Course Syllabus

ALCP Integrated Speaking Skills

Course time & place: ZOOM (MTWTH 12:30-1:20pm PST, SEE HOMEPAGE)

Instructors

Names: Beth Wiens / Ibtesam Hussein
Email: bwiens@uidaho.edu / ihussein@uidaho.edu
Office Hours: By appointment (Zoom Passcode 534487)

Course Description

This course develops academic and real-world speaking skills through interactive online activities, guided practice, and performance-based assessments. Students at different proficiency levels complete the same communicative tasks with different language complexity expectations.

Course Objectives

By the end of this 8-week course, students will:

  1. Develop increased fluency and confidence in real-time online speaking contexts.
  2. Demonstrate effective participation in academic and real-world communicative tasks.
  3. Apply appropriate language structures and vocabulary to express ideas clearly at their proficiency level.
  4. Use interaction strategies to initiate, sustain, and conclude discussions.
  5. Organize and deliver structured oral presentations with increasing complexity and independence.
  6. Adapt speaking performance to audience, purpose, and task expectations.
  7. Demonstrate measurable growth from diagnostic to final performance assessment.

Required Materials

Instructor-provided materials including readings, videos, and speaking prompts.

Weekly Topics

WEEK 1

TOPIC - Introductions, Identity, and Building Conversation
TASK - Diagnostic Speaking Assessment 

WEEK 2

TOPIC - Storytelling & Past Narrative
TASK - Storytelling Recording 

WEEK 3

TOPIC - Opinions + Supporting Reasons
TASK - Opinion Discussion

WEEK 4

TOPIC - Academic Discussion Skills
TASK - Academic Small-Group Discussion

WEEK 5

TOPIC - Presenting Information + Midterm Speaking Assessment
TASK - Informational Mini-Presentation

WEEK 6

TOPIC - Problem-Solving + Collaborative Decision-Making
TASK - Group Problem-Solving Task

WEEK 7

TOPIC - Persuasion & Argument
TASK - Persuasive Speaking Task

WEEK 8

TOPIC - Integrated Academic Speaking Performance
TASK - Final Recorded Speaking Performance

Grading

  • Participation & Discussion = 20%
  • Weekly Speaking Tasks = 25%
  • Recorded Assignments = 20%
  • Midterm Presentation = 15%
  • Final Presentation = 20%

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

Fluency & Comprehensibility

  • Speak for sustained periods appropriate to their proficiency level.
  • Produce comprehensible speech with manageable pauses and repair strategies.
  • Demonstrate improved control of pacing and clarity in live and recorded tasks.

Interaction & Communication Strategies

  • Initiate and respond appropriately in conversations and discussions.
  • Ask follow-up and clarification questions.
  • Paraphrase or summarize others’ ideas during discussion.
  • Use turn-taking and conversational management strategies effectively.

Functional Speaking Skills

  • Introduce themselves and share personal information appropriately.
  • Narrate past experiences using appropriate time markers.
  • Express opinions and support them with reasons and examples.
  • Participate in small-group academic discussions.
  • Collaboratively negotiate solutions to problems.
  • Deliver organized informational and persuasive presentations.

Organization & Academic Speaking

  • Structure short oral presentations with clear openings, development, and conclusions.
  • Use transition language to organize spoken ideas.
  • Adapt language formality and register depending on task.

Language Control (Differentiated by Level)

  • Use vocabulary appropriate to topic and level expectations.
  • Demonstrate grammar control aligned with proficiency level.
  • Expand lexical range and sentence complexity over the duration of the course.

Self-Monitoring & Reflection

  • Evaluate personal speaking strengths and areas for improvement.
  • Apply instructor and peer feedback to improve performance tasks.
  • Demonstrate measurable progress from diagnostic assessment to final speaking project.

Course Format

Each week includes:
Synchronous sessions (Zoom)

  • discussion activities
  • speaking practice
  • feedback and coaching

Asynchronous activities

  • recorded speaking tasks
  • discussion boards
  • vocabulary development
  • peer feedback 

Attendance & Engagement Requirements

  • Live attendance is required and the camera must remain ON during live instruction. 
  • Active participation in discussions and speaking activities is required. Students are expected to attend synchronous sessions and complete asynchronous tasks each week.
  • Although there is no direct penalty for missing classes, most of the assessments are done in class and cannot be made up at a later date. Absence also decreases the chances of improving your speaking. 

