Engineering Faculty Document No. 4-02

January 22, 2003

Page 1 of 2

TO: The Engineering Faculty

FROM: The Faculty of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

RE: New Graduate-Level Course

The faculty of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering has approved the following new course. This action is now submitted to the Engineering Faculty with a recommendation for approval.

ECE 676 Academic Oral Communication for International Research Students

Sem. 1 & 2. Class 1, cr. 0.

Prerequisite: ECE graduate standing

Discussions of and activities related to such topics as appropriate nonverbal communication; learning styles; strategies for effective speech and listening; and speech acts for the classroom, office, and laboratory. Individual weekly tutoring sessions to improve speech comprehension.

Reason: This course fulfills a major need in ECE, which continues to experience growth in the

enrollment of international graduate students. While the Department of English offers an oral communication course (English 001T) for international students who are slated to become teaching assistants, there is no corresponding oral communication course for international research assistants at Purdue. In fact, Purdue offers no general courses in spoken English for its large contingent of international students. Thus, research assistants who want to improve their English must do so off-campus and on their own time, usually, by means of private tutoring or classes which do not cater to the academic oral communication needs of graduate students. This course was offered as ECE 694B in the Fall 2000, Spring 2001, and Fall 2001 semesters with an enrollment of 19, 15, and 5 students, respectively.

Mark J. T. Smith

Professor and Head

Engineering Faculty Document No. 4-02

January 22, 2003

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Supporting Documentation:

1. Course Objective: The purpose of this course is to help international students successfully communicate according to the expectations of the American graduate classroom. Students will learn how to participate in various academic contexts and will acquire the appropriate vocabulary and expressions necessary to function in these contexts.

2 Level: Graduate Level

3. Person-In-Charge: Joanne Lax

4. Course Outline:

Topics Lectures

1. Introduction 1

2. Language Learning 1

3. Oral Presentations 1

4. Communication strategies 3

5. Organizing material 1

6. Verbalizing data 1

7. Nonverbal behavior 1

8. Describing Objects 1

Total 10

Note: This course will meet for one hour a week for the first 10 weeks of the semester. Students will also meet individually with a speech tutor for one-half hour each week.

5. Grading: The course will be graded on a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory basis.