This compulsory course consists of four essential components: oral, aural, visual, and manual. In other words, the course attempts to train your overall ability of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. This course, with a rather unconventional pedagogy, engages the students to participate in (inter)active learning. Without a given textbook, the students have to select texts of their interest with various subjects ranging from culture to horticulture. The subjects will be given at the beginning of the semester. The students will be placed in several groups that are obliged to introduce their own chosen text to other peer students. Remember that this is NOT a high school English class where you used to cram grammar, memorize proverbs, or rely solely on lectures. If you are not accustomed to critical thinking and writing, do not take this course. If you do not have enough self-discipline, you are also discouraged from taking the course. The three-hour course is in general divided into three sections: students’ presentation; in-class discussion; listening comprehension and poetry appreciation.

For the one-hour listening, the focus is to train the students to understand spoken English and to improve their pronunciation. As most of the students are more familiar with North American accents (American and Canadian), the course, on the one hand, aims to help the students to review and fine-tune their accent, and on the other hand, allows them to identify individual speech characteristics and create a detailed profile of problem areas. The one-hour exposure is thus to assist the students to learn and practice correct speech patterns (articulation, rhythm, and intonation) on individual tapes or sound files and to learn how to self-monitor and self-correct for problem areas. Alternating with the one-hour listening is an introduction of poetry to students who will get to appreciate and interpret the beauty of literature and the richness of the English language. The overall aim of this course, ideally speaking, is to explore your creativity, rekindle your passion, sharpen your critical thinking, and build up your confidence. As the course is collaborative in nature, the syllabus is tentative and subjected to change. Once the texts have been chosen and approved, they will be compiled and circulated.