General English
Instructor: Dr. Algirdas Makarevicius
Credits: 3 hrs
Students: Intermediate Level
Learning Materials
Textbook: ‘Visions’, International Student Edition, Language, Literature, Content, by Mary Lou McCloskey & Lydia Stack, Thomson and Heinle, USA.
Textbook: ‘Visions’, Activity Book, Language, Literature, Content, by Mary Lou McCloskey & Lydia Stack, Thomson and Heinle, USA.
Additional Learning Materials:
Handouts, class notes, web pages and recommended reading - books, newspapers articles, and short stories.
Course Description
The course reinforces the skills that the students gained in previous courses and improves fluency in speaking.
Course Overview
The course develops listening, speaking, reading, writing and cross-cultural communication skills. In addition, students can improve practical grammar skills.
Course Objectives
• Improve listening, speaking, reading and writing skills through reading and comprehending short passages and stories
• Enable students to be acquainted with learning strategies
• Learn about sentence and paragraph structures
• Enhance learners’ sensitivity to language.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of the course students will be able to
• Acquire more skills in practical language usage
• Skim and scan unseen texts
• Compose short essays.
Assessment
• Test 1: 20%
• Test 2: 20%
• Oral Presentation: 20%
• Final Examination: 40%
Course Requirements
Each student must fulfill the following requirements of the course.
1. Spend at least four hours per week on self-study. Self-study includes all assignments given by the instructor.
2. Actively participate in classroom discussions by asking questions and giving their comments or opinions whenever required by the instructor.
3. Conduct Internet and library research, revise class notes and handouts, study the textbook, and perform all other activities as requested.
4. Prepare and give an oral presentation. Each student gives a presentation on a different topic. Topics must be selected and submitted to the instructor by the end of Week 2. The presentation will be assessed 20% (20 points). Oral presentation should last approximately ten minutes plus about five to ten minutes will be devoted to questions-answers and discussions. A presentation outline must be handed in to the instructor.
5. Students are expected to comply with the university-wide requirements for academic integrity. The University is committed to academic integrity—the honest, fair, and continuing pursuit of knowledge, free from fraud or deception. This implies that students are expected to be responsible for their own work. Presenting another individual’s work as one’s own and receiving excessive help from another individual will qualify as a violation of academic integrity. Plagiarism is cheating. In this course, using another person’s words or ideas as your own without giving credit, producing a memorized piece (either your own or someone else’s), or having someone do any portion of your work is cheating. Each student is expected to complete their own, original work by using their own words.
6. If you are absent from an exam (quiz, mid-term, or final exam), you will not be allowed to repeat it unless you are granted an excused absence by the Dean. In that case, you would be awarded at most a “D” in the substitute exam.
7. Attend lectures, tutorials and examinations. Cheating at examinations is not tolerated and students who are caught cheating during the examination will automatically fail.
8. If an essay or test is missed due to illness a make-up test must be taken within one week of the return to classes.
9. Any additional questions regarding the Course Outline and the course requirements can be answered during the lecture, after the lecture, or by email. Each student who contacts the instructor by email must write her/his student number, name and section number on the Subject box of the message. Anonymous emails will not be replied.
10. The Course Outline is the main document of the course and the activities that are included into the Course Outline will be performed in class every week.
Oral Presentation Topics
1. My Dream School.
2. Money and the Values of Life.
3. The Importance of Education, Science, Technology and Medicine in Human Life.
4. How to Become a Successful Learner.
5. Film as a Medium of Mass Communication and as an Industry.
6. Children, TV, and Violence.
7. My Favorite Movie Genre.
8. The Advertising Industry.
9. The Internet and Advertising.
10. The Global Economy and Cross-cultural Communication.
11. Principles of Marketing Management.
12. How to Advertise a Product?
13. Continents of the World.
14. Famous Cities and Countries.
15. How to Avoid Cross-cultural Miscommunication.
16. The Modern Wonders of the World.
17. The Ancient Wonders of the World.
18. How to Lose Weight; Dieting and Health.
19. Tobacco, Alcohol, Drugs, and their Effects on Human Body.
20. Euthanasia.
21. PCs: Desktops and Laptops.
22. History of the Internet.
23. The World Wide Web and New Business Opportunities.
24. Internet Crime, Computer Addiction and Computer-phobia.
25. Types of Jobs.
26. Stages of Finding a Job in the Job Market.
27. How to Write a Letter of Application?
28. How to Write an Effective CV?
29. Work Ethics and the Importance of Effective Communication in the Workplace.
30. The Importance of Language, Information, Knowledge and Creative Thinking.
31. Language and Global Economy.
32. Table Manners and Etiquette.
33. UFO’s and aliens: Illusions and reality.
34. Human Diseases and How to Prevent Them.
35. Violence and Aggressiveness in Sports.
36. Environment and its Protection
37. Problems of Transport and their Solutions.
38. The Most Famous Painters in the History of the World
39. The Most Famous Writers in the History of the World
40. Healthy Mind is in Healthy Body.
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