Course Goals 課 程目標
College English I/II two-semester course, designed to help students to become proficient in English used in social and academic environments. Students are expected to improve their receptive skills as well as productive skills in a cooperative learning atmosphere in this class.
Some specific goals for the first semester:
• Listening: Students will be able to understand English in social and academic situations relevant to topics of study and class room experiences.
• Speaking: Students will engage in conversation in the planning and execution of projects, participate in pair/group discussions, and present their ideas to the class.
• Reading: Students will learn reading strategies through class activities. Strategies and skills will include scanning, skimming, guessing meaning from context, vocabulary gloss creation,
identifying main ideas and supporting details, and critical thinking to name a few.
• Writing: During the first semester writing practice will occur in several ways including creating questions for comprehension and topics for discussion. Paragraph writing and academic skills such as summarizing and paraphrasing will be introduced and practiced. Students will also write a few entries in a reflection journal during the semester.
Synopsis課 程大綱
In College English I, all four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) will all be used.
The major task of the first semester will be the students’ creation of a reader, a book of articles (gathered from established media on the Internet) with accompanying exercises. In small groups, students will collect articles on a theme of their choice to study. Then they will create vocabulary lists, comprehension questions, topics for discussion, and other activities. In groups, students will also introduce the material to their classmates. Eventually all the groups’ articles will be compiled into a class reader. While this is a student centered task-based course, skills and concepts will be presented through lecture and the instructor will play a pivotal facilitative role offering necessary support throughout the project process.
Tentative Fall 2009 College English I Schedule上課進度 Week 1
I would very much like to meet everyone who is signing up for the class. We will introduce ourselves to each other through various activities. You will find out all about this very interesting English class.
You can also pick up the handout for next week.
Week 2
What True Education Should Do, an article by Sydney J. Harris (Handout provided)
Let’s imagine: What if you could decide what you do in the College English course and the material that you use?
Week 3
Reader Textbook Project Commences
1. In groups check out reading textbooks that I bring to class.
2. Class brainstorms topics of interest 3. Get into groups
z Groups decide topics and check with all groups as class.
z Groups think about sub-topics or angles
Searching for good information and analyzing sources on the Internet
• Discuss sources which must be from established media
Week 4 (Goal statement due)
Each student needs to bring two or three articles on group’s topic Group decides best ones; each student will be responsible for one.
• Be sure to consider different perspectives or sub-topics of the topic.
Weeks 5-10
For the next several weeks, every group will create the materials for their chapter.
Each week, each group will work on the exercises and activities for one article. The individual who is responsible for that week’s article will then write up the material in Word as homework and submit it to their online space on WM3 system for the instructor to check. Each chapter will include the following:
• Summary of article’s main points
• Vocabulary list, entries
• Comprehension questions
• Discussion questions
• Other activity: word game, dialog between two people in articles, etc.
• Each unit will include an introduction to the unit (overview of topic and each article).
Weeks 11-13 (Week 11, Reflection 1 due) Proofreading, peer evaluations, revisions Week 14 (Reflection 2 due)
Presentation skills primer: students will learn basic English presentation skills Week 15
Work on presentations | Compile and print books Week 16 (Final reflection due)
Bring finished books | Practice Presentation Week 17 and 18 Oral presentations
Teaching Methods 教學方式
This is a student centered class in which you will source and create the content with guidance from the instructor. We will engage in a variety of activities and tasks which will provide ample opportunity to consider topics and issues in a variety of social, cultural, and academic topics. Please note five important points:
1. The class will be conducted entirely in English.
2. Positive student-student and student-teacher interactions will be emphasized.
3. Students are urged to participate actively in group discussions, and are encouraged to express their own views on topics covered in class.
4. Students must take responsibility for their own learning which means you need to be pro-active in keeping up with assignments and requirements. See below for more details.
5. Students will set personal goals for this course and will monitor their own progress in the form of a reflection journal.
評分標準Grading Final grades will be determined by the following:
• Project: 50%
• Reflections: 15%
• Attendance: 15%
• Oral report: 20%
Appendix B Questionnaire
(Note: There are only some differences in wording between Pre and Post versions.) Your Name: _____________ Class: __________ ID No._________________
1. On a scale of 5 (best) to 1 (weakest), how do you rate your four skills in English now?
Good ………..………..…Weak
5 4 3 2 1
a. Listening
b. Speaking
c. Reading
d. Writing
2. On a scale of 5 (agree) to 1 (disagree), how would you rate your feelings toward learning English now?
Agree………..………Disagree
5 4 3 2 1 e. I have confidence.
f. It is important.
g. I am interested.
h. I take initiative.
i. I give it priority.
j. I have know-how.
