Constructed based on the results of needs analyses that performed interviews with the faculty members and students at NTU, this yearly course aims to foster the English skills required to cope with the demands of English-Medium Instruction (EMI) courses in a more effective and efficient manner. Towards this end, in this course, students will develop and practice efficient strategies to comprehend and analyze reading passages and aural texts dealing with specific academic topics. Additionally and more importantly, they will participate in custom-designed speaking activities that resemble EMI communication events to further strengthen their communicative competence and generate written works that summarize or integrate information from multiple sources. Further, by virtue of cultivating these English skills that support EMI course-taking, this preparation course concurrently intends to strengthen students’ confidence and motivation as they pertain to EMI learning and lower their EMI learning anxiety.

Upon the completion of this yearly preparation course, students can expect to be able to 1. understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognize implicit meaning, 2. communicate effectively, give a well-structured presentation, and present key points about integrated information, 3. summarize information from different sources and present clear arguments in writing, and 4. display enhanced confidence and motivation and decreased anxiety for learning in an EMI setting.

(1) Each unauthorized absence will result in a 50% deduction from attendance and participation. Missing 4 weeks of classes (authorized and unauthorized combined) will lead to a failing grade for this course. (2) Late work results in a lower grade. The grade of an assignment submitted later than the designated due date will be reduced by 20% for each day it is late. (3) All assignments should follow the format guidelines below. (a) Typed, 12-point word font, Times New Roman (b) 2.54 cm margins (all sides), 1.5-spacing (c) English name and student ID on top right corner (header) (d) Page number on bottom center (footer) (4) This course has a zero-tolerance policy for plagiarism*. Any form of plagiarism will immediately earn students a failing grade for the entire course. * “Plagiarism is the act of taking another person's writing, conversation, song, or even idea and passing it off as your own. This includes information from web pages, books, songs, television shows, email messages, interviews, articles, artworks or any other medium. Whenever you paraphrase, summarize, or take words, phrases, or sentences from another person's work, it is necessary to indicate the source of the information within your paper using an internal citation. It is not enough to just list the source in a bibliography at the end of your paper. Failing to properly quote, cite or acknowledge someone else's words or ideas with an internal citation is plagiarism” [The Plagiarism Tutorial (www.lib.usm.edu/legacy/plag/plagiarismtutorial.php)]. ** Numerous websites have provided guidelines for citing and quoting sources, such as Purdue Online Writing Lab (owl.english.purdue.edu/), The Writer’s Handbook (writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_plagiarism.html).

Beatty, K. (2020). StartUp 7. Pearson Education Inc.

Instructor-selected materials