Oral
Training II Fall 2003
Audio-Visual
Center 201
Tuesdays 10:20am-12:10pm
Instructor: Karen S. Chung
This
year's class is composed mainly of students from last year's A+ group in lab,
so we will build on skills we worked on last year at an advanced level and accelerated
pace. There will be 16 classes this semester.
Routine
work: We will continue to learn and recite one English poem a week, and
there will also be a weekly listening assignment, which may or may not be the
same as the listening assignment in this year's lab and freshman English classes.
Note that this syllabus is subject to change.
Click
here for the Poems for Memorization
handout for Fall 2003.
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.)
E-mail
the instructor
if you need to miss class or be late for any reason, or have other concerns
or questions. Otherwise, you will be marked for an unexcused absence
or tardiness. More than three unexcused absences or five tardinesses is grounds
for receiving a semester grade less than that required to pass the course.
Visit the class
discussion board often.
Syllabus:
September
16: Introduction,
poetry; passage for reading aloud.
Listening assignment: A
Moment of Science IV:
(1) The Science of Suicide and (2)
The
Sexiest Frog in Borneo.
Prepare: Passage for reading aloud: http://www.rider.edu/~suler/zenstory/egotism.html
(Read only the story, not the reader reactions.) Note stresses and intonation.
Audio file here.
Bring correctly labeled blank 90-minute cassette tape. Prepare passage to read
aloud. Prepare clean joke to tell. Things to pay attention to:
(1) Stand confidently in front of your audience,
don't make any distracting movements, make eye contact, smile.
(2) Make sure you explain any unfamiliar or difficult
words, expressions or names to the class before you start telling the
joke.
(3) Make sure you know your joke backwards and
forwards so you don't hesitate, forget, or get confused about what you're trying
to say.
(4) Slow down and speak especially clearly
at key words and names, and most importantly, at the punchline, and pay special
attention to connecting with your audience at these points. Timing is
the key to telling a good joke. Make sure your story doesn't drag on too long,
or that the punchline doesn't slip by without everybody getting it, or even
hearing it clearly. Hopefully you will get a big laugh for your efforts!
Here are a few sites with some more tips on how
to tell a joke: 1
2
3
There are some links to clean joke sites here.
Prepare skill presentation outline ("Cooking
with Fu Pei-mei"). You have about 5 minutes for your presentation. Possible
skills: cooking, dance steps, a musical instrument, macramé a card or
magic trick, how to make up, CPR skills, yoga, taichichuan. Do not demonstrate
how to wrap a present!
September
23: Read
passage aloud to class. Collect blank cassette tapes.
Listening assignment: A
Moment of Science V: (3) Ancient Performance
Enhancers; (4) Rocket Roach; (5) Here, Boy.
Prepare: Prepare joke to tell to class.
Prepare outline of skill
presentation outline. Choose partner, movie for oral review.
Format for movie review: You will work in pairs,
and present the review as a dialogue, Siskel and Ebert style (see video;
now on reserve in the AV library). You may show up to three short clips
from the movie. You have about 10-15 minutes per pair. Begin by introducing
the name of the film, the director, and main actors. Follow this with a brief
summary of the plot. Next focus on a few parts of the movie that impressed you
most, and discuss these. Offer your own insightful comments and analysis; don't
just describe the action. Finally give your evaluation of the film, concluding
with a judgment of "thumbs up" or "thumbs down", or give
it a score from 1 to 10, with 10 indicating a truly outstanding film.
September
30: Finished
reading of 'Egotism' passage; joke telling. Submit skill presentation outline.
Listening assignment:
Statement by Richard Jewell after being cleared of responsibility
in the July 27, 1996 bombing at Centennial Olympic Park, Atlanta, Georgia
Prepare: Skill presentation. Choose partner
and movie.
October
7: Finish
joke telling; skill presentation.
Listening Assignment: Lives
of the Writers: Langston Hughes
Prepare: Skill presentation; movie review.
October 14:
Skill presentation.
Listening assignment: Lives
of the Writers: Charles Dickens
Prepare: Skill presentation, movie review.
October 21:
Skill presentation.
Listening assignment: Cooking
video: Rolled omelet
Prepare: Ghost story without written
notes: practice! Click here for some links to ghost
story sites. Movie review.
October 28:
Tell ghost story.
Listening assignment: (1) Dust
in the Wind; (2) Listen to a spoken word audio tape of your choice
from the AV library and write a short summary of the contents of the
tape, and also your reaction to the tape.
Prepare: Skill presentation, movie review,
transcribe passage from Death of a Salesman.
November
4: Skill presentation.
Listening assignment: The
Infinite Mind: Cheating
Prepare: Skill presentation, movie review,
Death of a Salesman.
November 11:
Skill presentation.
Listening assignment: Dr.
Laura (4): Elizabeth and Julie
Prepare: Movie review, Death of a Salesman,
outline of 60-second commercial.
November
18: Movie review.
Listening assignment: Dr.
Laura (5): Theresa and Dave
Prepare: Movie review; Death of a Salesman,
60-second commercial.
November 25:
Movie Review
Listening assignment: Popular song: Behind
the Wall by Tracy Chapman
Prepare:
Movie Review; Death of a Salesman; 60-second commercial.
December
2: Movie Review
Listening assignment: Listen
to a five-to-ten minute Internet or radio news report of your choice and write
a one-sentence summary of
each news item; some possible sources: BBC
World Service radio summary; NPR
Hourly News; VOA
Latest Newscast
Prepare: Death of a Salesman; 60-second
commercial. Choose novel for oral review for next semester.
December
9: Last two movie reviews, discuss
movie review assignment
Listening assignment: The
Organ Trade: Should the sale of kidneys be legalized?
Prepare: Death of a Salesman; script
for 60-second commercial.
December 16:
Death of a Salesman; hand in script for 60-second commercial.
Listening assignment: Fresh Air Online
interview: Choose an interview from this
page and write a short summary of the main points discussed.
Prepare: Christmas carols.
December
23: Christmas
carols.
Listening assignment: Popular song: Affair
on 8th Avenue by Gordon Lightfoot (on listening tape).
Prepare: to have a Merry Christmas! Death of a Salesman;
60-second commercial.
December 30: Death
of a Salesman.
Listening assignment: Write summary, your
thoughts on the passage from 'Word' from Whoopi Goldberg's Audiobook.
Prepare: Pronunciation summary: past, present,
and future.
January
6 : 60-second commercial; hand
in pronunciation summary.
Winter break assignments: Listening assignment: Listen to an entire recorded
work in English, at
least three hours in length, on tape, CD, or the
Internet, and write a brief summary of it; read a novel for oral book report;
prepare one English, one Chinese (you will translate this yourself), one original
poem for poetry reading; write outline of play idea. The listening assignment
summary and the outline of your idea for a play are to be handed in the first
day of class Spring semester.
Contents
of tape:
1. "Egotism"
2. Poems for memorization and reading aloud
Listening assignments:
3. Selection from: Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
4. Popular song: "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas
5. Lives of the Writers: Langston Hughes
6. Lives of the Writers: Charles Dickens
7. Popular song: "Behind the Wall" by Tracy Chapman
8. "Word" by Whoopi Goldberg, from Audiobook
9. Ask Dr. Laura: (1) Elizabeth; (2) Julie
10. Ask Dr. Laura: (3) Theresa; (4) Dave
11. Popular song: "Affair on 8th Avenue" by Gordon Lightfoot