Course title: English for Special Topics and Situations Class meeting: 03:40 – 05:30 p.m. Monday (ES509) 1st semester, Sep., 2007
Instructor: Daisy Yeh (葉采青)
Ⅰ. Objective:
This course aims to help students further develop their speaking and reading ability on some special topics. It will be an oral-based course, and through reading relative articles, students will be expected to improve vocabulary as well. The instructor intends to focus on five topics each semester. With consistent practice and multiple activities, students will have a better understanding of how to use the language fluently.
Ⅱ. Tentative syllabus:
Week Date Content
1 Sep. 17 Orientation
2 Sep. 24 NO CLASS
3 Oct. 1
Unit 3: When in Rome… (Welcome!)
Unit 5: Different ways of Travelling (Welcome!) Exercise
4 Oct. 8 Unit 10: Organising a trip (Welcome!) Exercise
5 Oct. 15 “Between the Sexes, a Great Divide,” Anna Quindlen 6 Oct. 22 “Between the Sexes, a Great Divide,” Anna Quindlen 7 Oct. 29 “Why Women Smile,” Amy Cunningham
8 Nov. 5 “Why Women Smile,” Amy Cunningham 9 Nov. 12 Midterm exam—group report
10 Nov. 19 Midterm exam—group report 11 Nov. 26 Unit 16: Explaining dishes (Welcome!)
Unit 17: May I take your order? (Welcome!) 12 Dec. 3 Unit 19: Eating habits (Welcome!)
13 Dec. 10 “A Century of Cinema,” Susan Sontag 14 Dec. 17 “A Century of Cinema,” Susan Sontag
15 Dec. 24 NO CLASS
16 Dec. 31 NO CLASS
17 Jan. 7 Film
18 Jan. 14 Final exam
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Ⅲ. Requirement:
This course is designed to be highly classroom-interactive. Students’ attendance and participation in class will be of great importance. Lateness and absences are strongly
discouraged. Students will automatically fail this course after three absences. It is a “must” to inform the instructor of the absence in advance (unless it’s an emergency) and provide with substantial evidence to justify it as well.
The evaluation of this course includes the participation in class, group practice, a midterm exam and a final exam (details to be announced).
Ⅳ. Required text:
Jones, Leo, David. Welcome: English for the Travel and Tourism Industry. 2nd ed.
Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005.
Ⅴ. Grading system:
Attendance and participation: 30%
Group practice: 25%
Midterm exam: 20%
Final exam: 25%
﹡Please turn off your beeper, and/or cell phone, and/or the other electronic instrument while you are in the classroom. Thank you.
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