contemporary college english

Zhaohui Li @ BFSU

Contemporary College EnglishContemporary College English

Intensive Reading IDemo Session

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What is Intensive Reading?

Intensive reading is comprehensive but not all embracing

Intensive reading is training of all basic language skills

thorough, systematic, sustained, all-around training

listening, reading, speaking, writing, translating skills

Intensive reading training develops through different stages, each stage with its own emphasis

Intensive reading is not evaluated by the course alone; its assessment has to be done in relation to the overall development of all the basic skills in all the courses from Prof. Yang Liming’s Speech

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Objectives of First-year Intensive Reading

At a macro level

To help students transfer from secondary level EFL learning to tertiary level

To help students become conscious of the discrepancy between language knowledge and language use

To help students develop their ability of using what they have learned in middle school through classroom teaching

and all kinds of language activities

organization of learning in terms of materials, requirements, class performance, assessment, teacher’s role, and their own role – how these elements could be different now

Zhaohui Li @ BFSU

Objectives of First-year Intensive Reading

To introduce students to some new language phenomena

To help students become aware of socio-cultural issues in the learning of language

To help students appreciate language from the stylistic perspective

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Objectives for First-year Intensive Reading

At a micro level

To help enlarge students’ vocabulary

To help students both clarify and consolidate grammar knowledge, particularly in terms of use

To help students further develop basic reading skills

To help students learn to retell and summarize To help students realize the importance of critical

thinking in language learning

Students are expected to learn about 2,000 new words in the first year - collocations, phrases, verb patterns, word-formation, synonyms, acronyms, etc.

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Half a DayHalf a DayNaguib Mahfouz

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Half a Day

Warm up & Preview1

Background2

Text Analysis3

Discussion & Revision4

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Warm up

First day of school …

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Warm Up


In 1957, fifteen-year-old Dorothy Geraldine Counts and three other students became the first African American students to attend the previously all white Harding High School in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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Warm Up


Stanford

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Warm-up

Do you still remember your first day at school? Try to recollect it and share it with your partner.

How did you feel the first day your arrived at university? Did you feel like a stranger? Did you find the university just as you had imagined? In what way was it different?

What are your expectations of university? What kind of changes do you think it will bring upon your life?

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Preview

Main idea

Structure and logic

Questions on the texts

Language and grammar

Style

General idea

Pronunciation and spelling

Theme

Concepts

Questions for discussion

Listening Reading Thinking

Preview Worksheet

Zhaohui Li @ BFSU

Born in 1911, educated at Cairo University Wrote short stories and historical novels before WWII Turned to write novels of social realism after WWII Later works combined realism & symbolism A prolific writer: no fewer than 30 novels, more than

100 short stories, and more than 200 articles.

Born in 1911, educated at Cairo University Wrote short stories and historical novels before WWII Turned to write novels of social realism after WWII Later works combined realism & symbolism A prolific writer: no fewer than 30 novels, more than

100 short stories, and more than 200 articles.

Naguib Mahfouz

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His Works

The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street (first published 1957)

The Time and Place and Other Stories, 1991

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His Influence

The first Arab Writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature –

1988, The Cairo Trilogy Depicts realistically the

social and political life in Egypt

His classical and lucid style rejuvenated literary Arabic without recourse to colloquialisms

… through works rich in nuance - now clear-sightedly

realistic, now evocatively ambiguous - has formed an

Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind

"a Dickens of the Cairo cafés" and "the Balzac of Egypt".

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Lesson 1 – Half a Day

Plot: a little boy’s first time to go to school

Setting: on the way to school

at school

on the way home

Protagonist/Narrator: “I” –the boy in the story

Theme of the story: what do you think?

A Short Story

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Text Structure

1

Para. 1-7

The boy’s reluctance to go to school His misgivings about school

2

Para. 8-16

The Boy’s life at school:Rich and colorfulRequiring discipline and hard work

3

Para. 17-20

At the end of school day:Everything has changed!

