新莊社區大學課程大綱（18週）
●課程名稱：Practical Conversational English: Self, Society, and Cultural Encounters
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●授課講師：Anthony Todd Estes (Anthony)
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●課程編號：WES-073A3
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●上課時間： 週三晚間07:00-09:50
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●上課地點： 新莊高中
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●招生人數： 35 人
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●修課對象：□適合新生 、■新舊生皆可、□應修過 具 程度
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●學分費： 3000元，冷氣費：200元
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●學分數：三學分
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講師簡介：
My background includes five months experience as a teacher at David’s English Center in Shilin District, and tutoring of friends in Taipei. I have lived in Taipei for a total of five years, during seven different visits. The first time was in 2001. My main goal, for all these years, has been to support cultural exchange and mutual understanding across cultures. Recently, I have been working on a research project to understand how people in Taipei express their views to each other, about their personal lives. People say that my conversational Mandarin is very clear, and so beginning students can discuss with me in their language. My background includes studies at Stanford and UCLA, and the project here is associated with Fulbright Taiwan.
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課程介紹及課程理念：
The class is initially set at the Intermediate Level. However, it will include a few advanced discussion topics, so that advanced students can also experience some new challenges.
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課程目標：
The goal for this class is for every student to discover that speaking English can be a relaxing and creative activity. By the end, I hope everyone will be well-prepared to use English in their workplace, or perhaps take a trip to North America, Australia, UK, or some other English-speaking country.
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Weekly topics for class 課程大綱：
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1.
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Week One: Introducing yourself; Culture Shock
Focus: self-introduction, cultural differences in small talk
Activities: introductions, large group discussion about cultural differences and stereotypes, studying English
Songs: Religious and secular Christmas music
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2.
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Week Two: Opinions and Listening
Focus: the difference between expressing opinions and deep listening
Vocabulary focus: public opinion, rating people, attentiveness/empathy
Activities: practice persuasion and listening; discuss personal values; bring a clipping of a photo that represents talking/listening
Grammar point: superlatives, comparison
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3.
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Week Three: Talking about Feelings
Focus: feelings, expressing and listening, cultural comparison
Vocabulary focus: words for things like love, stress, anger, stressed out, in love, etc.
Activities: play a game about guessing someone’s feeling; discuss and debate how people express feelings in Taiwan and North America
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4.
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Week Four: Relationships and Feelings
Focus: more emotion terms; relationships
Activities: bring a picture of emotional expression, roleplay a counseling session in small groups
Grammar point: imperatives
Songs: related to love and feeling
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5.
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Week Five: Men and Women
Focus: masculine and feminine social roles, in relationships
Activities: discuss love; prepare a debate about “men” and “women”; cultural comparison
Grammar point: modal verbs (should, could, would) and adjectives
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6.
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Week Six: Family and Home
Focus: relationship terms, living with or without family, home life
Activities: debate cultural differences about living with family; negotiate with a family member; chores
feedback to teacher and personal assessment
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7.
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Week Seven: Growing Up
Focus: childhood, youth, school
Activities: tell stories about experiences from childhood, youth, or school
Grammar point: prepositions of time, verb tense, narration
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8.
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Week Eight: Work and Leisure
Focus: getting a job, issues at work; idioms for leisure time
Activities: roleplay a job interview; debate issues with bosses; discuss work and play
Grammar point: verbs including perfect and progressive tenses
Songs: about work
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9.
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Week Nine: Shared School Activity
公民論壇預定週（全校停課參與活動）
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10.
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Week Ten: Directions and Cities
Focus: city geography words, giving directions
Activities: practice telling people how to go somewhere
Grammar point: prepositions of place, time phrases
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11.
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Week Eleven: Food and Drinks
Focus: eating styles, food and drink terms, restaurants, vegetarianism
Activities: describe and recommend a restaurant or a country’s food; compare different diet styles; discuss alcohol and vegetarianism in Taiwan vs. North America
Grammar point: countable and uncountable nouns
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12.
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Week Twelve: Describing Things
Focus: objects, human bodies, places
Activities: describe objects and physical appearance, describe a location; guess other’s objects
Grammar point: prepositions of place, location words, articles
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13.
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Week Thirteen: Describing Things
Focus: objects, human bodies, places
Activities: describe objects and physical appearance, describe a location; guess other’s objects
Grammar point: prepositions of place, location words, articles
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14.
