This is the page for: Listening & Speaking 1

(Course-related content will appear here in reverse chronological order: the newest things at the top of the page, and older posts toward the bottom.)

Grades Entered

Folks,

I have indeed finished grading (and given them to the Department Office Assistant, to be uploaded your grades to the UCUPS system). Feel free to go and check your grades.

If the grade you have received is a surprise, then consider the following questions:

  1. Did you submit every piece of assigned homework? How well did you do on your homework. (In most cases, a V+ ranking is a high ranking, a V is an average ranking, a V- is a very poor ranking, and a V++ is an outstanding ranking. In a scale out of 3, V-=1; V=2, V+=3, and V++=3.5 (a bonus mark of 0.5).
  2. Did you attend consistently? Were you often late?
  3. Did you participate in course discussions? Were you active in our classes, to the extent possible for the course?
  4. If there were quizzes offered in the course, did you score well on the quizzes?
  5. Were you well-prepared for any instances in which you were expected to lead or participate in a discussion for the whole class? (ie. leading a discussion, or a panel discussion)
  6. Did you fulfill all the online portions of the course, such as participating in course forum discussions online, or completing blog postings?
  7. Did you submit the Feedback for the Presentation Contest that was assigned for your class?

If your answer is no to any of the questions, you may have discovered the reason why your grade is not what you expected. (Especially if it is lower than you expected.) As a note, #6 and #7 above were particularly a problem for some people.

In any case, if you think your grade is an error, then before emailing me to demand a change, I ask that you review the following two pages:

These will help you decide whether, and how, to contact me with your concerns. I assure you, if you contact me in a reasonable and polite way, I will be happy to explain how you got your grade. If an error was made I will fix it. If not, however, I do not respond well to demands, or to begging. If your whole future depends on this grade, then  I expect you to have behaved that way during semester — preparing for quizzes, submitting all homework on time and as well-done as you could, never missing class without a good excuse, and so on.

Have a wonderful holiday, and feel free to check out the courses I am supposed to be teaching next semester here.

Self-Evaluation

Folks,

I mentioned that I would be asking you to fill out a self-evaluation for our Listening & Speaking course. There is an online form where you can fill out that evaluation here.

Your deadline is noon on 20 December. Don’t be late, as I’m hoping to hand in the grades that afternoon!

From Today’s Class

Here’s the film we watched in class. I didn’t mention, but it got many, many awards.

El Empleo / The Employment from opusBou on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/32966847

Feel free to share the link with others!

Also, here’s the quotation from Dante I mentioned and asked you to think about — in Italian and English too:

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
ché la diritta via era smarrita.
One of the famous translators of Dante into English translated this as:
When I had journeyed half of our life’s way,
I found myself within a shadowed forest,
for I had lost the path that does not stray.
But there are a bunch of different translations here, and some are better.
I asked you to think about how the film El Empleo and this quote from Darwin might relate to your own life… I have my answer ready for next class, but I want to hear yours!

Finally, since it came up in discussion, here’s a little history about the Spencerian form of Social Darwinism in the past, and another the resurgence of Social Darwinism in today’s world.

Our Department on Facebook, and Movie Night

If you’re a student in the English Language and Culture Department at CUK, or a student in one of the courses offered by the department, then please join our Facebook page.

Events, announcements, and more will be posted on our Facebook page in the future, so joining up is a good idea… even if you’re just taking one course in our department, and majoring in some other area, this page will let you know about important events, some of which are related to courses. So make sure you join up!

Also, this is a reminder that Monday night is MOVIE NIGHT at CUK. Professor Hurt has arranged for some wonderful prizes, and you can find out more about those, and the films showing, on the event page over at Facebook. Go have a look, and sign up.

Reading and Preparation for Next Time

Abortion Law (docx)Folks,

I messed  up! I posted the paper that Jung Hee emailed me, but didn’t assign the post to this course, so it was invisible to everyone!

Therefore, we’re going to discuss Jung Hee’s topic on Thursday morning. I have something else planned for Tuesday morning (a surprise), so don’t worry about that. We’ll meet in our class at the regular time!

For Thursday, here’s the paper from Jung Hee:

Please read and prepare for class discussion. We’ll talk about it in class on Thursday morning.

Presentation Contest: Schedule and Feedback Sheets

Folks,

You are expected to attend one complete session as part of your Department Events grade for any course you take with me.

(If you are taking my Public Speaking course, you are required to attend two (2) full sessions.)

For each speaker, I expect you to fill out one of the following forms, depending on the classes you’re taking:

IF YOU ARE IN MY PUBLIC SPEAKING COURSE:

IF YOU ARE NOT IN MY PUBLIC SPEAKING COURSE:

Make sure you use the correct sheets.

Make sure you prepare enough copies to have one sheet for each speaker — you should fill in the sheets at the end of each speech.

Make sure also to write some comments.

Also, make sure you do not write your name on the feedback sheets: they will be given anonymously to the speakers, so they can get some more proper feedback. Just staple all your feedback pages together, and attach a different sheet with your name and a list of classes you are taking with me to that pile.

Your feedback sheets are due to be handed in the day after the presentation contest session you attend. They can be handed in at the Department Office (IH341).

Discussion Paper for 17 November

Folks,

Here is the paper Hwajung has submitted for you to read in preparation for our class discussion on 17 November:

Please remember: preparing for a discussion doesn’t just mean reading the paper. It means thinking of questions, thinking about your opinion, thinking about ways to keep the discussion interesting. The diligent will be rewarded for their efforts.

Tuesday’s Discussion Topic

Here’s the paper I was mailed for Tuesday’s discussion. It’s in HWP format, which is annoying.  (I guess I should remind you all to please review this page.) I can’t open these files in Linux — the HWP program is expensive and badly-written — so I am unwilling to pay for it — and in Linux it is not as easily pirated as in Windows.

Therefore, I have no idea whether the file even works, or will work. I can’t open it.

To keep a long story short: if I get any more HWP files, I will simply trash them. It’s up to you to use formats that everyone can access. .DOC, .HTML, . RTF, .TXT are all good. .HWP is not.

Anyway, the file is here.

Hyowon’s Discussion Materials

Here’s the article Hyowon asked you all to read for tomorrow’s discussion (10 November). It was sent very late last night, so I am uploading it now that I’m awake in the morning:

Make sure you’ve read it and are ready to discuss tomorrow morning.

For the next discussion

For our discussion on Tuesday, please review this article provided by Yoonmi:

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