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Detailed Analysis Detailed Analysis

Para. 1-7

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Main Ideas

How did the boy feel about going to school? Find textual evidence.

Why was he feeling so? List the father’s comments about school. What do

you think of them?

School is a place that makes useful men out of boys.Don’t you want to be useful like your brothers?Put a smile on your face and be a good example to others.Be a man.Today you truly begin life.

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Language and Details

Words PhrasesSentence Pattern Grammar

clutch

convince

throw into

make out of

tear from

cling to

The day + that clause

There is no/any good in doing

I was to be thrown into

clutching his right hand

street lined with gardens

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clutchhold tightly, usu. in fear, anxiety, or

pain

Silent and pale, the girl clutched (to/onto) her mother’s chest.这个苍白安静的小女孩紧紧地靠在母亲胸前

A drowning man will clutch at a straw.他紧紧地抓着钱，匆忙走向银行

Clutching the money in his hand, he hurried to the bank.

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III.III. Sentence Paraphrase 2Sentence Paraphrase 2

• They did not make me happy, however, as this was the day I was to be thrown into school for the first time.

“ As” introduces an adverbial clause of reason.

Noun phrase usu. followed by a relative clause is used as an adverbial of time.

But my new clothes did not bring any happiness to me, because it was the day I was forced to go to school for the first time.


Be to do sth: future tense indicating intention or plan

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More examples:

我出生在中国开始改革开放的那一年。I was born in the year China began its open and reform policy.

救护车到的时候，已经太晚了。By the time the ambulance arrived, it was too late.

The moment I saw him, I recognized he was the criminal wanted by the police.

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“ Why school?” I asked my father. “What have I done?”

elliptical question

Why do I have to go to school? I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong to be punished like this.

rhetorical question


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Detailed AnalysisDetailed Analysis

Para. 8-16

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Main Ideas

What happened the first day at school?

How did the boy like school life?

Can you describe the different stages of his day at school? Do these changes carry any symbolic meaning to you?

How do you understand “there are fathers and mothers here” (para. 12) and “I made many friends and fell in love with many girls” (para. 13)?

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Main Idea

Then …

But …

At first …

ReluctantFrightenedA strangerImprisonedConfusedAt a lossOverwhelmed

JoyfulEnjoyableBeneficialSocializingLearningFriendshipLoveSweet Unclouded

RivalriesPainHatredPunishmentExertionPerseverance

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Main Idea

Growth

CompromiseEnlightenment

Adaptation

Orientation

Half a Day

Life is like a day in school.

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Living beings were drawn to other living beings, and from the first moments my heart made friends with such boys as were to be my friends and fell in love with such girls as I was to be in love with, so that it seemed my misgivings had had no basis.

Translated by Denys Johnson-Davies

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Words PhrasesSentence Pattern Grammar

misgivingperseverance

come into viewburst intoa matter offool aroundbring aboutgive rise toresort totake advantage of

There was no question of doing

Nothing but

I had never imagined school would have …

She would often yell and scold

Part III

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I had never imagined school would have this variety of experiences. (para. 13)possibility

And while the lady would smile, she would often yell and scold. (para. 15)frequent actions in the past

I would find the answer at home with my father. (para. 18)past future tense

… but the stream of cars would not let up. (para. 18)willingness

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Safety precautions are observed as a matter of course. a matter of course: sth done as a routine, nothing special

It is not a matter of life and death to have failed the exam.a matter of life and death: a very serious matter

It is a matter of record that Paris is a romantic city.a matter of record: sth generally believed to be true

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Fill in the blanks:

How can we _________ a change in attitudes?A huge amount of environmental damage has been

___________ by the destruction of the rainforests.

His speech _____________a bitter argument. The President's absence has _____________ speculation

about his health.

fml to be the reason that sth. happened,

esp. sth. Bad and unpleasant

Make sth. happen

bring about

brought about

gave rise to

given rise to

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Detailed AnalysisDetailed Analysis

Para. 17-20

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Main Idea

What did “I” see when he stepped out of school? Summarize the changes.

