Freshman English Program
September 2007-June 2008
Language Center
語言教學中心
College of Foreign Languages and Cultures
Soochow University
(http://www.scu.edu.tw/language/index.htm)
Prepared by Cynthia Yu
Revised by Joyce Lee & Eric Wang
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Freshman English for Non-English Majors
Soochow University
2007-2008
I. General Goals of the Freshman English for Non-English Majors
Freshman English for Non-Majors is a required course for the 1majority of freshmen at Soochow University. The
course is intended as a general English course, meaning that students should be able to use their general
knowledge about the world to understand and communicate in English. However, in compliance with the Ministry
of Education’s policy of assessing students’ English abilities, an important goal is to help Soochow University
students meet the requirement for graduation – pass （全民英檢中級初試）.
II. Administrative structure of the Freshman English Program
A. The Freshman English for Non-English Majors (FENM) Committee (大一英文委員會)
1. Members: Full-time and part-time teachers teaching Freshman English.
2. Tasks of the FENM Committee
a. The Committee meets at least twice in each semester.
b. Pedagogical issues are presented to the committee and voted on by its members.
c. No program-wide curriculum changes will be implemented without this body’s approval.
B. Duties of full-time and part-time faculty members:
a. They should attend FENM committee meetings.
b. They are responsible for showing professionalism toward students and teaching duties
(arriving in class on time, making up missed classes, giving valid test questions for mid-term and final
exams, and proctoring examinations.)
c. In their syllabi, teachers are required to specify the guidelines for evaluation, dates for the exams, lessons
to be covered, ways of giving assignments as well as all the other details
d. They should upload their syllabi as required by school. A hard copy of the syllabus should be submitted to
the office of the Language Center during the first week of the semester.
e. All teachers get extra pay for grading of written assignments; therefore, they are required to assign students
written homework regularly (please see below).
f. They are required to proctor midterm and final exams of their own classes.
g. They are expected to give presentations or workshops on ESL/EFL teaching at the request of the Center.
C. Coordinators
Only freshmen who have already passed the 全民英檢中級複試 are allowed to study languages other than English for
the required two-year foreign language program.
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Chief coordinator: 李玉華 分機 6505 (jyhlee@scu.edu.tw)
High level: 王海康分機 6461 or 6503 (haikang@yahoo.com)
Mid level: 李玉華 分機 6505 (jyhlee@scu.edu.tw)
Low level: 蘇雅如分機 6511 (f03@scu.edu.tw)
T.A.: 江宜穎 分機 6466 (openiy@scu.edu.tw)
III. Introduction to the curriculum design
Two components: (1) Reading/Writing (2 hours/2 credits) conducted in a language lab or regular
classroom
(2) Listening /Speaking (2 hours/1 credit) conducted in a language lab
A. Listening/Speaking
Goals: (1) to increase students’ listening and speaking abilities by focusing on practical, real-life skills.
(2) to help students understand all kinds of verbal messages and to be able to respond to these
messages.
Text book for students: Top Notch 1 with CD-Rom
Supplementary materials for teachers:
1. Teacher’s Edition and Lesson Planner
2. Class Audio CDs
3. Top Notch TV (DVD)
4. Activity Worksheets and Teaching Notes
5. Complete assessment package with audio CD
6. Copy & Go: Ready-Made Interactive Activities for Busy Teachers
7. Workbook
8. Teacher’s Resource Disk (Audio CD)
Units to be covered in the 07 fall semester
Units 1 and 2 prior to Midterm
Units 3, 4, and 5 prior to Final
Units to be covered in the 08 spring semester.
Units 6 and 7 prior to Midterm
Units 8, 9 and 10 prior to Final
All levels should use Top Notch TV (DVD) in addition to Top Notch 1 in class.
High-level Classes:
Since Top Notch 1 is quite easy for the students, teachers are encouraged to use outside but relevant
materials (audio or video) to supplement in class.
Possible listening/speaking assignments:
Recording, Role-playing, Giving presentation, Giving speeches, Doing an interview, Debating etc.
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B. Reading/Writing
Goals: (1) to equip students with basic reading skills, such as skimming, scanning, reading for main idea,
making inference, and guessing vocabulary in context, through intensive reading and extensive
reading. Extensive reading includes the use of simplified readers.
(2) to enable students to apply these skills toward all kinds of readings in English.
Textbook for students: Active Skills for Reading 3.
Supplementary materials for teachers:
1. Teacher’s Manual CDs
2. Exam View (CD-ROM)
Teachers are encouraged to use the vocabulary questions and outside reading comprehension questions in
the accompanying Exam View to give quizzes to students.
Chapters to be covered in Midterm, 07 fall semester:
Units
Chapters
1 1.
