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OVERVIEW
Language of instruction Warm-up activities The linking issue Contrastive Rhetoric Course Overview
Theoretical component Application component
LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION
WARM-UP 1
How many different meanings does the following sentence have?
The boy saw a man with a telescope. What causes different interpretations? Which version came to your mind first?
WARM-UP 2
Watch a short clip (taken from That '70 show)
Scene: a high school coffee shop Context: When confronted by a customer complaining about the service, Frank, the bartender, says that being a Vietnam war veteran, he does not think its worth his while serving food to teenagers.
I did not lose a leg in Vietnam. the linking issue a sentence or clauses meaning should be determined from the context (i.e. its relations to other sentences/clauses) rather than on its own
L2 writing problems are not necessarily due to vocabulary and grammar limitations
FUN ACTIVITY
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FUN ACTIVITY
Read a short English text composed by a Vietnamese. What do you think?
Topic: If you could change one important thing about your hometown, what would you change? I was born in Gia Lam a small town outside Ha Noi. It always revives many fond memories of my childhood whenever I come back. If I have a chance to do one important thing for my hometown so as to make it better, I will dedicate a large area of land to building green parks.
Irrelevancy: It always revives many fond memories of my childhood whenever I come back.
Does this really contribute to the point the author is trying to make? Why do you think the author includes it? When should it be relevant?
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COURSE OVERVIEW
A CR-based course, focusing on English writing, especially academic writing
Why academic and not freestyle writing?
Goal: Help Vietnamese learners notice and reduce the gap between their own English writing and that of native speakers.
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FOUR-STEP LEARNING
Awareness Raising
Learn about possible L2 writing problems that are not grammar related
structure (Thiu Nng) vocabulary (Tp Dch)
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FOUR-STEP LEARNING
Discovery
Explore important differences in rhetorical structure between Vietnamese and English
Essay comparison Learn how to analyze the structure of an essay
Examine undesirable influences Vietnamese may have on the way Vietnamese students write in English
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FOUR-STEP LEARNING
Revision
Apply revision techniques Work on a solution for problems of your own Participate in self- and peer-review activities
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FOUR-STEP LEARNING
Application
structure translation (Vietnamese to English) argumentative genre (TOEFL/IELTS/GMAT/GRE essays) application for overseas studying
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FUN ACTIVITY
watch a video clip and see how meaning changes when linking changes
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Conjunction relationships
10 basic relations other relations
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Learn how to detect problems in terms of idea development and rhetorical structures
Entrance test solutions?
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A sample task: What would be a problem in terms of structure when you translate the following Vietnamese text into English?
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Another sample task: What would be a problem in terms of structure when you translate the following Vietnamese text into English?
LeanTek s cng doanh nghip xy dng nhng tng phong ph mi m trong vic t chc cc s kin ph hp vi tnh cht ca sn phm, doanh nghip Bn, ng thi to c s hng th vi nhm i tng ca doanh nghip Bn. Kt ni thnh cng sn phm & dch v ca doanh nghip Bn ti khch hng mc tiu hm nay v mai sau. Cch lm ca LeanTek l: Kinh nghim v s hiu bit su sc sn phm, ngnh ngh kinh doanh ca doanh nghip; kin thc v kinh nghim chuyn mn ca chng ti trong lnh vc PR l s kt hp nht qun xy dng nhng chin lc, gii php cho ring doanh nghip ca Bn.
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claim qualification and rebuttal strategies Appraisal resources differences between TOEFL/IELTS vs. GMAT/GRE essays in terms of argument skills
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MODULE 3: ARGUMENTATIVE GENRE Modal verbs, e.g. would, could, should, must
Why modal verbs?
heavily used in academic writing, especially argumentative genre, to qualify your claims basic meaning (social world) vs. extended meaning (logical world) incorrectly used and underused by Vietnamese learners
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Youve heard someone knocking at the door. You dont know for sure but you think that is Nam. What should you say?
It could be Nam? It should be Nam? It would be Nam?
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Beginning of a lesson
End of a lesson
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FUN ACTIVITIES
A sample of video-based activities
Teamwork: read the following dialogue and guess the minimum number of people involved. Write down your response in a piece of paper. Youll earn 2 points if you get it right. I apologize for that. To you, not you. I thought we were friends. Again, not you and me. Me and him. Anyway, have a nice day. You. Not you. Nor you.
FUN ACTIVITIES
Team competitions Class Solidarity Day Other activities
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FUN ACTIVITIES
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FUN ACTIVITIES
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Advantages
Non-template-based Long-term goal seeking Problem-oriented Full of fun Cheaper tuition yet nicer teacher
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COURSE LIMITATIONS
This is NOT a full writing class. It does NOT focus on basic English grammar in writing It is NOT a class specifically about composing TOEFL/IELTS/GRE/GMAT essays
but it does focus on the same underlying skills tested by standardized tests
It is a BIG class NOT many chances for full essay composition practices
You may want to take the Thieu Nang Practicum class
NO simplified materials:
Unless you are an advanced learner, you will encounter tons of new lexical items (especially in readings and Module 2) to simulate the ESL learning environment abroad
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HOMEWORK
Read the piece on Blog vs. Academic writing Read two given samples of academic writing.
Tip: you should start with Stephen Krashens article first. compare them in terms of
writing style target audience vocabulary choice level of difficulty
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FINAL WORDS
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LAST LAUGH
Watch a short comedy. Pay close attention to the following dialogue. What caused the misunderstanding?
Sissy guy: I'm here to buy a dress to bury Crystal in. Woman: I think maybe you should wear men's clothes for that.
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