How did he feel?

Why did he stand still?

How do you understand the unexpectedness of the changes?

Why do you think the boy was suddenly a “grandpa”?

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TIMETIME

Allegorical Allegorical

Time Time

Mnemonic Mnemonic timetime

Observable Observable TimeTime

Main Idea

Half a day

Childhood adulthoodold age

LIFE

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Words Phrases Grammar

traceinvadedaze

in vainon my own come to a haltfind one’s way totake overshow offlet up

Here and there stood conjurers …

… with clowns and weight lifters walking in front

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9. trace (n)

a. a small sign that shows that sb. or sth. was present or existedb. very small amount

It vanished/disappeared/without trace.

Petra’s lost all trace of her German accent.

Age has left its traces on his face.

There are traces of poison in the man’s blood.

A mere trace of smile passed over her face.

a

a

b

b

a


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Then there was a band announcing the opening of a circus, with clowns

and weight lifters walking in front.

1. He stood there with a stick in his hand. (with + n. + prep.)

2. Paul soon fell asleep with the light still burning. (with + n. + participle)

3. She can’t go out with all these dishes to wash. (with + n. + to do)

4. He was lying on the bed with all his clothes on. (with + n. + adv.)

“ With+n.+doing” construction is used adverbially modifying “announcing”.


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Discussion

Work in groups of four:

Pick out sentences in the text that impress you most and share them with your group-mates.

Discuss the possible themes of the text.

If the narrator goes home at last, what do you think will happen?

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the abundant

use of short and

simple sentences to achieve

1. the effect of a boy’s

thoughts/thinking

2. the effect of rapid change of

things and a feeling of confusion

echoing the style of the text (The story is told as a

reflection. Thinking is sometimes

disconnected.)

echoing the theme of the

text

Language Style

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Possible Themes

Change

There is nothing permanent in life but change.

Allegory

a day at school stands for a whole life

Coming-of-age

transition from childhood to adulthood

Father & son

the son makes the father’s life his own

Others…

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Oral Presentation: Retelling

Choose one topic

Imagine your are the narrator in “Half a Day” and describe the day you began school.

Imagine you are a classmate of the narrator in “Half a Day” and describe your first day at school.

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Quiz

Spelling30 words from the texts

Dictation

an unseen passage related to the topic

Sentence completiontesting students’ mastery of the language and

grammar points

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Quiz: Spelling

balcony beneficial circus conjurer convince curiosityexertion halt intricateirritated misgiving observantopportunity paradise

perseverance revolve rivalry startledannounce invade extremelyunclouded uniform vain variety

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Quiz: Dictation 1

Time is important. Everybody has 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Once a day in your life is gone, it will never come back. If you love life, you should not waste time.

Time is difficult to control and easy to waste. If you don’t control it, it will control you. If you don’t make it work for you, it will work against you. So you must become the master of time, not its servant, if you seriously wish to get the most out of college. The best way to use your time is to plan it well.

(100 words)

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Quiz: Sentence Completion

1. They’ll ( 把他培养才成一个最优秀的医生 ).

2. We had better ____ （趁着天气比较暖和） by going for a walk this afternoon.

3 ． To resolve the dispute, they decided to ( 诉诸法律 ).

4. There are （种类繁多的食品） in China.

5 ． It’s not only （时间的问题） . I hope you should be more serious.

make out of

take advantage of

a variety of

a matter of

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Quiz: Sentence Completion

6. Many people think that _______________ ( 贫穷导致了犯罪的增加 ) 。

7. Many Chinese people will mark in their memory ____________________ ( 北京赢得 2008 年奥运会主办权的那一天 ) 。

8. While most villagers left their farm, the old couple stayed, _______________________ ( 坚信总有一天他们的孩子会回来的。 )

give rise to

the day (that)

clinging to the hope that

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contemporary college english

Documents

language learning students

language useto help

summarizeto help students

tertiary levelto help

macro levelto help students

terms of useto help

learning of language

african american students