Required Technology

  • Stable internet connection
  • Computer or laptop with webcam and microphone
  • Functional webcam and microphone
  • Access to Canvas and Zoom
  • Word-processing tools (Google Docs or Microsoft Word)
  • Ability to record short speaking videos

Mandated Assignments

  • Diagnostic Speaking Task (Week 1)
  • Storytelling Recording (Week 2)
  • Opinion Discussion (Week 3)
  • Academic Small-Group Discussion (Week 4)
  • Informational Mini-Presentation (Week 5)
  • Group Problem-Solving Task (Week 6)
  • Persuasive Speaking Task (Week 7)
  • Final Recorded Speaking Performance (Week 8)

Course Work / Passing the Course

You will be asked to complete assignments during class so you can engage and learn with other students. There will be plenty of time to practice. Two assignments will be completed outside of class, as a video recording you will upload. 
All of your assessments will be given a grade. This percentage grade will be used to determine if you pass or fail the course. Seventy percent (70%) is required for you to pass the course. Whatever level you placed in at the beginning will determine how many points are required for you to pass. 

Classroom Environment 

Learning another language well is challenging! It requires interacting with people we don’t know, often feeling unsure about what we’re doing, and making many mistakes while we practice. It’s important that we make our classroom a place where everyone feels comfortable and safe to try new things, make mistakes and learn. To create this kind of atmosphere, we must speak and listen to each other with respect, and make sure each student has the opportunity to participate equally. 

Academic Integrity

Students must submit their own work. AI tools may not be used to generate speaking scripts unless specifically permitted by the instructor.

ALCP Academic Misconduct Policy and Procedure

One purpose of the ALCP is to ensure students have English verbal skills to communicate their thoughts and ideas at an academic level on their own. The ALCP does not permit students to receive editing or revising assistance from any English speakers, paid tutors, or the University of Idaho Writing Center.  

This differs from the university policy as the ALCP is teaching students to develop their individual proficiency and control of English language grammar, sentence structure, and academic vocabulary and word forms. The learning process is taught and facilitated by the ALCP teachers according to the ALCP Curriculum, with the purpose of accurately assessing student English proficiency. 

Definitions of Academic Misconduct

Plagiarism

Not crediting another individual for his or her work. This includes not citing quotes, data/research, paraphrased ideas, summaries, photographs, images, maps or websites you may have used for research. Plagiarism extends to short papers, longer research papers, presentations of any sort including websites and Power Point presentations. Lifting any blocks of text without proper citation is considered plagiarism, as is using a photograph without crediting the news agency or individual responsible for the original photo. (UI Policy: What is Academic Misconduct?)

  • Any assignment that was created by another student that you are turning in as your own work is considered cheating. Purchasing papers from websites or other students on campus is academic misconduct, the equivalent of cheating and/or plagiarizing. 
  • Using a paper or assignment you wrote or created for another class as "new" for a different class.
  • Providing the materials to facilitate any of the above. You are just as guilty as the cheater if you give another student the paper or assignment to copy. 
  • Skipping a test or turning in assignments late, making false excuses to your professor to avoid point reductions or other repercussions. 
  • Cooperating on a take home test or other assignment designed to evaluate an individual, not the performance of a group.

Working with others

It is acceptable for a student to discuss ideas regarding assignments with others.  However, each student must distinguish their ideas and work from others’ work. Identical or very similar assignments cannot be submitted by two or more students. 

Receiving help from others

Others may not edit, revise, translate, transcribe, or complete assignments for students.

Submitting the same assignment for different classes 

Students cannot submit the same assignment to different teachers or classes. 

Using outside sources

When using outside sources to complete assignments, students must paraphrase and cite the source. Direct quotes must be used minimally. Assignments which have copied text from other sources, whether it is short phrases, sentences, paragraphs or longer texts, must have proper citation. 

The ALCP adheres to the University of Idaho Student Code of Conduct with regard to academic honesty procedures.

Disability Accommodations

The University of Idaho is committed to ensuring an accessible learning environment where course or instructional content are usable by all students and faculty. If you believe that you require disability-related academic adjustments for this class (including pregnancy-related disabilities), please contact the Center for Disability Access and Resources (CDAR) to discuss eligibility. A current accommodation letter from CDAR is required before any modifications, above and beyond what is otherwise available for all other students in this class, will be provided. Please be advised that disability-related academic adjustments are not retroactive.

Center for Disability Access and Resources (CDAR)
LOCATION: Bruce Pitman Building, Suite 127, U of I Moscow Campus
PHONE: 208-885-6307
EMAIL: cdar@uidaho.edu
SERVICES & HOURS: uidaho.edu/cdar