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IFLS 011: Academic English I Foundation (Spring 2019)

Instructor

Kent Lee, IFLS, Korea University

• Mailbox: 국제관 208A
• Office & office hours: 국제관 720, by appointment
• Email: See the syllabus or textbook (course booklet)

Course info

• Course load: 2 hours/week, 1 credit
• Class locations: 국제관 (International Studies Hall)

Sections

IFLS 011-L1	MW 12.00-12.50pm	국제관 #317480b
IFLS 011-L2	Tu/Th 14.00-14.50	국제관 #511

1 Course description

This course deals with academic English for your college studies, including (1) academic English writing and speaking skills, and (2) critical thinking skills. The focus will be on academic English for writing and presentation skills for your future college courses.

1.1 Readings and materials

Textbook: Course packet, about ₩8000-10,000, from a print shop near campus (probably at the 空문화사 [공문화사] print shop near the 후문, the back gate on the way to Anam Station).

2 Weekly materials & assignments

2.1 Weeks 1-2: Introduction

• Read the introductory chapters of the textbook on your own.
• Google Form #1: Fill out this form of basic information about yourself, and submit it. This counts as a minor grade. (The form works, though it won't send you a confirmation.) The link will have been sent to you by email from the Blackboard system.
• Email assignment (see the course book, §9.1)

3 Final project: Scholarship application

Imagine that you are applying for a scholarship. Your answers should be honest, but should also persuade a scholarship committee about how you are good student who deserves a scholarship. You can use some of the contents from your previous minor assignments for this assignment.

1. Explain how you as a student have overcome difficulties or challenges, e.g., in your own studies or major.
2. Explain your best strengths as a student.
3. Explain why you have good potential as a student in your field or major (even if your grades are not perfect).
4. Explain why you have good potential after graduating with your degree, e.g., as a future graduate student, worker, teacher, or professional in your field.

The final project involves two components:

1. An oral interview for a scholarship application (discussion component), and
2. A personal statement to apply for the scholarship, in essay form; this counts is the final essay / paper.

3.1 Assignment evaluation criteria

• Good contents & development of ideas
• In-depth discussion, explanation;
• Persuasive explanation, details, and examples – enough to persuade a scholarship committee to at least seriously consider your application;
• Good self-reflection and self-critique
• Clear goals for future studies and career; an understanding of what you are studying and what specifically you (might) want to focus on

Length: At least 2 full pages (double-spaced)

4 Citing sources

Here are links to guides for various citation systems. You can use any one of these for your papers in this course. If you would like to view my Prezi presentation, the overview of citation systems, it is available here.

Style	Typical field & notes
* APA (overview)	social sciences (e.g., psychology, education, sociology, applied linguistics); for a more detailed guide, see the complete APA guide
* Harvard style	an older style for various fields, which is very similar to APA style
* MLA 7 & MLA 8	literature studies
* IEEE	engineering
* Chicago Manual, short footnote style	humanities (This is a more semi-formal citation style; end references are still required with footnotes)
* Chicago Manual (parenthetical)	humanities (This is a more formal style with Author+Year in parenthetical in-text citations) humanities

If you have a lot of media sources, you might find APA inconvenient for citing these; you might find Chicago or MLA easier to use.

5 Style & grammar guides

• Capitalization
• Adjectives
• Delimiters

6 Assignments & grading

6.1 Minor ten-point assignments

Minor assignments are short assignments that are graded on a ten-point scale, and include short paragraph assignments (¶), Google Forms (GF), brief presentations, and in-class tasks. This may also include a couple of in-class and/or online surveys (these are for data collection or research purposes, and you get ten points simply for doing them). A few assignments may count as two or three 10-point assignments.

6.2 Midterm

The midterm will be paragraph writing task, either in-class or at home. The writing topic will be related to one of the topics or units in the course. See the grading criteria in the Appendix for writing assignments.

• Midterm due date: ? April
• Length: About 500 words or 2 pages (if double-spaced)
• Sources: At least one source cited, using one of the above citation systems

However, I am so not strict about word limits; what is more important is that you have enough good contents, and your ideas are well developed (good details, explanation, etc.). An assignment space has been created on Blackboard for this. I use the Blackboard TurnItIn service (a plagiarism-checking service, which I use because it makes it easier for me to grade papers and give you feedback). It supposedly accepts different file formats, but MS Work (.doc/.docx) format works best. You can see p. 121 for suggested paper format, and Appendix 10.3.5 for grading criteria. You should cite and use at least two sources (including popular sources as examples of bad information, bad ideas, or misconceptions).

You should meet and work in your groups for the midterm and final, but the papers you submit should be entirely your own independent papers.

6.3 Final project

We will do a final group project, which will include group work and a group discussion project. Your grade will be based mostly on your own performance, and partly on the group’s performance. Instead of a final exam, you will write an individual final essay related to your group’s project; this will be out-of-class writing, which will be related to the final project. This will probably be turned in via the online KU Blackboard. See the grading criteria in the Appendix for major writing assignments.

6.3.1 Final presentation

You may find the following sites helpful.

• How to effectively pitch business ideas to investors
• How to pitch to investors in 10 minutes and get funded
• How to create a great investor pitch deck for startups seeking financing

6.3.2 Final paper

The final will be out-of-class writing, based on the group project, but your paper will be an entirely individual paper. This will probably be turned in via the online KU Blackboard.

6.4 Grade scale

You will be graded according to the following framework (though this might be adjusted slightly later). See the course packet for specific grading criteria.

Attendance and participation	15%
Minor ten-point assignments	15%
Midterm	20%
Presentation assignment	20%
Final essay	30%