This course is a combination listening and communication course suitable for students with a TOEFL Paper-Based Test score of up to 459, or for students who have successfully completed the Gateway English course.
Notetaking and Discussion is a combination listening and communication, language-focused and content-based course. Organized around realistic college lectures, the course and lessons guide students through activities in skills such as notetaking, focusing attention, intensive listening, vocabulary building, and critical thinking. New subject areas, presented as one-on-one academic lectures, emphasize professional applications such as software engineering, multimedia design, information technology, urban planning, and social psychology.
Activities and tasks in each class are designed in a way to that gives students increasing involvement and self-direction of their learning. Authentic, stimulating content is introduced and developed so that students experience the value of understanding and exchanging contemporary ideas in a range of academic fields. The course is intended to ready students for genuine academic and professional contexts where they will be expected to participate fully.
Each lesson centers around a short academic lecture. Realistic preparation activities, focused listening tasks, personalized discussions, challenging tests, and authentic presentation assignments enable students to explore each topic deeply. The lecture topics are drawn from a range of academic disciplines, and the lectures themselves feature engaging instructors in a variety of settings including offices, lecture halls, and classrooms, many with live student audiences.