Su Luopei (Robert Spence) Written Expression, SoSe 2022

Last update: 2022-05-22 22:55 UTC+02:00

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Written Expression, SoSe 2022

Due to the uncertainty that characterizes this stage of the pandemic, my “Written Expression” course has been organized so that it is possible to complete the first five weeks’ work as an asynchronous online learning experience. For students who prefer to work in person, there will be face-to-face meetings in weeks 1, 3, and 4, but not in weeks 2 or 5.

In week 6, we will transition to essential regular meetings, which I will attempt to hold in hybrid mode (i.e. as face-to-face sessions that are streamed live as an MS Teams meeting for those not physically present in the classroom). For the sessions in hybrid mode, it may be a good idea if everyone could join the MS Teams meeting, including those in the classroom; students working in in the classroom could perhaps join the MS Teams meeting on a mobile device. I am still assessing the feasibility of the various technical solutions to the problem of teaching in genuinely “hybrid” mode.

It is possible that I may have to teach one or two weeks remotely from home in the middle of the semester; in this case, the classroom on campus will be available for students to work in.

UPDATE (23.5.2022):

FOR MEDICAL REASONS IT IS LIKELY THAT THE REST OF THE SEMESTER WILL HAVE TO BE TAUGHT PURELY ONLINE.

Meetings for the course will take place at the following time:

Wednesdays 14:15-15:45

We will meet in:

Building A2 2, Room 1.26

and/or

the MS Teams meeting that will appear in your MS Teams calendar.

Please make sure you are registered on LSF and try to keep in regular contact with me via email or other means if we do not see each other each week.

The course materials include videos of presentations using slides, reading exercises, and various worksheets. The worksheets are voluntary, and do not constitute part of the portfolio you have to produce in order to pass the course. But note that the content of each worksheet will typically become the subject of the discussion at some point during the following meeting, so it is advisable to at least look at each worksheet and think about it ...

The course will be structured in a number of blocks:

The first block will involve exchanging contact details and making decisions about communication channels and frequency of virtual contact.

The second block will involve becoming more familiar with the basic concepts of Systemic Functional Linguistics and the approach known as “genre-based literacy pedagogy”. There are two parallel “ways in" here — there will be reading material, as well as slide shows. This block will also involve weekly exercise sheets — some of these will be questions on the reading material, others will involve analysing certain aspects of four short texts. During this part of the course, it is possible for students to work at their own pace and in their own time, but by the end of the second block we will have fully transitioned to synchronous learning via videoconferences on MS Teams plus-or-minus simultaneous face-to-face meetings in the classroom.

The third block will consist of four major tasks, such as writing (or rewriting or editing) texts belonging to four different genres. We will explore the conventions of each genre and look at the regions of English vocabulary and grammar that the genre in question tends to foreground.

The fourth block will be the briefest, and will consist of general feedback. We will discuss grades, as well as arrangements for sending your results to the examinations office.

All materials will be made available here on the course website. (If students express a strong preference for “having all the courses in one place on Moodle”, then I could set up an empty shell on Moodle which would simply point you to the course website. I must apologize for my laziness here—I am one semester away from retirement, and students have not yet made up their minds whether they prefer Moodle or MS Teams, and all of these different technologies require an enormous investment of time, a commodity which I no longer have.)

Plan for Summer Semester 2022:

Here you can find the plan for this semester’s work:

http://www.spence.saar.de/courses/writtenexpression/plan20221/index.html

or in PDF format here:

http://www.spence.saar.de/courses/writtenexpression/plan20221/index.pdf

Materials for Week 01 (13.04.2022):

All the materials you need for Week 01 can be found in this directory:

http://spence.saar.de/courses/writtenexpression/unit00_20221

You might like to look at the contents of subdirectories B through I first, and download anything you haven’t got yet. Subdirectory J contains screen recordings of me going through the contents for Week 01 and taking you through the slides (which are in subdirectory G as a PDF file, along with a printer-friendly PDF file that contains all the information from the slides formatted more economically). Due to an acute lack of time, I have had to use recordings that have been ‘recycled’ from previous semesters; I hope this causes no problems.

Subdirectory K contains some pictures of some of the people you will meet (virtually) in this course.

If there are any problems, just contact me.

