Class time will be devoted to activities that allow you to practice and interact in English. To successfully complete the course, you must prepare the assigned homework prior to class and, while in class actively participate in class discussions and pair/group work. Your final grades are determined by the following course components:

Participation (notes, attendance, tardies, in-class performance, online quizzes): 15%

Written Assignments (six written homework assignments/ reading journals): 15%

Group presentation: 30%

Final Reading Test: 20%

Final Writing Test: 20%

Participation

Your participation grade will be based first and foremost on your in-class performance and contribution to the class. Contribution includes pro-actively asking in-class questions to the instructor, sharing insights and comments regarding class content, answering the instructor’s questions, and reacting to other students’ contributions. Most of this interaction happens orally in groups and students will be measured on how much pro-active effort they put into speaking in both pairs and groups. In addition, students will be expected to take English notes in class and turn in those notes at the end of the class to be counted for participation credit. Lastly, students are expected to be in class, so participation also includes attendance and coming on time. If students are habitually late or absent, they may be asked not to take the final exams.

Attendance: Students must attend class. Those who miss three classes or more will fail the course. If a student is late three times for a class, it will count as an absence. 

Class work: Students will take notes in class as exercises in listening and speaking. Students mostly play the role of a reporter, interviewing each other in groups or pairs and writing information from what they gather. They will then use that information to construct observations as if they were conducting their own research and writing conclusions based on their findings.

Reading Journals/Homework Assignments:

Students are expected to complete the assigned readings for homework, including short stories and teacher-assigned articles. Students must write a reading journal for homework to track their learning progress with a short summary of the content and  reflection on what they read. In class, students will learn the vocabulary in context and discuss the content more in detail; therefore, homework is designed to be preparation for in-class activities. For out-of-class writing assignments, students will be graded on effort, how well their summary contains the important details of the story, and how deeply they understood the story content and characters. 

Individual presentation

For the oral speaking test/presentation, students will share one of the articles that they found online as part of their homework assignments in the semester. They will summarize the article and discuss their observations and opinions based on the content. In addition, they will also share a personal experience based on one of the topics that we have discussed in previous lessons. For this particular presentation, students are not allowed to use PPT so as to focus complete attention on their speaking skills. The grading rubric for the presentation will be available on the class Moodle. 

Final Reading Exam

The content of this test is from the short stories and selected teacher-assigned articles that students have read and interacted with in the course. There will be questions based on the content of the readings, in which students need to write answers in complete sentences. This is not a multiple-choice test but rather a test of expressing sentences in writing to answer the comprehension questions. Therefore, it is partially a writing test, revealing how well students can express the answers with clear written communication. Sentences that do not express the answers clearly will lose points.

Final Writing Test

For this test, students must write a one-paragraph composition using the academic paragraph model that they learned in class this semester. The test will be timed for one hour. The topic will be given on the day of the test, but it will cover information that students have learned throughout the entire semester. Therefore, students must use what they have learned to support the points that they express on the test.

Textbook:

Students must purchase the e-book entitled “Life at the International House: Season One.” Students may purchase the book at either Kobo.com or Amazon.com, whichever online store is more convenient. For the purposes of avoiding illegal photocopying, this book is not available in paperback. Important Note: Students are encouraged NOT to read ahead, but rather to follow the course schedule and only read one story at a time to allow deeper reflection of the ideas presented in the stories.

Note on the use of AI, other writing help tools, or outside help:

All AI tools, including Grammarly, other help tools, and outside help from tutors or native speakers, are not allowed to be used on homework assignments. Students who turn in assignments with perfect grammar with native-speaker-like idiomatic usage will be suspected of cheating and will receive a zero on their assignment, regardless of any other work done for that particular assignment. Students' out-of-class assignments will be compared to their in-class tests to determine if the form and structure match, accounting for the fact that out-of-class assignments tend to be better because the student has more time. If there is a great discrepancy between the two, (for example, a level-10 grammar on the out-of-class assignment, and a much lower level of grammar on the in-class test) students will be suspected of cheating and will receive a zero on the out-of-class assignment. In other words, all assignments must reflect the student's true writing ability without any other help. This also applies to presentations. Any use of AI or help tools on presentations will result in a failing grade on the presentation. Students are not allowed to receive outside help on assignments or copy a classmate's homework.

Course materials

Textbook (Ebook) information:

Purchase the ebook online at Kobo.com or Amazon.com. You will need to download a free e-reader app on your phone or tablet to read the ebook.

Title: Life at the International House: Season One

Author: Dave A. Gardener

Publisher: Lulu Press, 2024

Resources

VoiceTube: https://tw.voicetube.com

BBC Learning English: http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish

TED talks: https://www.ted.com/talks

LTTC BESTEP: https://bestep.tw/