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Week Fourteen: Religion and Culture
Focus: Religion connected to beliefs (Buddhism, Daoism, Folk, Christianity, temples, ceremonies, etc.)
Vocabulary focus: religion words, words about culture and traditions
Activities: discuss belief and practice, comparison between Taiwan and North America
Grammar point: nouns for characteristics
Songs: Christian and Buddhist songs
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15.
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Week Fifteen: Spirituality and Personal Practice
Focus: things like meditation, yoga, Tai Chi (taijiquan) and Chinese fighting, prayer, with international perspective; emphasis on practice
Activities: discuss kinds of exercise, compare yoga/meditation in Taiwan vs. North America
Special Activity: learn basic meditation (mindfulness of breath and sensation); share experience
Songs: about popular spirituality
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16.
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Week Sixteen: Energy, Technology, the Future
Focus: things like energy, consumption, space, science fiction, human rights
Activities: bring a news or lifestyles article from newspaper about these issues; prepare a debate; discuss science fiction or environmentalist movies
Grammar point: conditionals
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17.
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Week Seventeen: Shared School Activity社區日預定週
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18.
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Week Eighteen: Nature, City, and Country
Focus: comparison of life in city and country, nature, values
Activities: debate environmental issues; discuss city vs. country life, relationships to nature, animal rights
Songs: about nature, country
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附註：
●評鑑方式：
●教材：
●除了學分費以外，還需要的其他費用
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Instructor: Anthony Todd Estes (Anthony)
Course: Conversational English
Dear Student:
I am a native speaker from the United States, who has lived in many parts of the US, including California, as well as Taiwan. I am a patient teacher who has helped friends in Taiwan learn English for several years.
My goal as a teacher is to create a relaxing and stimulating class environment, where students of all ages can experience English speaking as part of a fun cross-cultural exchange. My wish is to enable every student to feel that he or she can speak English in class without ever being told “you did it wrong.” I have personal interactions with each student, to give each person an opportunity to experience success in expressing themselves and making their ideas and interests known to others. This is related to a whole attitude about teaching: feeling confidence and enjoyment are basic parts of learning a language.
In order to create a positive and fun atmosphere, we will talk about one good thing that happened to each one of us during the last week. People often enjoy this, because it is an easy way to make each person feel involved; and creates a good mood for studying. Class topics will include basic conversational topics, such as self-introductions and giving directions, and will later discuss interesting social topics such as how to talk about one’s feelings, media and music, negotiation, cultural and social issues, and protecting the environment. Each topic will include vocabulary, idioms, and discussion questions, and some weeks also focus on grammar. I am also willing to change topics if students want to include something else. We will occasionally listen to, read, and/or sing English songs, when it is fits the topic. We will, also, do some special experience activities, including learning how to meditate when we study words about popular spirituality.
The class is initially set at the Intermediate Level. It will include a few advanced discussion topics, so that advanced students will also have some new challenges. However, the level will be adjusted based on the students who participate.
My background includes five months experience as a teacher at David’s English Center in Shilin District, and tutoring of friends in Taipei. I have lived in Taipei for a total of five years, during seven different visits. The first time was in 2001. My main goal, for all these years, has been to support cultural exchange and mutual understanding across cultures. Recently, I have been working on a research project to understand how people in Taipei express their views to each other, about their personal lives. People say that my conversational Mandarin is very clear, and so beginning students can discuss with me in their language. My background includes studies at Stanford and UCLA, and the project here is associated with Fulbright Taiwan.
The goal for this class is for every student to discover that speaking English can be a relaxing and creative activity. By the end, I hope everyone will be well-prepared to use English in their workplace, or perhaps take a trip to North America, Australia, UK, or some other English-speaking country.
Welcome to the class!
~Anthony
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Order of each class (3 hours each)
1) Say one good thing from the prior week
2) Vocabulary and idiomatic expressions relevant to the theme
3) Exercises using vocabulary
4) Break
5) Fun activity: game and/or learn a song
6) Class discussion about theme
7) Grammar relevant to theme, and/or other special activity
8) Break
9) Special Activity if included
10) Prepare for small-group activity (e.g. debate, discussion group)
11) Present small-group activity to class
12) Review vocabulary
13) End class