3. In your experience, who have made the most decisions for you when it comes to learning English (for example, decisions about when to study, how to study, what to focus on)?
Myself
My teacher(s) / tutor(s) My parent(s)
My brother(s) / sister(s) My friend(s) / classmate(s)
Others (Who? ____________________)
4. In your English learning experience, what has been the happiest and most satisfying experience?
5. In your English learning experience, what has been the most challenging and difficult thing to overcome?
6. What roles did your high school English teacher(s) play in your English learning experience? (You may choose more than one role from the list below.)
A care giver A police officer (who maintains
An evaluator A friend A guide A parent
classroom orders) A resource person A role model A time keeper
Other roles: please specify: _____________________________________________
7. Based on your experience, what makes an English teacher a good teacher?
8. In order to improve your English, what do you usually do out of class?
9. Now that you are a university student, what is your attitude toward English learning? How is it different from your attitude in high school?
10. How different do you expect a college English class to be from that of your high school?
Very Different…..……….………Not Different
5 4 3 2 1 I expect the College
English class to be different from my high school English class.
11. Ideally, what roles do you expect a university professor to play in your English learning experience? (You may choose more than one role from the list below.)
A care giver An evaluator A friend A guide A parent
A police officer (who maintains classroom orders)
A resource person A role model A time keeper
Other roles: please specify: _____________________________________________
12. In your mind, what makes a university professor different from a high school teacher in an English class?
13. What do you expect to learn from a college English class?
14. How do you see yourself use English in the future? What is your goal for learning English?
15. Special background related to English learning: (For example, if you were educated in an English speaking country, please specify where and how long you received such education. If you have special difficulties, please specify as well.)
Appendix C Interview Questions
R1. Preference & Interest: What kind of themes or topics did the students choose to use in their project? What criteria did the students use to include or eliminate certain topics?
R2. Process & Experience: How did they approach the required tasks from beginning to the end of the project?
What challenges do they have? What concepts and assumptions might have been confining them?
R3. Teacher-student negotiation: How do they interpret their own roles in relation to that of the teacher’s?
How is the interpretation different before (in high school) and after the project (now in the university)? What kinds of adjustments or changes of plans are necessary based on the teachers’ observation?
1. Why these topics?
1. Why these topics? How did you decide your topics? Was this the very first topic that your team discussed about? What other topics were in your discussion?
2. What makes a good topic for this project? What criteria did you use to decide?
3. Look at the list of topics here. Which of these topics are you interested in knowing? Why?
4. What make these topics different from other textbook topics? Or are they similar?
2. Why are we doing the text-book project?
5. Why are we doing the text-book project?
6. Remember the sausage and oyster reading? How is this project related to the sausage and oyster article? Do you feel more like a sausage or an oyster in this project?
7. But is being treated as an oyster “good”? Would you rather be treated like a sausage? Why?
8. Is this project making the class different from or similar to your high school English class? Why?
9. What kind of challenges have you had in this project?
10. What kind of adjustment in attitude, study pace/plans, or strategies have you made for this university English course?
11. Did you notice that the teacher has also been making a lot of adjustments? Could you tell me what have been the teacher’s adjustments?
12. In the end, we decided to set rules. deadlines, and give points for every single requirement. Others are communicative activities, meetings, and points granted. Why these changes? To what extent do you think these changes are important, necessary, and helpful?
3. Identity:
13. Are you a student or a teacher/material designer in this project?
14. How does it feel to think like a teacher? How is this different from thinking as a student?
15. Please describe your foreign language (English) learning experience since you were a child. What school did you attend? Did you enjoy it? What kind of difficulties did you have?
16. What role did your teachers, friends, and parents play in your history of English learning?
17. As a university student, do you think differently about yourself as a language learner from before?
How? Why?
18. Do you think your English ability is similar to or worse than the other students? Is it important to be similar or better than them?
19. How do you see yourself use the English language in the future?
20. Which areas are the most important for you to improve: listening, speaking, reading, or writing?
What are some good ways to improve it?
4. Peers, and English vs Chinese:
21. Describe your relationships with your teammates. How do you work together? Could you do the project without them?
22. Do you think you are better or weaker than your peers in terms of English?
23. Do you speak more in English or Chinese with your teammates? Why is it difficult to speak in English to your teammates? If it is important to learn English, why not take advantage of the opportunity?
24. Do you remember the Gossip game? Why was it fine to speak in English at the task?
25. I noticed that at the end of the activity, many of you turned right to Chinese. Why? Is there a line between when you think you should and should not speak in English with your peers in this class?
