This introductory level oral skills course focuses on listening strategies, negotiation of meaning, and relationship building in conversation in the academic community. Students learn how to get a turn in sometimes highly competitive conversation, to give encouragement and effective responses to their interlocutors, to get an give clarification of possible misunderstandings, and to recognize and utilize typical conversational patterns. Activities include analysis of conversations on videotape and in transcripts, role plays and practice activities in class; homework assignments put skills learning in class to use in the students' own academic environment. For example, students prepare for a visit to a professor's office hours, make the visit, and report to the class on what happened. In addition, students participate in and lead discussions, practicing skills of turn-taking and turn allocation, agreement and disagreement, and persuasion.