Topics for Final Oral Exam

Please prepare your talks on the following topics:
1. Give Shopping Advice
2. Description and Reaction to Advertisements
3. Persuade someone to buy something
4. Consumer Shopping Habits
5. Family Trends
6. Parent-Teen Relations
7. Internet Jam
8. Lisbon Story

How to Grasp Mian Ideas of a Discourse

1. Read/watch/listen attentively. TAKE NOTES.

2. Use the 6W1H (or, the reporter) approach for analysis:

a. Who did

b. what (to whom)

c. when, where,

d. why,

e. how and

f. to what effect (results and implications). or

3. Use pentad for analysis: (actually can be understood from the reporter approach)

a. Act: What happened? What is the action? What ideas are involved? To what results and implications?

b. Scene: Where is the act happening? What is the background situation? (including when)

c. Agent: Who is involved in the act? What are their roles?

d. Agency: How do the agents act? By what means do they act?

e. Purpose: Why do the agents act? What do they want?

How to Listen Well

1. You must be willing to listen. (Intention leads to attention and retention.)
2. Language proficiency, both verbal and nonverbal. (vocabulary, intonation, knowledge resources)
3. Related critical and creative abilities. (association, organization, evaluation)
4. Ask follow-up questions (for clarification, explanation, implication and application)

The moral of "The Fox and the Crow"

Moral (n.) a piece of guidance (or advice) on how to live one's life, how to act more effectively, etc., that can be learnt from a story or event. [It is not a description of the story.]

Some creative (and insightful) morals from "The Fox and the Crow" written by your fellow students:
* Beautiful words are not always friendly.
* We should finish eating before singing.

優良示範答案Q2b

An excellent answer for A in Q2b for Friends Season 6.22

Discussion Forum for Mid-term

Procedure

1. Preparations in advance.

Each team will be the unit of presentation. The order of the presentation is drawn one week ahead. The instructor will announce, in advance, a list of topics taken from course material—text book and material on line.

2. Drawing topic:

At the presentation time, each team will take turns drawing a topic. Each topic will be used only once.

3. Preparation (10 minutes):

After the group has drawn a topic, it will have ten minutes to finalize and coordinate its preparation outside of the classroom. Students should apply words and phrases they learned in class.

4. The Forum (8 minutes)

Each group has ten minutes for the forum—five or six minutes for presentation and two to three minutes for discussion. (If the group is small, the duration may be reduced)

(a) In the presentation phase, members take turns to present their ideas on the topic. Each person has about one minute (about 150 words).

(b) The discussion phase is two minutes. Group members will ask questions, voice opinions, suggestions and comments to their peers. The primary goal for the discussion phase is to keep alive the flow of conversation. (Avoid dramatization. Just discussion.)

5. Follow-ups from the audience (2 minutes):

After each forum finishes, the instructor as well as the whole class will have a follow-uptime. They may ask questions or add to the discussion of the forum topic.

6. While one team starts the forum, the next group draws their topic and go outside to prepare for ten minutes. This procedure repeats until all groups finish their forums.

7. Time management is important. The presentations will be timed.

Evaluation

Each student will receive two scores: one for their individual performance and and one for group performance. Both evaluations will be based on content (including organization) and English.

Topics for Mid-term, Spring 2008

1. Cuttlefish—master of camouflage

2. Traffic jam on the internet

3. Complain about public conduct

4. Social responsibilities

5. Life in Mega Cities

6. The benefits of (certain) pets

7. Opinions about the treatment of animals

8. Compare/contrast animal characters

9. Values of animal conservation

New York Times Selection #2

Video Road Hogs Stir Fear of Internet Traffic Jam

By STEVE LOHR

Published: March 13, 2008

Caution: Heavy Internet traffic ahead. Delays possible.

For months there has been a rising chorus of alarm about the surging growth in the amount of data flying across the Internet. The threat, according to some industry groups, analysts and researchers, stems mainly from the increasing visual richness of online communications and entertainment — video clips and movies, social networks and multiplayer games.

NYTimes.com: The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors

Message :
supplementary food for thought for possible discussion in class

SCIENCE | February 26, 2008
Findings: The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors
By JOHN TIERNEY
We can always tell ourselves that it’s good to keep options open, but is it really?

NTY Selection of the week

The following article will be chosen for the Class Quiz on March 7:


Carl Zimmer visits Dr. Roger Hanlon in his lab at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.

