GAC007 Academic English II: Listening and Speaking Skills

GAC007 develops listening and speaking through comparing spoken text types, applying listening strategies, taking notes and summarising, describing visuals and processes, giving presentations with relevant digital media, and encouraging interaction. The themes provide material for these skills rather than establish official task weights.

Your teaching centre provides the actual assessment brief. A listening test 听力测试 needs spoken input; a presentation 演讲 needs actual delivery. The six original local sheets provide written scripts, evidence records and rehearsal plans. They support preparation but do not replace reviewed recordings or assess pronunciation, one-pass comprehension, vocal fluency or measured delivery time. Their word ranges and analytic points are local teaching conventions, not official GAC specifications.

Compare purpose, audience, style and response expectations. A coordinator’s announcement can inform visitors about a time and request suggestions. A seminar contribution on the same topic can evaluate an observation, acknowledge its limit and recommend a check. The shared topic does not make their functions identical.

Speech functions 言语功能 describe what a statement does: inform, request, question, recommend, concede or qualify. A hedge 模糊限制语 such as might or tends to preserves uncertainty. Register 语域 concerns language suited to the situation; speakers can vary their language within a talk. Do not assume an informal aside will contain an exam answer or that academic speakers hedge every statement.

Worked example. In the original discussion-table script, students exchanged notes on three observed afternoons, but learning was not measured. “The table might support discussion” is a possibility, not proof of improved learning. A useful response acknowledges the exchange, asks what needs checking and invites a relevant contribution from a quieter participant. Silence alone does not show agreement.

Selective listening 选择性听力 focuses on information needed for the task while following the message. Before a rehearsal, identify whether the question needs a main point, a particular time, a condition or a comparison. Prediction can prepare likely vocabulary; it cannot supply a confirmed answer.

Discourse markers 语篇标记 such as first, however and finally signal relationships. Retain the actual content that follows them. An Inference 推断 is a supported conclusion from the text and context, rather than a plausible story added by the listener.

Worked example. A fictional garden speaker says that first-year funding was unusually generous, then says later budgets and harvest records are not supplied. The later-year results are unknown. Neither “later years failed” nor “funding ended and caused failure” is established. However introduces the limit; it does not automatically make the earlier statement false. Likewise, “popular in the nineties” alone does not establish current unpopularity.

Keep dates with their actions: Tuesday noon is the access-request deadline; Thursday 18:30 is the meeting in room 6. A replacement room is conditional, not already booked. After a permitted rehearsal, compare notes with the original script and clarify essential gaps. Do not present a reading-check score as a listening-proficiency score.

Notes should retain the hierarchy 层级 of a message: main proposal, supporting figures, decision limits and next actions. Abbreviations and arrows help when their meaning remains clear. Preserve important negatives, units, owners and permission conditions. Summarising 概括 selects those relevant points rather than repeating every sentence.

Worked example. The fictional workshop poll invited forty staff; thirty replied; eighteen respondents preferred Tuesday. That is not “all forty prefer Tuesday” and it does not establish availability. Room A seats twenty at sixty credits per session; room B seats thirty at ninety. Proposed two room-A sessions cost 120 credits before unknown extra fees. The manager must approve the plan before booking.

A simple digital comparison visual can show capacity and cost per session. Explain how those quantities bear on attendance, then identify the availability, fee and approval checks. Do not label a proposal as a booking or infer productivity gains the script never measured. Rehearse the actual spoken update with a timer; written length alone does not establish whether it fits a three-minute slot.

For a spoken review, prepare notes under finding, method, limitation and next action. A preference, an association and a causal effect are different claims. A qualification can determine what the speaker’s evidence supports, so keep it attached to the finding.

Worked example using original fictional data. Twenty volunteers chose a discussion-room arrangement: fourteen preferred quiet and six preferred music. This is 70% of those twenty respondents, not 70% of all people. The review measured no stress or health outcomes and did not recruit a random sample. It provides no treatment claim or clinical advice.

A faithful summary reports the preference counts, their scope and the next actions: feedback forms are due Friday noon, the meeting is Monday 15:00, and participants should disclose if they did not try both arrangements. The coordinator checks forms before a recommendation. Do not convert that future step into an approved permanent policy.

The separate lesson’s fictional diary example also distinguishes an observed association from a cause. These are language-practice records, not real clinical evidence. A summary should neither exaggerate a result nor dismiss the source merely because it has limitations.

Name the chart type 图表类型, the variables and units before interpreting a comparison. A categorical bar chart compares categories; it does not automatically show a continuous time trend. Keep totals distinct from percentages and measured records distinct from future predictions.

Worked chart example. Three fictional batches each contain 100 inspected packs. The counts set aside for rework are 8,5 and 11. Batch B has the lowest recorded count, and C the highest. The counts do not fall steadily, and set-aside packs are not automatically permanent waste. No causes or rework outcomes are supplied.

A process 过程 description retains actions, sequence and decision points. Inspect the seal; passing packs enter the ready tray; failing packs are labelled for rework; reworked packs require another inspection before release. Record first and later results separately. A passive voice 被动语态 sentence such as “The pack is labelled for rework” can focus on the action. Active wording may be clearer when responsibility matters. Changing voice does not change the order or conditions.

A comparison visual should label the quantity, unit, scope and period. Include relevant limits rather than hiding them in a confident conclusion. Distinguish what was recorded from what the group proposes next.

Worked example. One garden plot used 400 litres across four observation days before a trial and 250 litres across four different days after it began. The recorded difference is 150 litres, or 37.5% of the first total. Rainfall differed and planted area was not recorded, so the comparison does not isolate the trial’s effect or supply litres per square metre. It does not establish the same result everywhere.

For a formal presentation, show the two labelled totals, explain their limits and invite concerns about plant condition and missing records. A digital slide supports the spoken reasoning; it cannot prove pronunciation, audience understanding or rehearsal duration.

Encourage discussion with relevant questions, responses and an honest summary. An open question can invite explanation; a closed question can usefully confirm a detail or check agreement. Neither is always superior. Invite a quiet participant’s view instead of treating silence as approval. Summarise the proposed recommendation and unresolved checks, ask whether the group accepts it, then seek the supervisor’s required approval before continuing. A discussion that ends with an honest unresolved issue need not be a failure for everybody.

Vocabulary card meanings

presentation: A prepared talk given to an audience. Speech functions: The jobs language does, such as agreeing, asking or refusing. Selective listening: Listening only for the information the task asks for. Discourse markers: Words that show how a talk is organised, such as first or however. chart type: The kind of diagram, such as a bar chart or a line graph. passive voice: A verb form that puts the receiver of the action before the verb.