SYLLABUS
INTERMEDIATE URDU (3rd and 4th years)
SASLI 2008
Monday, June 16, 2007 – Friday, August 8, 2008
Course: Intermediate Urdu
Instructor: Faraz Sheikh
Instructor Office Hours: Wednesday and Thursday 1-2 pm, Van Hise Rm. TBA
Instructor Contact Information:
Office Phone: 6082611194
Email [Preferred]: sheikh@wisc.edu
TA/FA: Max Bruce
TA/FA Office Hours: TBA
TA/FA Contact Information:
Objective/Goals:
This course is intended for students who have completed 1st year Urdu or who have equivalent
proficiency in Urdu. All four skills [speaking, listening, reading and writing] will be taught using
the communicative approach. For the first half of the course, oral skills and reading
comprehension will be given more emphasis. During the second half of the course, all four skills
will become the focus of equal attention.
By the end of this course, students should be able to
- Exchange information about their general interests, discuss plans, talk about cultural and
political topics using simple sentences, talk about subjects related to work, places, events
and people through a series of connected, semi-complex sentences using, mostly, correct
tenses and frequently used constructions
- Communicate ideas/opinions about an issue/problem using small paragraph-length discourse
- Express views/agreements/disagreements about a range of cultural and political topics,
producing small paragraph-length, reasoned arguments
- Begin to understand and communicate abstract ideas
- Use conditional sentences with ease
- Begin to use idiomatic and proverbial expressions in daily speech
- Read/Listen to and comprehend simple paragraphs, short stories, songs/poetry, small news
items, TV programs, movies/dramas etc
- Write small paragraphs, messages, essays, letters using literary vocabulary and showing
signs of paragraph-discourse
The main goal of the class is NOT to simply provide students with new vocabulary, linguistic
constructions and grammatical knowledge. The main objective is to enable students to put
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linguistic knowledge to effective use in a variety of real-life communicative scenarios that
require the exchange of ideas and information.
Class Materials:
Required Text Books:
1) Intermediate Urdu Reading Package [Available for purchase from the SASLI office]
2) Ali Asani, Lets Study Urdu [From University Bookstore or Online]
3) Ruth Laila Schmidt Urdu-An Essential Grammar [University Bookstore or Online]
Dictionary:
The Oxford English-Urdu Dictionary by Shanul Haq Haqqee
Other:
Hand-outs will be provided in class. Also, audio-video clips may be assigned for viewing
at home and in class.
Recommended Text Books:
1) Spoken Urdu by Abd-al-Rahman Barker
2) Usha Jain, Introduction to Hindi Grammar [Available for purchase at the University
Bookstore and Online]
3) Introductory Urdu by C.M. Naim
4) Readings in Urdu Prose by G.C. Narang
5) Newspaper Reader by Abd-al-Rahman Barker
Audio:
Links to audio/video materials will be provided in class.
Content:
Grading:
Percentage
Written work/In-class quizzes [drills, essays, journal entries etc]:
30
Spoken/Oral Proficiency [Oral component of assignments]:
30
Class Participation/attendance:
10
4 Weekly Projects [5 % each]
20
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In-Class Final Exam [Written, Oral, Spoken and Listening]:
TOTAL
10
100
Written homework for each day will be 1%. Journal entries for each day will count as 0.5% of
the grade. Homework and journal entries and all written work will be given 1) check mark
[outstanding/excellent], 2) a plus sign (+) [good/average] and a negative sign (-) [below
average].
A similar grading scheme will be used to assign grades for oral assignments and tasks. Extra
assignments will be made available for those who wish to pull up their grade or want to get more
practice or have specific interests.
(STUDENTS WILL BE GRADED AFTER THE FIRST FOUR WEEKS AND AGAIN AT THE
END OF THE EIGHT WEEKS)
Attendance Policy:
NO unexcused absence is allowed. One un-excused absence will result in a 2% point loss in the
‘Class Participation’ grade, in addition to any loss of grade that will result from missing an inclass quiz. NO MAKE-UP quizzes will be allowed. Additionally, the student ALONE will be
responsible for finding out/learning what was done in class on that day, complete the
homework(s) assigned and submit them on time, find out about any important announcements
that were made in class. NO late homework will be accepted or graded.
Two un-excused absences will result in a full grade reduction [e.g. from A to A-] in the entire
course.
Requirements/Homework:
Students are expected to be fully awake in class, actively engaging in the learning activities
assigned to them by the instructor. They are expected to complete all homework assignments,
written or otherwise, on time and submit them before the stated deadline and in compliance with
the instructions. Homework assignments may include conversations/videos that the students will
be asked to upload on a website.
All class exercises will be collected and graded and will form part of the in-class
quizzes/exercises grade. Homework will be graded based on accuracy [grammar, spellings and
syntax], progress [minimum repetition of already corrected mistakes] and hardwork [evidence
that student is pushing at the boundaries of his/her present competence/vocabulary/syntax level
as assessed by the instructor on an on-going basis throughout the course.]
Spoken/oral proficiency grade will be based on an ongoing assessment of the student by the
instructor in the course as reflected in the oral components of the assignments and class
activities. Similar to the rest of the course, grading for Oral Proficiency is NOT ON A CURVE.
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Grading/Assessment (Based on two 4 week semesters):
GRADING IS NOT BASED ON A CURVE
Semesters A:
A
AB+
B
B-
95-100
90-94
87-89
83-86
80-82
C+
C
CD
D-
77-79
73-76
70-72
60-69
53-59
Below 53, fail/F
(Same for Semester B)
McBurney Disability Resource Center: The McBurney Center is available for all students at
the University of Wisconsin. The Center offers a wide array of services for students with
Disabilities. If you are in need of any of the services provided by the Center, please feel free to
contact the McBurney Center staff directly. For a list of the services provided, please visit the
website:
http://www.mcburney.wisc.edu/services/
Contact information for the McBurney Disability Resource Center:
905 University Avenue
Madison, WI 53715
608-263-2741 (phone)
263-6393 (tty)
265-2998 (fax)
mcburney@uwmadmail.services.wisc.edu
Student Code of Conduct: The student Academic Misconduct Policy & Procedures for the
University of Wisconsin is available on the website listed below:
http://www.wisc.edu/students/saja/misconduct/misconduct.html
This document outlines the rules and regulations regarding your student rights and
responsibilities while a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It states that "Academic
misconduct is an act in which a student:
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seeks to claim credit for the work or efforts of another without authorization or citation;
uses unauthorized materials or fabricated data in any academic exercise;
forges or falsifies academic documents or records;
intentionally impedes or damages the academic work of others;
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engages in conduct aimed at making false representation of a student's academic
performance;
assists other students in any of these acts."
Please see the website listed above for further information.
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