26. Do you want the teacher to remind or force you to speak in English?
5. Students learning English
z What are your observations about yourself and other students learning English? For example, what do they like or dislike? (Help me fill in the following table, please.)
Likes 非常同意 5 4 3 2 1 非常不同意
1. Like the class focusing on speaking.
2. Like to share my work with a group only if I am as good as or better than others.
3. Like to speak English in a hypothetical role (like the Gossip Game)
4. Like the topic of an activity to be fun and positive 5. Like the classroom atmosphere to be of high pace
and having many activities
6. Like to be pushed to study if it is helpful for my future
7. Learning English is mostly a matter of learning many new vocabulary words. If one cannot comprehend or speak, it is mostly because of a lack of vocabulary.
8. Studying English well means hard work.
9. As long as I am not the only one, it does not matter if I break some rules, upset the teacher, or get low scores.
10. If I do a better job or do more than others, it is important that the teacher knows it.
11. Studying English learning magazines is the best way to learn English on my own.
12. In order to accomplish a required task in class, it is faster and more efficient to speak in Chinese.
13. It is important to speak English with an excellent accent and accuracy.
14. Learning English is different from learning other school subjects.
15. Knowing Chinese translation is essential to understanding English.
16. Learning English is mostly a matter of learning many grammar rules.
17. I am responsible for the enjoyment of my learning.
18. I am responsible for the results of my learning.
Dislikes 非常同意 5 4 3 2 1 非常不同意
1. Don’t like to be forced to speak the language in front of a group
2. Don’t like to share my work with peers if there is a chance to lose face.
3. If a classroom activity is too fun, I am not learning.
4. Dislike the classroom atmosphere to be slow and dull
5. Don’t like to be pushed to study if it is the teacher’s or parents’ wish, not my own
6. It can be boring to study English by memorizing, repeating and practicing often.
7. Memorizing, repeating and practicing often are the most efficient (quickest) ways to learn.
8. The reason why I cannot learn English well is that I can be lazy.
9. Don’t like to be picked out. If I score low or if I perceive myself not being similar to others, I would be very upset.
10. Don’t like it if the teacher treats me “unfairly,”
e.g., not recognizing my efforts
11. Don’t like to be in situations where there is all English and no Chinese, e.g., visiting an English website.
12. Don’t like to speak to my peers in English because it is too slow and inefficient.
13. Until I can say English correctly I’d better not say it.
14. Whatever the teacher wants to do in class is fine with me (i.e., whether I like it or not is not important)
15. The teacher is responsible for the enjoyment of my learning.
16. The teacher is responsible for the results of my learning.
6. What other observations would you like me to know?
Appendix D
Topics for Units and Chapters
Theme Clothing An Inconvenient Truth Novels
Chapter 1 History of Jean Global Warming The Kite Runner
2 The History of Bridal Gown Acid Rain The Art of Racing in the Rain 3 School Uniform Controversy Overpopulation A Brave New World
4 The origin of clothes Ozone Depletion P.S. I Love You 5 Clothes Psychology Species Extinction The Little Prince
Theme Sports Culture and Social Issues France
Chapter 1 Soccer Dance French Food
2 Rugby Ballet Table Manners
3 Tennis Difference between Chinese
and Western Music??
Louvre Museum
4 Swimming Stereotypes Gothic Architecture and
Notre de Dame
5* Basketball Terrorism n/a
Superstition Internet Community Michael Jackson
Chapter 1 Learning English with Misterduncan Lesson
Twitter Michael Jackson’s Life
2 10 Mysteries of you:
Superstition
Youtube Michael Jackson’s
Family
3 Friday the 13th Facebook Michael Jackson’s
Music
4 Japanese superstitions Plurk Michael Jackson’s Death
Rock n’ Roll Marvels Food Culture
Chapter 1 Rock n’ Roll Area 51 Food culture in
Europe
2 Drum Kit Aliens Food culture in
Africa
3 History of Rock Music Crop Circles Food culture in
Asia
4 A Rock’n’Roll first Death Valley Food culture in
America
Laughter Basketball Movie
Chapter 1 Laughter Sakuragi Hanamichi In Her Shoes
2 Mr. Bean NBA goes Gobal Harry Potter and the
Half-Blood Prince
3 Sponge Bob Gasol’s Well Performace Pixar's secrets on display in 'Up
4 Stand up Comedy Space Jam (吳) The Day after Tomorrow
5* n/a n/a Mona Lisa Smile
*Note: The number of chapters is based on the number of students there are in a team. Most of the teams had four members, but a few had five.