Materials for Week 02 (20.04.2022):

All the materials you need for Week 02 can be found in this directory:

http://spence.saar.de/courses/writtenexpression/unit01_20221

Subdirectory A contains the questions on chapter 2 of the initial reading material – you already have the whole of the reading material, from last week. Chapter 2 is concerned with the functions of language.

Subdirectory B contains the slides for this week and a printout of their content. These slides complement the reading material, without however being perfectly aligned with it (either in terms of timing from week to week, or in terms of the concepts used).

Subdirectory C contains an extra handout – one page containing five crucially important paragraphs by Saussure in the original French; and another page containing the English translation of them, sitting next to a diagram that I would normally draw on the whiteboard at the beginning of every class, because it is the most important diagram of all.

In subdirectory D you will find some short screen recordings (recycled from previous semesters).

Materials for Week 03 (27.04.2022):

All the materials you need for Week 03 can be found in this directory:

http://spence.saar.de/courses/writtenexpression/unit02_20221

Subdirectory A contains the questions on chapter 3 of the initial reading material – you already have the link to the whole of the reading material itself, from the first week. Chapter 3 is concerned with register variation – with the relations between context of situation and the functional components of language.

Subdirectory B contains the slides for this week and a printout of their content. These slides complement the reading material, without however being perfectly aligned with it (either in terms of timing from week to week, or in terms of the concepts used).

Subdirectory C contains an extra handout – one page containing a classic example by Bronislaw Malinowski to demonstrate why you need to know about the context of situation if you want to understand the meaning of a text.

In subdirectory D you will find some short screen recordings in which I walk through the slide presentation.

Subdirectory E contains an exercise to replace what (I hope would have been) an interesting series of class discussions about Texts A, B, C, and D (see the handout from week 01 entitled “Some texts to think about”). The exercise is a multiple choice questionnaire with radio buttons (it is possible that you may not be able to see these buttons properly in your browser; you may need to download the file and view it with a PDF viewer – the Adobe Acrobat Reader is recommended).

Remember that you can work entirely at your own pace for the first four weeks. By Week 05 (11 May) you should, however, be in regular contact with me. If you complete all tasks by the specified dates, it will help me to assess your abilities more accurately and thus to design better materials that will address all of the issues.

Weeks 5 and 6 will be largely based on studying Texts A, B, C, and D.

If there are any problems, just contact me.

Materials for Week 04 (04.05.2022):

All the materials you need for Week 04 can be found in this directory:

http://spence.saar.de/courses/writtenexpression/unit03_20221

Subdirectory A contains the homework for week 5, which is based on Text C (The Chamber of the House).

Subdirectory B is where you can find the slides and a printout of their content.

Subdirectory C contains an additional handout, showing a diagram which might be too small to see on the normal printout: it comes from Halliday and Hasan (1976), Cohesion in English. I have also included a later version of the diagram.

Subdirectory D contains the screen recordings in which I go through the slides. This is of course not as good as a real class because you are not able to interrupt, but please feel free to contact me with any questions you have – by email or WhatsApp or whatever. (The slides are recycled from a previous semester.)

Remember that you can work entirely at your own pace for the first four weeks. By Week 05 (11 May) you should, however, be in regular contact with me. If you complete all tasks by the specified dates, it will help me to assess your abilities more accurately and thus to design better materials that will address all of the issues.

Weeks 5 and 6 will be largely based on studying Texts A, B, C, and D; by week 7 we will be planning the first of the four writing tasks, and in week 8 we will be discussing the results of the first writing task.

In Week 5 I will be in hospital for a minor operation, so you will to work on your own; from week 6 onwards there will be regular MS Teams meetings for a few weeks; later in the semester, if possible, I will switch back to hybrid mode.

If there are any problems, just contact me.

Materials for Week 05 (11.05.2022):

http://spence.saar.de/courses/writtenexpression/unit04_20221

Subdirectory A contains the slides and a printout of their content.

Subdirectory B contains an additional handout of three pages. These documents are linked to from the slides.

Subdirectory C contains the screen recordings in which I go through the slides. This is of course not as good as a real class because you are not able to interrupt, but please feel free to contact me with any questions you have – by email or WhatsApp or whatever. NOTE: due to time constraints, I have once again simply ‘recycled’ the screen recordings from a previous semester; so just ignore the first slide with the date on it.

