CAILAB

Business English

Attendance and participation

Attendance and participation are mandatory. Please let me know in advance if you must miss a class. Three or more unexcused absences will result in a lowered grade.

Materials

All materials will be available on this web site. You are encouraged to elect a class leader to make copies of the online materials if needed. Please do not rely on the printers in the computer lab to print these materials.

The most important set of handouts that you must print and bring to class are the in-class activities located at http://cailab.net/topics/business/activity1.shtml. You can download a zip file of all the handouts by going to http://cailab.net/topics/business/buseng/busengact.zip, or you can access individual files by clicking on the first link. We will be using these activities in class.

You will be prompted for a username and password when you go to the above links. I will give them to you during our first class.

You will also need to print out the additional reading before we review those readings in class. Please see the schedule.

Homework

The main body of your homework is the following:

All readings. You should read articles before we discuss them in class. Of course, you can read all the articles as early as you like, but I will also notify the class at least one week before we discuss each article. You are responsible for making sure you understand all the vocabulary in the articles, especially that which I have put in bold print. If you don't know a word or phrase, you can look it up in a dictionary, ask your classmates, or post a question to the CAILAB forum.
All media files. You are responsible for listening to all mp3 files and watching all video files posted. Again, you are responsible for understanding all the language used, and are encouraged to work with classmates and post questions to the forum. This is difficult material and we have to work together to understand it. If you don't understand something, ask!
There will be other assignments, but the above two items comprise the main body of your homework.

Group presentations

You will be required to make at least one group presentation on an article of your choosing. The article should be at least 500 words in length, and should be taken from an English language publication, either print or on-line. Your job will be to:

Summarize the article, don't read it to us. In your own words, tell us what the article is about.
Highlight the problematic or new vocabulary, including all idioms and unfamiliar verb phrases.
If it is not clear in the article, tell us how the story is relevant to business, the economy, or personal finance.
Include at least three or four good discussion questions.
If possible, try to think of an activity for the class. This is not required, but if you can think of one, great!

Grading

Attendance and participation, including presentations: 40%
Midterm project: 30%
Final: 30%

The midterm and final will be based on the readings, activities, and media files we use for the class.

Contacting your instructor

Please feel free to contact me at any time.
Email: dan (at) cailab.net