1. Selling India’s Rainy Season
2. Avoiding cultural Taboos
2
1. Fashionable Decisions
2. Tom Ford-Master Designer
Chapters to be covered in Final, 07 Fall semester
Units
Chapters
41.
1. What does a Million Dollars Buy?
2.
2. Lottery Winners—Rich, but
3.
Happy?
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1. Wedding Customs
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1. Mystery Tours
Chapters to be covered in Midterm, 08 Spring semester
Units
Chapters
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1. Successful Dieting
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1. Human Adaptation to Space
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1. Is an Only Child a Lonely Child?
2. Changing roles: Stay-at-Home Dads
Chapters to be covered in Final, 08 Spring semester
Units
Chapters
10
1.
1. Homeschooling – a Better Way to Learn?
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1.
12
1. How Good Is Your Memory?
2. Words to Remember
2. From Comic Books to Graphic Novels
High-level Classes
Teachers of High level classes should cover extra lessons or assign them for self-study and give
students quizzes on these additional lessons to challenge them.
The extra chapters to be covered for the fall semester are:
Prior to Midterm: Review Reading 1: Modern Fashion Trends p. 45
Prior to Final: Review Reading 4: The Truth Behind The Da Vinci Code p.86
The extra chapters to be covered for the spring semester are:
Prior to Midterm: Review Reading 6: Single-Parent Families: Changing Views p124
Prior to Final: Unit 12 Chapter 1: Zorro: A Review
p.83
Extensive Reading: The Penguin series of simplified readers, available at our school library, can be
recommended to students for their self-study or assigned as winter-break reading projects.
Some possible writing assignments are
1. Making sentences using the taught phrases or expressions
2. Writing short essay questions
3. Writing response/reaction paragraphs
4. Writing summary paragraphs
5. Paraphrasing
Note: Teachers of low level classes are encouraged to have students make sentences with the phrases in
the vocabulary list as their homework
Teachers of high levels are encouraged to use the last four.
Homework Inspection
1. At the beginning of each semester, all teachers are given a form to enter their students’ letter (A, B,
C…) /number (1~100) grades for the homework. As teachers get extra pay for correcting students’
homework, which varies in accordance with the number of students in their class, they are
required to correct at least 4 assignments in each semester, and the total amount of assignments
should be equivalent to making 50 sentences.
2. At the end of the semester, this form will be collected and reviewed by the Chief Coordinator and
the Director of the Language Center.
3. Individual teachers may be required to submit their students’ homework for inspection.
C. Testing and Grading
a. Placement
1. All students who enroll in the Freshman English course will be placed into one of three levels (High,
Mid, and Low) based on their scores from the English section of the JCEE. Those who did not take the
JECC exam (transfer students or repeaters) will have to take a placement test administered on campus
in the first week of the fall semester.
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2. The test evaluates students reading skills and grammar knowledge. ‘
3. Students who feel that they are not properly placed can apply for a transfer to a higher or lower level as
soon as possible, with their original instructor's permission. The application will be handled by the
Language Center.
4. Instructors who feel a student has not been placed in the most appropriate level can suggest that the
student be transferred to a more suitable level. Such notifications should be made to the Language
Center.
b. Grading
Reading: 100%
In each semester, unified tests—reading midterm and final exams—are prepared by the FENM
committee.
30% --- Unified midterm exam
30% ---- Unified final exam
Mid and High levels: 40% ---- Homework, quizzes, attendance and participation
Low level: 30% ---- Two-hour online-learning (線上補救教學：Http://elearn.scu.edu.tw)
10% ---- Classroom performance --Note: As a rule of thumb, 30% of the reading exams can be allocated to test students’ proficiency
(the questions still have to be relevant to the themes or topics of the target lessons), while 70%
will be focused on their achievement (target lessons).
Listening: 100%
In each semester, unified tests—listening midterm and final exams—are prepared by the FENM
committee.
30% --- Midterm (80% Unified mid-term exam + 20% Individualized)
30% --- Final (80% Unified final exam + 20% Individualized)
Mid and High levels: 40% --- Homework, quizzes, attendance and participation
Low level: 30% --- Two-hour online-learning (線上補救教學：Http://elearn.scu.edu.tw)
10% ---- Classroom performance
c. Preparation of the unified tests
30-minute Listening Test:
Listening tests on the units taught and corresponding units in Top Notch TV are to be
administered during the mid-term and final exam weeks. Please see below for their format.
Note: It is important that all classes finish their tests within the exam week to avoid students’ cheating
in the exam.
100-minute Reading Test:
Two unified exams on chapters covered are to be held on specific dates below. Please see below
for their format.
Midterm Exam: 13:30-15:10, November 10, Saturday, 2007
Final Exam: 13:30-15:10, January 12, Saturday, 2008.