Subdirectory D contains homework in preparation for week 06.

By Week 05 (11 November) you should be in regular contact with me. If you complete all tasks by the specified dates, it will help me to assess your abilities more accurately and thus to design better materials that will address all of the issues.

Weeks 05 and 06 will be largely based on studying Texts A, B, C, and D; by week 07 we will be planning the first of the four writing tasks, and in week 08 we will be discussing the results of the first writing task.

If there are any problems, just contact me.

Materials for Week 06 (18.05.2022):

All the materials you need for Week 06 can be found in this directory:

http://spence.saar.de/courses/writtenexpression/unit05_20221

Subdirectory A contains the instructions for this week. There are no slides, so just start here.

NOTE: If all goes according to plan, I will be conducting MS Teams meetings from week 6 onwards, and there will be no face-to-face sessions at all for several weeks. You can use Room 1.26 to participate in the Teams meetings if you like.

Subdirectory B contains an additional handout containing six individual documents. Most of these documents are linked to from the instructions sheet.

Subdirectory C contains the screen recordings in which I go through the material. This is of course not as good as a real class because you are not able to interrupt, but please feel free to contact me with any questions you have – by email or WhatsApp or whatever. The screen recordings, once again, are recycled from last semester... mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

Subdirectory D contains some homework in preparation for week 07. It simply involves putting some paragraph breaks into another student’s work. You don’t have to send me your work if you don’t want to – you could, for example, just prepare it and then be prepared to disagree with my analysis next week.

You should, by now, be in fairly regular contact with me. It is always good to know what you don’t understand and what you have problems with. As an orthodox Darwinian, I develop courses incrementally, discarding what doesn’t work, and retaining what does.

In week 07 we will be planning the first of the four writing tasks, and in week 08 we will be discussing the results of the first writing task.

If there are any problems, just contact me.

P.S.: There are one or two things I would like you to look at in the “Silver Text” (Text B) – I’ll mention them in next week’s material, though.

Materials for Week 07 (25.05.2022):

All the materials you need for Week 07 can be found in this directory:

http://spence.saar.de/courses/writtenexpression/unit06_20221

Subdirectory A contains everything that I would have included in a handout for you in class or sent you as an email attachment afterwards.
Subdirectory B contains materials that will be needed in the class itself.

The class takes place at the normal time as an MS Teams meeting.

NOTE: Your first writing task is due at least one day before the class in Week 08:
http://spence.saar.de/courses/writtenexpression/unit06_20221/A__Handout/01_Task01.pdf

Materials for Week 08 (01.06.2022):

All the materials you need for Week 08 can be found in this directory:

http://spence.saar.de/courses/writtenexpression/unit07_20221

Materials for Week 09 (08.06.2022):

All the materials you need for Week 09 can be found in this directory:

http://spence.saar.de/courses/writtenexpression/unit08_20221

(See in particular the handout with the instructions for writing Task 02.)

Materials for Week 10 (15.06.2022):

No additional materials are likely to be needed for Week 10. Students will have received the corrections to the second writing task before the class; during the class we can discuss the problems that came up in the text and some possible solutions to them.

Materials for Week 11 (22.06.2022):

All the materials you need for Week 11 can be found in this directory:

http://spence.saar.de/courses/writtenexpression/unit10_20221

(See in particular the handouts with the instructions for writing Task 03.)

Materials for Week 12 (29.06.2022):

No additional materials are likely to be needed for Week 12. Students will have received the corrections to the third writing task before the class; during the class we can discuss the problems that came up in the text and some possible solutions to them.

Materials for Week 13 (06.07.2022):

All the materials you need for Week 13 can be found in this directory:
http://spence.saar.de/courses/writtenexpression/unit12_20221

(See in particular the handouts with the instructions for writing Task 04.)

Materials for Week 14 (13.07.2022):

No additional materials are likely to be needed for Week 15. Students will have received the corrections to the fourth writing task before the class; during the class we can discuss the problems that came up in the text and some possible solutions to them.

Materials for Week 15 (20.07.2022):

No additional materials are likely to be needed for Week 15. The class will be devoted to tying up loose ends, both academically and administratively. Some students may wish to skip this class in order to concentrate on their assignments in other courses. If you are satisfied with your grades, send your cover sheet (Deckblatt) for your portfolio of written work.

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