This course is aimed at helping students to become successful users of English. Apart from listening and writing practice, we will have close reading of literature. Denotations and connotations as well as issues such as gender, race, and class raised by the texts will be discussed in class for an in-depth understanding of both the language and the content. After each reading, questions will be given in class for group discussion and oral presentations. For this semester, we will study a short story by Katherine Ann Porter, a play by August Strindberg, essays by Daniel Altman, Nicholas Wroe, William Tsutsui, Diane Ackerman, Anna Quindlen, and Paul Theroux and, if we have time, poems by Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson. Students are also required to give drama presentation in English at the end of the semester.