Preliminary Syllabus and Week One Assignments

Sean Allan
English for Non-Majors
Spring 2009


This is a continuation of the Fall 2008 course. However, you can still take the course if you were not my student in the Fall. The course goals for the Spring are the same as for the Fall, but we will spend more time on writing style and less time on grammar and usage review.


Grade Breakdown

Weekly Assignments: 60% (includes three papers)
Oral Exams and in-class oral/aural practice: 20%
Exams and Participation: 20%

The professor reserves the right to fail a student who misses too many class meetings. More than three missed classes is grounds for failure if a student does not have reasons for his or her absences.

Weekly Assignments: You will have a short assignment almost every day of the week. These assignments will provide reading, writing, and listening practice. You will turn in all of the short assignments for the week at each class meeting. We will write three papers; usually a section of a paper will be part of the weekly assignments. You will receive a single score for all of the assignments for that week, so make sure to complete all of the assignments. (Don’t write a great paper and then complete the other assignments lazily: it could severely affect your grade.)

Because you will have more written work than last semester, your papers can be shorter. Two pages instead of 2-3 pages is fine, with some leeway if you write a really good 1.5 page paper.

Materials for the assignments will be provided for you, or I will let you know where to find them on the Internet.

Assigned text: In April, you will need to purchase and read a graphic novel called American Born Chinese. I will tell you when the book is available.

Oral exams: You will have three oral exams this semester. When you don’t have an exam, you practice speaking and listening in a group setting. When you have an exam, you should listen to the other examinees and turn in a short description of what a few of them said as part of the next week’s assignments.

Itinerary

Your assignments are given from “Day 1,” which is the day that we meet for class, to “Day 7,” the day before we meet for the next class. If you have extenuating circumstances, you can make up assignments later in the week, or you can talk to me if you don’t have time to complete everything. Actually, you can complete assignments any day that you want, but you should complete assignments regularly instead of at the end of the week. Don’t turn in late work: your weekly assignments should come all at once. No daily assignment (except paper writing) should take more than thirty minutes. If you struggle with reading or listening, simply record what you are able to do in thirty minutes and note that you worked for thirty minutes. On occasion, I might ask you to write down how much time it took you to complete an assignment.


If for any reason you can’t complete a daily assignment because you cannot access the Internet, because a link is dead, etc., you may create your own assignment. If you had a reading assignment, read something else. If you had a writing assignment, write about something else. Simply tell me what you did and provide either a description of what you read or a writing response.


I assume your other English “practice” will come from other classes that need you to read in English. It’s probably a good idea to get about an hour a day of “work” in English. If you need any advice on how to improve in addition to the coursework, just ask.


If you are preparing for an English exam, you should get study materials for that exam. I can answer questions for you, but the coursework is for improving practical English skills, not for acing the TOEFL, IELTS, etc.

Tests: Tests will concern vocabulary learned, sentence patterns studied, and topics we’ve discussed in class. Test dates will be announced.

Week One: Introduction to the course.

General topic: Vacation, The Importance of Chinese New Year
In-class work: Say hello to everyone. Share our vacation experiences. Watch an episode of The Simpsons.

Assignments
Day One: Write a one-paragraph response to The Simpsons episode. What did you like or dislike? What didn’t you understand? If it takes less than twenty minutes to write your paragraph, put the paragraph away for awhile, then pick it up again and try to correct or improve it. For a bigger challenge, try to include some new vocabulary words.

Day Two: Write for twenty minutes (one paragraph) about school vacations. Are they beneficial? Are they too long? Are you scared of graduating because after you get a job, your vacations will only be two weeks long?

Day Three: Write five sentences using vocabulary from The Simpsons.

Day Four: Read stress.about.com/od/workplacestress/a/vacations.htm. Write a few sentences showing that you read it.

Day Five: Read www.scanews.com/fcc/2002/february/0214.html. Write a few sentences showing that you read it. Do you think the author understands the culture he writes about?

Day Six: Read www.sinica.edu.tw/tit/festivals/0296_Lunar.html Has the meaning of the Lunar New Year changed since this was written? Do you recognize the things discussed in this article?

Day Seven: Write for twenty minutes about a meaningful family vacation.