Oral
Training II Spring 2006
Audio-Visual
Center 305
Tuesdays 10:20am-12:10pm
Instructor:
Karen Chung
There
will be 15 class meetings this semester: February
21; March 7, 14, 21, 28; April 11, 18, 25; May 2, 9, 16,23,
30; June 6, 13.
No class on February
28 and April 4 (please remind me!); cancel-add: March 6-10;
mid-terms: April 17-21; last day of class: June 16, 2006; final
exam week: June 21-27.
Last day of class
activity: June 20.
Routine
work: We will 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. We will be doing quite a few
cued improvisations in class. This semester
we will also do practice prose and dramatic readings in class. Each student
must keep up a pronunciation and grammar journal,
in which you record pronunciation and grammar points discussed in class and corrections
made in your spoken performance and written work. A summary of your notes will
be required at the end of the semester.
Note
that this syllabus is subject to change.
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.
Click
here for the Poems for Memorization
(html) handout for Spring 2006. Click here for the poetry handout
in Word format pdf
format for printing out (3 pages)
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.)
Dictionaries: See
the Freshman English syllabus
for hints on choosing a dictionary. You are encouraged to use the audio files
of the online Merriam-Webster
dictionary to check the pronunciation of any word you are the least bit unsure
of. This link, along with links to many other dictionaries, is also available
on the homepage and on the Linguistics
Links page.
Podcasts:
If you have an MP3 player or iPod, podcasts are a great way to listen to class
listening files anytime, anywhere. You can also unload an enormous variety of
files you choose yourself. You can even do your own podcast for others to listen
to!
iPodder is excellent free software
for downloading podcasts automatically from the Internet as they become available:
http://ipodder.sourceforge.net/index.php
Here are some pages with podcasts to choose from, subscribe to or download,
then copy to your MP3 player:
BBC podcast feeds:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/downloadtrial/subscribe.shtml
NPR podcast directory:
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php
Nature
magazine podcast:
http://www.nature.com/nature/podcast/index.html
New Scientist podcast:
http://www.newscientist.com/podcast.ns
iPodder podcast directory:
http://www.ipodder.org/directory/4/podcasts/categories
podcast.net directory:
http://www.podcast.net/
Syllabus:
February
21: Discuss
and hand in winter vacation listening assignment and title of novel
for oral book report; poem: "Stars, Songs, Faces" by Carl Sandburg;
recorded improvisations with corrections after performance.
Listening
assignment: APM's
Future Tense: Guy Kawasaki on how to write better electronic mail; from
these two interviews, find 10
examples each of
the vowel
sounds [ɛ], [æ],
and [eɪ], write
out the complete
sentences
in which they occur, circle
the sounds, and give the
KK symbol
for each.
(For February
28): Country-pop
song: Black Cadillac by Rosanne Cash; find 5 examples each of the
vowel sounds [ɛ], [æ],
and [eɪ], write out the complete
sentences in which they occur, circle the sounds, and give the
KK symbol for each.
Prepare:
New
students: e-mail a quote to Ms. Chung so we can update the class mailing
list. Prepare to recite the poem
"Stars, Songs, Faces", and
read up on
Carl Sandburg's
life; print out
"The Raven",
and learn a bit about the life of Edgar
Allan Poe;
look up the
new words in
"The Raven" to prepare for reading
the poem aloud
(Part I, the first nine stanzas) in class. Mark
the stresses in the CNN news report, "Iranian
bakeries rename Danish pastries" to prepare for reading it aloud
in class.
March 7: Recite
"Stars, Songs, Faces"; practice dramatic reading of "The
Raven" for next week; read "Iranian
bakeries rename Danish pastries" aloud in class.
Listening assignment:
Seinfeld: choose clips you wish to perform (about 2 single-spaced
A4 pages), choose partner(s), transcribe, check your transcription
against script on Internet (there may be errors in material on the Internet –
trust your ears!), hand in March 14.
Prepare:
Seinfeld; oral book report; poems: one originally written in English, one translation
from Chinese; one original poem.
March
14: Hand in Seinfeld script. Dramatic reading of "The
Raven". Start practicing "Danish pastries" passage.
Listening
assignment: New Scientist.com podcast: Anonymous
sperm donors exposed
Transcribe sentences containing
ten examples
of the vowel [eɪ],
and
circle the
vowel. Pay attention to which words have this sound and practice saying them correctly.
Prepare: Practice
imitating Seinfeld clip using video; oral book report; first two
stanzas of "The Raven"; memorize "I Look into My Glass"
by Thomas Hardy. Finalize novel choice for oral book report.
March
21: Hand in poems.
Recite "I Look into My Glass". Continue reading "Danish
Pastries" passage.
Listening
assignment: "ABC
News Shuffle" podcast: Daily realities of Iraq
Prepare:
Danish pastires; Seinfeld;
oral book report; poem readings.
March
28: Poems will
be returned. Recite "I Talk to my Body". Mark listening assignment.
Guest speaker: Pei-hsuan Wu; class discussion.
Listening
assignment: ABC News Good Morning America
podcast: Maligned customers suing Walgreens
Prepare:
Seinfeld; oral book
report; poem readings.
April 11: Read
first two stanzas of "The Raven" aloud, paying special attention
to points covered in class regarding pronunciation. Perform Seinfeld skits.
Listening
assignment: NPR:
Interview with Deborah Tannen on her book: You're Wearing That?
Prepare:
Oral book report; poem
readings.
April
18:
Oral book reports.
Listening
assignment: NPR:
Abigail Washburn: Chinese Lyrics, American Roots
Prepare:
Oral book report; poem
readings.
April
25:
Oral book reports.
Listening
assignment: NPR:
A Nation in Debt
Prepare:
Poem readings.
May
2: Finish oral
book reports.
Listening
assignment: BBC:
Vatican 'may relax condoms rule'
Prepare:
Oral
book reports. Poem readings.
May
9:
Class poetry reading.
E-mail Ms. Chung the final version of your poem to contribute to Web page.
Listening
assignment: NPR:
India Adds Spice to Globalization
Prepare:
Close to Home reading.
May
16: Close
to Home reading. .wma
audio file.
Listening
assignment: BBC:
British man attempts to walk around the world
Prepare:
Close to Home reading.
May
23: Improvisation.
Listening
assignment: NPR:
Left-Handed Brain
Prepare:
Close to Home
reading.
May
30: Perform
Close to Home.
Listening
assignment: NPR:
World's Tallest Building to Open in Taipei
Prepare:
Your original
poems are now available online! (Michaelia:
please e-mail yours as soon as possible.)
June
6: Finish Close to Home performances.
Listening
assignment: Write your own listening assignment!
Prepare:
June 13:
Improvisation.
Listening
assignment: Pronunciation and grammar summary; class and self-evaluation
and future English study plan.
Prepare:
June
20: Last
day of class activity.
Online
KK symbol editor page (for pronunciation summary): http://ipa.typeit.org/