Fall 2008 Syllabus

Sean Allan
Fall 2008
Office: 121 DFLL Building
Office Phone: 3366-3960
Office Hours: To be announced. (No office hours for the first week.)
E-mail: allans@ntu.edu.tw
English for Non-Majors

This course will improve students’ aural, oral, reading and writing skills. Students will review basics of English grammar and syntax. Students will improve their ability to think critically in English and argue in English in a rhetorically effective way. Students will cultivate the skills of summary, analysis, observation, and research presentation in the expository essay format necessary for college-level work and beyond. When appropriate, course material will take a media ecology approach (i.e. it will look at the way visual media and the internet affect language and life). The course will work to improve speaking and listening skills, as well as knowledge of vocabulary and vernacular expressions, for practical purposes. (We will try to have fun with the vocabulary and vernacular expressions as well.) The course will be entirely in English. TAs can assist you in Mandarin when necessary, and the instructor will occasionally use Mandarin and Taiwanese expressions for effect. Please do not laugh at his accent.

Fall Semester Course Objectives

1. Reading texts at a college level; writing about texts at a college level.2. Writing expository essays with a clear focus.3. Learning to use others’ ideas to create one’s own ideas.4. Learning to use in-text citation (through various citation methods, including MLA, APA, etc.)5. Reviewing how to recognize and use rhetorical and grammatical conventions in written and spoken English.

Grades

Papers: 1/3 of Final Grade
Oral training, Oral exams: 1/3 of Final Grade
Midterm and Final Grammar Exams, Weekly Participation and Assignments: 1/3 of Final Grade

Textbooks:
--To be announced.

Papers:
You will write three papers over the course of the semester. Every paper should be at least two pages and not more than three pages long. The first paper is a movie review. I will discuss the other papers later in the semester.

Each paper is divided into three sections: introduction, body, and conclusion. You will write a paper over the course of three weeks. In the first week, the introduction is due. In the second week, the body is due. In the third week, the conclusion is due. Introductions should be at least 1/2 page long. Bodies should be at least one page long. Conclusions should be 1/2 page long. We will discuss how to write each section of the paper early in the semester, and we will review how to write each section for each paper.


Attendance:
Attendance is mandatory. If you cannot attend a class, be sure to inform me or the TA. Medical and family emergencies are acceptable reasons for absences. I will tolerate absences due to some school related events, but you should not miss class for something like a department basketball game very often.
If you have more than three unexcused absences, I have the right to fail you. (I.e. I will give you a score of less than 60 for the semester.)
The oral-aural training hour is the most important hour, for it covers the ‘aural training’ component of the course, a component that relies on oversight from the professor and his TAs. If for some reason you cannot attend a full class one week, try at least to attend the oral-aural training hour. The TA will take attendance during that hour.
During the oral-aural training hour, you will work with a group of students. You will be given a topic, and the group will be asked to have a conversation about the topic. The TA will supervise the groups. Each week, ten students will be asked to work with the teacher during the oral-aural hour. When you work with the teacher, you will be asked to tell a story on a certain topic. You will listen to the teacher’s story and the other students’ story. The teacher will grade you on your speaking ability when you tell your story. You also will have to turn in a description of everyone else’s story at the next week’s class.

Class Structure

This is a typical class:
One hour: Oral and aural training.
One hour: Lectures on reading, writing, grammar, and syntax.
One hour: vocabulary building; additional aural training.

In some weeks, we will not use this structure. We will have a long exam or a long movie viewing instead.

Out-of-Class Work

There will be a number of assignments to complete each week. Usually, the major assignment will be one section of a paper. Other assignments include reading an article and individual oral and aural training. If you are assigned out-of-class work, you are expected to complete it before you come to class.

Course Website

There will be a course website provided through the University server. I will mirror the site at www.ntuenglishnonmajors.blogspot.com for now. The mirror site is up; the University-provided site will be up soon.

TA
Each class will have an assistant. The assistant will work with students during the oral-aural training hour. Students may feel free to ask the TAs questions during the class break and other appropriate times. TAs will help manage the class, keep a grade book for the teacher, help the teacher prepare lessons, and provide some help to students outside of class. TAs should use English whenever possible, but they are there to help you if you are struggling with a language barrier.

Please note that TAs will help you in some ways outside of class, but your primary resource still is the professor. Your questions should be addressed to me during my office hours. Don’t talk to the TA because you are afraid of me. Overcome your fear by talking to me directly.

Itinerary

A reminder: any assignment should be completed before you come to class.

Week One: --Introduction to the course. --Teacher introduction. Student introductions. TA introduction. –Introduction to aural and vocabulary training. –Independent and dependent clauses. –Introduction to first paper.

Week Two: --Read “Why Do People Love Horror Movies?” at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070725152040.htm
(This is a complicated article. Do your best to read and understand its argument.) --Short writing assignment. Answer the question, What kind of movies do you like and why do you like them? --Choose the movie you will watch for Paper 1.
In class: Oral-aural training (getting to know someone)
Grammar lecture (Active and passive voice)
Vocabulary and aural training.

Week Three:
Paper 1 Introduction due
–Read “Do Men Secretly Like Romantic Movies?” at http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2007/02/do_real_men_lik.html
--Short Writing Assignment. Answer the question, What kind of movies do you not like and why don’t you like them?
In class: Oral-aural training (describing hobbies)
Grammar lecture (parts of speech)
Vocabulary and aural training