Lab syllabus Fall 2009

Freshman Aural-Oral Training (Lab)
Fall 2009/Spring 2010
Monday 3:30-5:20pm Audio-Visual Building 201
Professor: Karen Chung

Jump to listening assignments: Fall 2009

Fall 2009

     Total class meetings:
     There will be 16 class meetings this semester.
     No class meeting Monday, September 14, 2008 due to placement test
     September 21, 28;
October 5, 12, 19, 26;
     November 2, 9, 16, 23, 30;
     December 7, 14, 21, 28;
     January 2010 4.

          Important dates:
No class on Monday, September 14 due to Class assignment interviews.
Cancel-add: September 14-26
Finalization of class schedules: October 4-12
Application period for withdrawing from a course: October 5-December 11
Double Tenth National Day: Saturday, October 10
Online application for exemption from advanced English class: October 16-23
Mid-semester online student course evaluations: November 3-9
Anniversary of the Founding of Taiwan University Sunday, November 15
Mid-terms: November 9-13
New Year's Day/Founding Day of the ROC (no class): Friday, January 1, 2010
End-of-semester online student course evaluations: December 25, 2009-January 8, 2010
Last day of class: January 9, 2010
Final exams: January 11-15, 2010
Freshman English final exam: Monday, January 11, 2010 in AVC 201
Winter break begins: January 18, 2010
Chinese New Year's Eve: Sunday, February 14, 2010

This required course meets two hours a week, and only earns you one credit. But it is one that is well worth investing time and effort in.

The main goals of this course are (1) to teach you how to listen – this will be done mainly by listening to audio and video files online and answering comprehension questions on them; and (2) to improve your pronunciation.

Listening and pronunciation are probably the two weakest links in English education in Taiwan (though even those of you who have been educated in English abroad may find you have things to learn from this class). Rather than complain about what you didn't get in the past, we encourage you to focus on the here and now – there's still time to fix things. But you must be committed. The things you learn in this class are not assignments to be completed to earn a grade and then forgotten. They will require behavior modification on your part. Anybody knows how hard a habit is to break, and poor pronunciation habits present an especially stubborn case. Producing the correct sounds in class is easy – using them consistently when you're supposed to is the tough part! You will need to tire yourself out for a few weeks or months relearning the way you speak English. It will be well worth it – you'll sound absolutely wonderful every time you speak English for the rest of your life! You can sound like a native – but you have to really, really want it!

     One very important reason to fix your pronunciation is to show respect for other people. When you speak with a heavy foreign accent, other people have to strain to understand you, and that makes them very tired. When you speak clearly and correctly, you make life easier and happier for everybody you come in contact with.

     Course Materials and Activities:
     No textbook is assigned; most class materials will be available through this Website and the Internet. However, if you feel you need extra work on your pronunciation, you might want to consider buying the following textbook with CD recordings:

Miller, Sue. Targeting Pronunciation: The Intonation, Sounds and Rhythm of American English. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. 270 pp. Paper, with CDs. May be available at Bookman Books 書林書店.

     Handouts will be mainly be posted on this site and will not be distributed in class.
     Click here for the Poems for Memorization handout for Fall 2009; click here for the poetry handout in pdf Fall 2009    format for printing out (2 pages); click here for the poetry page in html Fall 2009 and with audio files.
     Find more poems online yourself.
     Click here for the About Poetry: English Prosody Plus Selected Literary Terms handout. (Refer to this for definitions of terms like iambic, doggerel, and synaesthesia)

Occasional quizzes will be given, usually dictations or ones requiring you to distinguish between correct and incorrect pronunciations.

Pronunciation and grammar journal: You are required to keep a running record of specific sounds and other areas you need to work on in your pronunciation in a small notebook, based on feedback you receive in class. You are also required to note down grammar points discussed in class and corrections you receive orally or in your written work. You are expected to have your journal open and ready throughout each class, without being reminded.

Class routine: Each of you will introduce yourself on the first day of class. Thereafter, each class will begin with individual poem recitation to correct pronunciation. Then a new poem will be presented for recitation the next week. Next, the listening comprehension exercise from the previous week will be marked in class, and a new exercise assigned. There may occasionally be oral presentations, such as performing a dialogue from a TV show or movie, or improvisation.

     Grades for the course will be based on: attendance and punctuality, class performance and participation, listening assignments, quizzes, progress made, attitude, and the final exam.

     Link here to hints on how to improve and practice your English, how to choose a dictionary, and so on. Note in particular the section on podcasts.

Fall 2009 listening assignments

     September 14: Class assignment interviews (no class).

