New Challenges: Speaking and Listening (S&L) Course Development for Stream 4 Students

This report will summarise the steps that were taken to develop the S&L course for Stream 4 students in the Spring Semester at International Christian University (ICU) in order to meet their perceived needs as members of the English for Liberal Arts (ELA) program. These needs were established by the coordinators of the course, based on feedback from other teachers in the program and, in order to discover more about whether or not the teachers’ perception matched the students, a student survey was conducted at the end of the semester. The results of this survey showed a positive reaction to the new curriculum yet with some feedback that the materials were too easy and that the regular format of classes was not stimulating for the students. The implications of this are that, although the newly developed course was a positive first step, more work needs to be done to challenge the students more and provide them with the necessary speaking and listening skills needed in the ELA program.