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Notes:
1. All teachers should contribute to the preparation of these unified tests.
2. It is extremely important that all teachers meet the deadlines listed on the test timetable.
Many things need to be done to produce the midterm and final exams. If just one deadline is not met,
the entire schedule is threatened and many people are inconvenienced. Problems arising from missed
deadlines will put pressure on the coordinators and the TA.
3. Teachers should be aware that if the questions they make for the midterm and final exams are found to
be unacceptable, they have to make another set of questions in lieu of the old ones.
d. Format of the unified midterm and final exams
1) Listening: 100%
20% individualized (to be prepared by 80% unified: 40 questions, 2% each
individual teachers based on students’ Three choices are provided for each question and the
level)
choices should be kept as short as possible.
Suggested question types:
Types of questions:
Cloze,
Statement,
Writing a dialog,
Response,
Short answer questions
Short dialogue (2-3 exchanges, 1-2 questions per dialog).
1. Please see Appendix for sample question types.
2. The exam is digitally recorded.
3. CD-ROMs must be played only once and the questions and answers will not be given in written
form. Teachers can ask for a copy of the script from the TA after the exam is given. Students can
only listen to them and choose the best answer on the answer sheet.
2) Reading: 100%
Types of questions
Explanations
1.Vocabulary: 25% (25 questions)
15 active vocabulary questions
In these questions, students will be given the
first and last letter and in most cases, the
definition of the word.
2.
10 passive vocabulary questions
In these questions, students are given a list of
20 words and they have to choose a word
from the list to complete each sentence.
2. Sentence structures: 15% (15 questions)
3. Sentence-making: 20% (10Tquestions)
All teachers will be given a vocabulary list from each
taught lesson, including the new vocabulary
introduced in the Vocabulary Comprehension and
Vocabulary Skill Sections of each lesson
(It’s up to the teacher’s discretion whether this list should
be made available to their students.)
Teachers who are responsible to make questions for this
part should choose only the words and phrases from this
word list and test them in a different context from the
original text.
15 sentences taken directly from the original text.
Multiple-choice with 3 choice items
There is also a list of important phrases from each
covered lesson.
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10 phrases will be taken from this list and students have
to make a sentence with each phrase.
4. Short answer questions: 20% (4 questions) Two questions (facts) : based on the content of
There will be one question from each target the lessons
lesson.
Two questions (opinions) that provide students a chance
to express themselves.
5. Reading Comprehension:10% (10
questions)
Two passages from outside materials
(relevant to the lessons taught), five questions from each
passage.
6. Cloze: 10% (10 questions)
A passage from outside materials (relevant to the lessons
taught) 10 multiple-choice questions.
IV. Self-study resources
1. http://www2.scu.edu.tw/foreign/epower
A website designed especially for Freshman English and Sophomore English students.
2. http://write.scu.edu.tw
A website to improve students’ writing skills.
3. Live ABC (互動英語): Available at the *Self-Access Lab (外語自學室)
4. CNN News: Available at the *Self-Access Lab (外語自學室)
5. Teachers should encourage their students to use the Self-Access Lab.
*Self-Access Lab: #G123, Language Center, Main Campus
#5316, Language Center, Downtown Campus
v. Important tips for new teachers
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The TA for the Freshman English program will provide teachers with a list of the students in their classes. Students
must attend the class for which they are registered. Teachers must call roll at the beginning of the semester to
ensure that students are in the correct class. The University may penalize students if they attend the wrong class.
In order to understand how to use the equipment in classrooms, new teachers must attend a workshop. They will
receive a notice from the Language Center about the workshop information, classroom policies and related
regulations.
Teachers have to list grading criteria and attendance policies clearly on the syllabus and upload their course
syllabus to the university administration webpage before the deadline set by the University.
Teachers should be careful in making test questions. If their questions are constantly rejected by the test reviewers,
they might not be given the opportunity to teach the Freshman English course in the following academic year.
If teachers don’t correct students’ assignment, they will not be given classes to teach again.
If teachers are often late for classes or simply don’t show up for classes, they will not be given classes to teach
again.
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APPENDIX
Listening Test samples:
Statement
1. I think aerobics is a piece of cake.
a. Aerobics is easy.
b. Aerobics is difficult.
c. Aerobics is funny.
a
Response
1. Sorry to keep you waiting. There’s been an emergency and the doctor won’t be available until three.
a. Well, when can you return it?
b. What’s wrong with the old one?
c. Then I’ll have to reschedule.
c
Short Dialogue
1. M: I'm going to go hiking. Do you want to join me?
W: No, thanks. I think I am going to start a fire and begin preparing dinner.
M: OK. I'll be back in an hour, and then I'll set up the tent.
Q: Where does this conversation take place?
a. At a fire station.
b. At a campground.
c. At a recreation center.
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