     1. September 21-28: A Moment of Science XI: (1) Healthy Menus Cause Unhealthy Decisions? and (2) How To Calculate The Temperature With The Chirp Of A Cricket. (There are also A Moment of Science X IX VIII VII VI V IV III II I from previous years, if you'd like extra practice. These are not required this semester.)

     2. Listening assignment for September 28-Oct. 5: APM: Guy Kawasaki on how to write better electronic mail

     3. Listening assignment for Oct. 5-12: NPR: Hearing Voices: High School's 'Quiet Kids'

     4. Listening assignment for Oct. 12-19: College Humor: Awkward Rap
     Prose passage for oral reading practice; print out and bring to class:
     The Uneducated American, by Paul Krugman, Op-Ed Columnist, The New York Times, October 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/opinion/09krugman.html

MP3 audio file of: The Uneducated American
https://ceiba.ntu.edu.tw/course/c40451/texts/unedAmer.mp3
     Use this audio file to mark stresses, pauses, and rises and falls in intonation. Also listen carefully to the pronunciation of each word, especially the vowels, and note linking.

     5. Listening assignment for Oct. 19-26: Louis CK (Szekely): Everything's amazing, nobody's happy

     6. Listening assignment for Oct. 26-Nov. 2: NYT: Mark Bittman: The Minimalist
West African Peanut Soup with Chicken

     7. Listening assignment for Nov. 2-9: New York Times video: Women at Arms

     8. Listening assignment for Nov. 9-16: New York Times video: When No One's Looking, Part 2

     9. Listening assignment for Nov. 16-23: YouTube: English Problems

     10. Listening assignment for Nov. 23-30: YouTube: Tom Lehrer: National Brotherhood Week/When You Are Old and Gray

     11. Listening assignment for Nov. 30-Dec. 7: Neo Futurists - dialogue play from: Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind

     12. Listening assignment for Dec. 7-14: a. New York Tmes video: A Conversation With Andre Agassi
      b. Summary of pronunciation and grammar journal notes. Online KK symbol editor page (for pronunciation summary): http://ipa.typeit.org/ Copy-and-paste IPA symbols: http://linguiste.org/phonetics/ipa/chart/keyboard/ The summary must be in .doc (not .docx - if you use .docx format, convert your document to .doc or .pdf format before submission) format or pdf format, and is to be submitted by e-mail to Ms. Chung at: karchung@ntu.edu.tw .

     13. Listening assignment for Dec. 14-21: Print out and bring to class words to the Christmas carols pdf on Dec. 21. html with MIDI and other audio files
     Christmas carol sing on Monday, December 21. Bring an instrument to accompany us!

     14. Listening assignment for Dec. 21-Dec. 28: Sing Christmas carols in class on Dec. 21.

     15. Assignments for Dec. 28, 2009-Jan. 4, 2010: a. Prepare oral reading of "The Uneducated American."
     b. Listen to and be ready to discuss in class the first story of the 12/4/09 broadcast of This American Life 286 "Mind Games." Click on "Full Episode" and listen from the beginning to the 12:03 minute point.
     c. Hand in pronunciation and grammar summary, class and self-evaluation, English study plan via e-mail by January 4.

1. Write an evaluation of this semester's freshman Oral-Aural Training course: What was most useful? Less useful? What would you like to add/change/improve next semester/year?

2. Write an evaluation of your own performance: Did you come to every class, on time, put effort into the assignments, hand in your work on time? How much did you learn and improve?

3. For students NOT in Ms. Chung's Freshman English class: How will you continue to work on your English outside of class? What are you doing in addition to your 10 minutes a day, based on your own interests and goals?

4. Hand in your pronunciation and grammar error log. For grammar, go through all work done in the DFLL this semester that has been corrected or marked in red, copy the original incorrect version, then the corrected version in a parallel column. If you are in Ms. Hadzima's class, you may submit the same error log that you prepared for that class. You don't have to submit another copy of your error log for freshman English class.

5. All parts of this assignment are to be submitted in a single pdf-format file (NO docx files! Choose "pdf file" as your printer, or install and use "CutePDFwriter") as an attachment to a cover letter written in correct format, sent to Ms. Chung. Remember to SIGN YOUR NAME to your e-mail, and specify your that it's for Lab class.

16. January 4, 2010: a. Hand in pronunciation and grammar summary, class and self-evaluation, English study plan via e-mail. b. Prepare oral reading of "The Uneducated American" for final exam.

Web page that may be helpful in preparing for the final exam: 34. Phonological rules for English plurals and more

17. January 11, 2010: Final exam 3:30pm-5:20pm, AV Building room 201.

Winter vacation assignment: The Freshman English assignment of intensive listening to 10 minutes of English every day, and keep a record of what you listen to, to be handed in on the first day of Freshman English class next semester.