facts to support their opinions on current issues in the media; 3. utilize conversation strategies to discuss events in the news; 4. comprehend and be able to use key vocabulary found in the news; 5. use different language learning strategies; 6. use different resources available for English language learning; and 7. better understand both themselves and the world around them.

Course materials and handouts will be provided by instructor