Holmes-ZRVTC English Program - Zhengzhou - Term 2
Thor May
1. Course Focus
This is a speaking and listening course.
2. The Uses of Reading and Writing (in the course)
The reading and writing you do in this course are tools to help you with listening and speaking. For example, the teacher might ask you to take written notes from a lecture, or to write dictation. The notes and the dictation are to help with listening skills.
3. Text Books
The text books in this course (Tapestry 3 and Tapestry 4) have several functions.
a) They are tools to help with speaking and listening skills. They contain some useful advice on these matters.
b) They provide vocabulary which you will need for further work and study.
b) They provide THEMES which give us a common topic for each week's lessons. Note that we could use any themes, but the themes in these books are convenient. They have something to do with your needs. They also help the college administration to know what we are doing.
4. Beyond Text Books
The text books in this course (Tapestry 3 and Tapestry 4) are NOT all you need to succeed as an English speaker.
a) The text books (like all text books) have some important limitations. The Tapestry books are written for students living in America. They have VERY American themes, express very American cultural attitudes, and use very American language. That is OK, but it is not enough for us. English is a world language for many cultures. You are Chinese, and you might be going to Australia (which is a very different culture from the American).
b) The teacher will introduce some extra speaking and listening themes or materials These extra materials may be about i) China, or ii) Australia, or iii) the world, or iv) about topics and language in your study major (Nursing and Logistics).
5. Assignments
a) Each week the teacher will give you an assignment to prepare for the following week.
b) Preparing these assignments out of class is an important part of your English language practice. You will lose marks for participation if you are not ready.
c) Assignments will usually require you to work with a small group of other students to prepare a presentation, role play, debate, skit or other spoken activity. Be sure that all members of your group make a contribution !
d) The purpose of the assignments is to prepare for listening and speaking. The purpose is not to write an essay. However, you may need to write speaking scripts, or outlines for some projects.
e) When you are preparing assignments out of class, you should try to think, speak and listen in English as much as possible.
f) Talking to other Chinese people in English will seem very unnatural at first. Maybe it will seem antisocial ! However, talking English to Chinese people is a good skill to learn. Remember, millions of ethnic Chinese people live outside of China. Most of them do not speak standard Chinese. Many speak no Chinese language at all.
6. Language is Use
a) English (or any natural language) is a tool for communication. The 1st Law of Nature is "use it or lose it". You will make mistakes. Don't worry too much about mistakes. They will gradually disappear. Your main goal is to understand other people speaking English, and to be understood when you speak English. Try to make an agreement with your friends to speak English (or even Chinglish ^_^ ) for a certain time every day : for example, at lunch time.
b) Part of the class work will be to train you in exact listening, and exact speaking. These are important skills. Most speaking and listening is not exact. We guess general meanings, and socially that is enough. However in our jobs, in research and in life, sometimes we need to be very exact. In this kind of exact practice, the teacher will be quite strict about saying "right" or "wrong". Don't be upset. Just try again to get it right.