Cuttlefish Camouflage Hiding in Plain Sight. The original video is located at:
Click to watch the video from New York Times
----------------------

• The Text:Revealed: Secrets of the Camouflage Masters

• The video in Youtube is shown as follows:

For more New York Times video, go to nytimes.com/video

In case that the above video is not working, you may listen to the audio as follows:

曹老師第一堂課說明

如何在網頁中加上文字翻譯器

本學期的課程中，同學每一週都要閱讀New York Times的文 章。這是一件很好的事，希望你能以此養成閱讀英文新聞的習慣。但是閱讀英文網頁時，常碰到查生字的困擾。其實Google 的 [文字翻譯器] 目前已經能立即為你提供字典翻譯的服務（雖然很艱澀的生字仍無法顯現），只要你將滑鼠指到不認識的字，它就會有窗口顯示其中文的對照翻譯，非常方便。此功 能最好能使用Firefox(火狐狸)瀏覽器，但微軟的(IE)瀏覽器也可使用。其安裝與設定的步驟如下：

A. 安裝工具列(若出現英文顯示，可在右上角更改為中文)。
B. 設定翻譯器

Syllabus

U1587b-Freshman English Oral Communication (U) Spring 2008
Fridays 3:10 ~5:00 PM at Humanities Bldg 308
Prof. Ding-ren Tsao Humanities Bldg 612
Office Hours: Wed. 1:30 ~3:30 PM or by appointment
Suren Chat Room: Wednesdays 8:00 PM~9:00PM
Class Blog Site: http://u1587b.blogspot.com

The purposes for this course remain the same as last semester. Summit I will continue to be the principle textbook for this class. Personal blog keeping will no longer be required; however, you are encouraged to maintain the habit of keeping track of your progress in English proficiency enhancement regularly. In addition, you are invited to post your thoughts, discoveries, reflections and other suitable material to our class blog. If you submit comments or opinions (written in English) to any English language medium (newspaper, magazine, TV/radio, website), please share it with the class.

We are aware that what we do in class once a week is not enough to significantly enhance your English proficiency. You must do more listening/reading/writing/speaking on your own during the weeks. It is our hope that the activities designed for this class will lead you into the wide wide world of your self-motivated learning. Some new features for this class are listening/watching/reading feature articles on New York Times, time with "Friends" and weekly stewardship.

New York Times (on line)

A. Reasons for choosing it

• Consistently good content (wide diversity, broad scope, good sources, good writing)
• Versatile modes of presentations (traditional articles, video, slide shows, MP3, blogs, interactive graphics) and desirable program length
• Cumulative content and archival search capability (thus allowing audience/readers to access repeatedly and to search for related articles)
• Feedback comments
  
• User friendly site design
• Free and delivered daily to your e-mail address.

B. Method

• Select a suitable feature article (incorporating class opinions)
• Students listen/watch/read the selection in own time to achieve good understanding.
• Bring questions and insights to class the following week for discussion and sharing.
• Listening Comprehension Quiz.

Weekly Stewardship (Team Rotation)

Each week, the team on duty will help out with the running of the class. Routine duties include:

1. Audio-visual equipments preparation and operation: operate the computer, overhead projector, adjust microphone volume, and ready the screen.

2. Environment management: make sure the lights, temperature, air flow, student seats and the writing board are all in proper working order for the class.

3. Paperwork management and assistance in coordination of class activities.

4. For special tasks, the instructor will meet with responsible team members ahead of the class.

Class Plan

• The first hour will be devoted mainly to Summit. We will listen to the CDs, do the exercises, and paired-up practices.
• The second hour will be devoted to discussions, viewing/listening of NY Times feature stories and Friends. And quizzes.

Proposed Grade Composition:

• Class Participation (in class as well as online) 25%
• Listening Comprehension Quizzes (LCQs) 45%
• Mid-term & Final 30%

* The content for LCQs will come from segments of Summit, the NYT video/podcast/MP3 and Friends.
** The format for mid-term and final will be the same as the final from last semester.

Proposed Course Schedule

	Date	Major Contents	Activities	Steward
1	2/22	Introduction of new features to this class: NY Times, Suren Chat Room	CEF reminder,
2	2/29	Summit I; Unit 5, Assign NYT1, View "Friends 1"
3	3/7	Summit I Unit 5, Review & Discuss NYT1, "Friends 1";	LCQ1
4	3/14	Summit I Unit 5; Assign NYT2, View "Friends"	q1B
5	3/21	Summit I Unit 6, "Friends ";	LCQ2	Accounting
6	3/28	Summit I Unit 6; , "Friends 2"	Q2B	Balance
7	4/5	(No Class)
8	4/11	Summit Unit 6,	LCQ3	3C
9	4/18	Mid-term,		Dab hand
10	4/25	NYT 2, Summit I Unit 7, "Friends 3";	LCQ4	Eager
11	5/2	Summit I Unit 7 , "Friends 3"	Q4B	FBI
12	5/9	Summit I Unit 7, "Friends 4";	LCQ5	Google
13	5/16	Summit I Unit 8, "Friends 4"	Q5B	Halberd
14	5/23	Special Arrangement: Lisbon Story	Take Home
15	5/30	Summit I Unit 8, Friends 5;	LCQ6	i-team
16	6/6	Summit Unit 8, Friends 5	Q6B
17	6/13	Final

Review on the Previous Group Work