NEWSMEDIAENGLISH

HonorsProgram,NTNU

CourseObjectives.

Thiscourseaimstoenhancestudents’Englishproficiencythroughguidedreadingofvarioustypesofnewsarticles.Studentswillhaveachancetofamiliarizethemselveswiththestyleofjournalisticwriting,buildtheirvocabulary,sharpentheirreadingcomprehension,andkeepcurrentwithworldnews.AstheclassisconductedentirelyinEnglish,studentswillalsogetachancetoimprovetheirspokenEnglish.

CourseMaterial.

EnglishbyNewspaper,byTerryL.FredricksonandPaulF.Wedel,publishedbyThomson,1984.(Availableat文鶴書局,金山南路2段200號3樓)

Assignednewsarticles.Mostofthesewillbehandedoutinclass.Occasionallyyoumayhavetodownloadanarticlefromoure-learningplatformMoodle:<http://moodle.ntnu.edu.tw/>.Besuretokeepanactiveemailaccountthere.

UsefulWebsites:

AP(TheAssociatedPress)<http://www.ap.org/>

BBCNews(BritishBroadcastingCorporation)<http://news.bbc.co.uk/>

CNN.com(CableNewsNetwork)<http://www.cnn.com/>

TheEconomist<http://www.economist.com/index.html>

GuardianUnlimited<http://www.guardian.co.uk/>

InternationalHeraldTribune<http://www.iht.com/>

NewYorkTimes<http://www.nytimes.com/>

Newsweek<http://www.newsweek.com>

TheOnion<http://www.theonion.com/>

Reuters<http://today.reuters.com/news/home.aspx>

TimeMagazine<http://www.time.com/time/>

UPI(UnitedPressInternational)<http://www.upi.com>

WashingtonPost<http://www.washingtonpost.com/>

HowtoStudyforThisCourse.

Besuretofinishalltheassignedreadingpriortoclassmeeting.

Studyvocabularyactively.ThisisessentialtotheadvancementoyourEnglishproficiency.Makeuseoftheglossary(definitionofvocabulary)atthebackofthetextbook.

Afterreadinganewsstory,youshouldlearntosummarizeitinyourownwords(thisisaskillcalled“paraphrase”).

Classactivitiesmayincludethefollowing:

--paraphrasinganewsstory

--goingoverdifficultwordsandsentences
--drillingsentencepatterns
--discussingthenewsstory

Requirements.

Conscientiouspreparation,regularattendance,andactiveclassparticipation.

Choicebetweenanoralpresentationandareadingresponse.Thosewhochoosetogiveapresentationshouldsignupatthebeginningofthesemester(seeclasssschedulebelowforweeklytopics).Makeaten-minutepresentationonthe“spotlightnewsmediaoftheweek.”Avoidmeanderingonthewebsiteofthenewsagencythroughthose“menus.”Alternatively,youmaychoosetowritea400-wordreadingresponsetoanyassignednewsarticlewereadthisterm.Turnitinanydaybeforethefinalexam.

Threeexams(focus:vocabulary,sentencepatterns,andreadingcomprehension).

Grading:

attendanceandclassparticipation30%

presentationorreadingresponse10%

exams60%

***CHEATINGONEXAMSWILLNOTBETOLERATED.

ClassSchedule

Week1:IntroductiontoCourse

Week2:Ch.5,“UnderstandingHeadlines”

Week3:Ch.2,“TheNewspaperLead”

Week4:Ch.2,“TheNewspaperLead”

Week5:Ch.3,“BeyondtheLead”

Week6:EXAM#1

Week7:Ch.3,“BeyondtheLea,”

Week8:Ch.4,“UnderstandingWordsinContext”

Week9:Ch.4,“UnderstandingWordsinContext”

Week10:Ch.7,“OtherKindsofNewspaperWriting”

Week11:TBA

Week12:EXAM#2

Week13:Ch.7,“OtherKindsofNewspaperWriting”

Week14:Ch.10,“CrimeandtheCourts”

Week15:Ch.12,“Strikes...”

Week16:Ch.14,“Energy”

Week17:QuizContest:WhoisMiss/Mr.WorldNews?

Week18:EXAM#3

EnglishbyNewspaper,byTerryL.FredricksonandPaulF.Wedel,publishedbyThomson,1984.(Availableat文鶴書局,金山南路2段200號3樓)

Assignednewsarticles.Mostofthesewillbehandedoutinclass.Occasionallyyoumayhavetodownloadanarticlefromoure-learningplatformMoodle:<http://moodle.ntnu.edu.tw/>.Besuretokeepanactiveemailaccountthere.