Syllabus
Semester II Magistère Language Workshop 2013-2014
Important Information
Instructor: Annika
Gielen
Email: annika.gielen@univ-angers.fr OR amgielen@gmail.com
Class
Blog: englishclassdesk.blogspot.fr
Office Hours: Room
#503 IMIS-ESTHUA building (by
appointment)
Class Expectations and Grading
Policy
·
Attendance – 5 %
Attendance is mandatory in accordance with the University of Angers standards as well as the
IMIS-ESTHUA policy. No absence is
excused without a valid doctor’s note, transportation strike, or
emergency. You will lose points for not coming to class or for consistently arriving
late.
·
Participation – 10 %
Participation, specifically speaking, is extremely
important to learning English. The more
effort you put into your class the more you will get out of the class. Participation includes individual and
in-class assignments (both written and oral), your efforts pronunciation,
grammar, vocabulary and syntax, displayed level of comprehension and your
ability to express yourself.
If you miss any classes*, be sure to check the blog to
get the information!
*N.B. If you do not come to class it is likely that
you will not pass this class, you will not have the information needed to
answer test questions and you will lose automatically 15% of your grade.
·
In Class Quiz– 20 %
One small quiz during class midway through the
semester.
·
Group Presentation- 30%
With a group you will prepare a project that will be
orally presented to the class and graded by me.
Details to follow.
·
In Class Contrôle Continue – 35 %
This exam will cover all the subjects that we have
learned in class throughout the semester and will be on 09/04/2014.
Class Objectives
Purpose: Each class will have an
introduction that will layout the goal of each course and the important points
you should try and learn from the class.
Grammar and Vocabulary: Each class will cover some
specific grammar points and vocabulary that will help you to complete the
in-class activity or to discuss a topic.
This is not a grammar class so all grammar will be to help you to build
on your existing knowledge.
Expression and Conversation: The overall goal of this
class is to improve your ability to express yourself correctly and with
confidence. It is important to
participate as much as possible to improve your speaking abilities so that in
your future job you will have the confidence to succeed.
Topics Covered
·
Tourism: this includes the
traditional ideas of tourism as well as new ideas such as ecotourism and
trekking.
·
Technology: today the tourism world is
extremely technological. We will explore
the use of the internet and tourism including travel websites, blogs, etc.
·
Culture: tourism is about sharing
cultures so I will try and explain some of the interesting aspects about my own
culture, the American culture.
English Resources
Anglophone Places in Angers
·
English Language Library / Bibliotèque Anglophone
60 rue Boisnet 49100 ANGERS / www.ellia.org /
02 41 24 97 07 / Tues – Sat: 1:00pm – 6:00pm
Library with a wide variety of
materials in English including manuals to study for the TOEIC exam, bulletin
board for language exchanges, tutors, private lessons and other various
activities in English. Sign up for the
monthly news letter. First year university students
and foreign students – free / students L2 and up – 12€
·
My Favorite Place
4 rue l’Espine 49100 ANGERS
/ 06 63 06 52 78
Café owned by an Irish woman in
Angers. Hosts weekly English conversation groups for
students on Tuesdays from 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Dictionaries
www.dictionary.com / www.thesaurus.com
: English-only resources
www.urbandictionary.com : modern slang dictionary for
American English
www.wordreference.com : multi-language dictionary
with forums for idiomatic phrases.
Extremely helpful resource complete with verb conjugations.
Translators
N.B. DO NOT USE THESE FOR
ASSIGNMENTS OR PROJECTS, I CAN TELL
http://translate.google.com
Finding Information
When
looking for English-language resources on the internet, be sure to use websites
in English or the English version of a website.
Ex: instead of using google.fr
use google.com or google.uk.
Wikipedia
is not a reliable source; it is a good place to start. In university assignments and projects,
Wikipedia should not be your only
source, you should have at least two other sources! Remember: you are not allowed to copy and
paste information from any website and use it as your own in your projects,
this is plagiarism and is not expected.
For questions concerning plagiarism please feel free to ask me at any
time.
Article
databases and scholarly databases are a great and reliable way to find
information.
http://www.npr.org/collections/articles-databases
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat
Listening Resources
Free
streaming information on the radio is a great resource to boost your oral
skills:
www.npr.org – National Public Radio of
the United States
that covers all topics. (Podcasts, downloads and streaming)
www.bbc.co.uk/radio/ - Same idea but with the
British accent and cultural aspects, the choice is yours!
Reading Resources
Blogs
are an excellent and interesting way to practice your comprehension skills
because you can find one about anything these days so there is sure to be one
that interests you such as art, fashion, celebrity gossip, travel, politics,
music, etc. If you are really motivated
you can even start your own! I recommend
following some blogs, if you aren’t already.
Don’t forget the class blog!
Video Resources
Watch
your favorite television shows and movies in V.O. Every bit helps, if you don’t know any shows
I have some tourism based recommendations: No
Reservations, An Idiot Abroad, or Globtrekker
These
can be watched on:
www.natgeo.com
www.travelchannel.com
www.PBS.org
Where have you been? Where have you travelled?
As tourism students, you are all interested in
travelling and enjoy discussing your experiences in far off places and in
different cultures. Today, we are going
to learn how to correctly discuss travel experiences in English using correct
grammar and phrasing.
Common Vocabulary of Travel
-
Vacation (US)/ Holiday (GB): these are considered as leisurely trips, one where
relaxation or fun are the main goals.
They can be long or short but are never considered as difficult or
extremely life changing.
*Be careful not to confuse the
two, in America, a holiday is a special occasion such as Christmas, President’s
Day, Thanksgiving, etc…
“I was on vacation in California last week.”
“We took a vacation to Mexico two years ago.”
“The French often are on holiday during the month of
August.”
-
Trips/Cruises: trips are another way of saying vacation or holiday but can be used
for a specific type of vacation such as a road-trip or a vacation on a
ship. Road-trips can be taken in any
sort of vehicle from a car or motorcycle to a bus or camper/RV. Cruises are often themed such as cruises for
senior citizens, families, singles, adventure or sight-seeing cruises.
“We took a cross-country road-trip last summer, it was
an adventure.”
“We are going on a sight-seeing cruise to Alaska next
week.”
-
Journeys and Voyages: these are the most commonly
misused terms by students of English.
Journeys and Voyages are long and often difficult, the main purpose of
these trips are not usually for relaxation.
Journeys
are often seen as long trips with multiple stops:
“I took a backpacking trip to
Europe, it was a real journey.”
“Marco Polo journeyed to
China.”
Voyages are
similar but are on boats.
“Christopher Columbus took a
voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to discover new land.”
Activity
Ask your
partner questions to find out where they have been and where they want to go,
use the follow up questions to enrich the responses and conversation. Be sure to take notes because you will be
presenting your partner to the rest of the class.
“Where have you been?” “Where
would you like to go?”
You can ask this question many
different ways: You can
ask this question in many different ways:
Where have you travelled to? Where
is your dream destination to travel to?
Where have
you lived? Where
do you plan on visiting next?
What
countries/cities have you visited? Where
is a place that you haven’t been that you would like to go?
Where are
you from?
Follow-up Questions Follow-up
Questions
What did
you eat there?/ What did you do there? Why
do you want to visit there?
How many
times have you visited this place? How
do you plan on getting there?
How did
you get there/ how long did it take? How
long are you going for?
Was it
expensive? What
will you be doing while you are there?
Where is
the worst place you’ve been to? Do
you prefer to travel for leisure, touristic sites or adventure?
Where is
the best place you’ve been to?
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