Vietnamese Language and Literature Program

SYLLABUS

VIETNAMESE 130/530

INTERMEDIATE VIETNAMESE

Yale University

Fall 2006- Spring 2007

Instructor: Quang Phu Van

Meetings: Monday to Friday Room: Please check the Bulletin for room assignment

Office Hours: Monday, 1:00-2:00, 314 Luce Hall (or by appointments)

Telephone: 432-5097, E-mail: quang.van@yale.edu

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Designed for intermediate-level students who have prior knowledge of the Vietnamese language. This course attempts to present an integrated approach to language learning and is aimed at strengthening students’ listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in Vietnamese. Students are thoroughly grounded in communicative activities such as conversations, performance simulations, drills, role-plays, games, etc. The task-based activities are meant to provide relatively safe settings where students can practice Vietnamese, make mistakes, and learn from them. Students improve their reading and writing abilities by developing their vocabulary, grammar, and meaning-based knowledge. .

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

1-Class attendance and participation 10%

2-Homework and assignments 10%

3-Listening to audio tapes in the language lab or at home 5%

4-Weekly quizzes (10-12) 15%

5- Weekly writings 10 %

6-Two short oral presentations 10%

7-A Mid-term 15%

8-A Final Exam or Final Project (translation, paper) 25%

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TOTAL 100%

Please note:

1-Absence from a quiz or a test will be excused only if students provide written proof of the reason for the absence. The instructor is not required to give make-up. 2 quizzes with the lowest scores will be dropped.

2-Homework and assignments have to be turned in on time.

3-You will have to attend at least two mandatory conferences in my office during the term. We will meet individually to talk about your progress and concerns one-on-one.

GOALS FOR THE COURSE

By the end of the course, students should be able to

-ask and answer questions in great detail about everyday survival topics such as going to the market, buying tickets and stamps, running errands, renting a house, etc.

-talk about the weather, places of interest, daily activities, pastimes and hobbies, and to give directions and personal biographical information

-carry out transactions at the bank, negotiations, make appointments, and answer telephone calls.

-use appropriate Vietnamese kinship terms, forms of address and reference, and polite formulaic expressions

-read simple authentic and modified Vietnamese language texts at students’ level with good comprehension of stated information

-discriminate among the distinctive sounds and the six tones and pronounce them clearly and intelligibly

-write short essays, personal notes, letters, and personal journal

READING

Students read some unsimplified authentic and semi-authentic texts corresponding to the topics or themes of the lesson such as short newspaper and magazine articles, short stories, songs and poems, maps, newspaper ads, bus schedules, travel brochures, instructions, directions, etc. The level of difficulty is at or near the students’ present level. Top-down, bottom-up processing skills as well as various micro skills are involved in the reading process. Students also learn strategies for identifying type and level of text, and for understanding vocabulary from the context of the passage.

WRITING and GRAMMAR

Frequent writing activities range from simple paragraphs to longer personal or informative essays. Students acquire new grammar that appears in the dialogues. In addition, they learn to detect some of the mistakes that are common in their own writing, and to correct these errors. There is an emphasis on grammar forms, meaning, and grammar use. Practice is oral as well as written. Grammar points include kinship terms, forms of address and reference, time clauses, question forms, verbs and preposition combinations, classifiers, person and number, subjects and objects. Students learn both to recognize and to use the points covered in the lessons.

LISTENING

Students learn to discriminate among distinctive sounds and the six tones and comprehend familiar sentence patterns and vocabulary spoken at normal speed by a native speaker. They also develop listening strategies such as detecting key words or phrases and guessing the meaning of words from context. Students watch and listen to semi-authentic and authentic video and audio tapes correspond to topic and theme of the lesson.

SPEAKING

Students develop speaking skills at more than a simple level, using vocabulary that is appropriate for personal topics and functions related to daily life. Expanding their base of useful survival Vietnamese, students learn to converse on topics of interest. Speaking activities focus on real communication, and students also perform out-of-class speaking assignments that bring them into contact with native speakers of Vietnamese. Students learn strategies to use when they don’t know how to say what they mean. and also strengthen their familiarity with the connections between how Vietnamese is written and how it is pronounced. In addition to small-group work and whole-class work, students will give two oral presentations to their classmates during the course. Activities include singing songs, poems, conversational tapes, watching and listening to videos, interviewing both classmates and native speakers, reporting on interview results, short speeches, and skits

SOCIETY and CULTURE

Aspects of Vietnamese culture are reflected in the course materials and therefore, students will learn about common life experiences of Vietnamese people such as routines, rituals, norms, values, and facts. Topics such as cuisine, festivals, geography, travel, forms of politeness, and so on, not only provide students with knowledge of the society and culture of Vietnam but also helping them become familiar and confident when functioning in that environment and culture.

TEXTBOOK and MATERIALS

1-Communicative Vietnamese. Thuy Kim Le & Kim-Oanh Nguyen, Washington University Press, 2000 (required)

2-6 Audiotapes accompanying the textbook Communicative Vietnamese (required).

SCHEDULE: Weekly schedule will be handed out on the first day of each week.



Menu		Vietnamese 130/530: Intermediate Vietnamese
		Downloadable SYLLABUS a PDF File SYLLABUS VIETNAMESE 130/530 INTERMEDIATE VIETNAMESE Yale University Fall 2006- Spring 2007 Instructor: Quang Phu Van Meetings: Monday to Friday Room: Please check the Bulletin for room assignment Office Hours: Monday, 1:00-2:00, 314 Luce Hall (or by appointments) Telephone: 432-5097, E-mail: quang.van@yale.edu GENERAL INTRODUCTION Designed for intermediate-level students who have prior knowledge of the Vietnamese language. This course attempts to present an integrated approach to language learning and is aimed at strengthening students’ listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in Vietnamese. Students are thoroughly grounded in communicative activities such as conversations, performance simulations, drills, role-plays, games, etc. The task-based activities are meant to provide relatively safe settings where students can practice Vietnamese, make mistakes, and learn from them. Students improve their reading and writing abilities by developing their vocabulary, grammar, and meaning-based knowledge. . COURSE REQUIREMENTS 1-Class attendance and participation 10% 2-Homework and assignments 10% 3-Listening to audio tapes in the language lab or at home 5% 4-Weekly quizzes (10-12) 15% 5- Weekly writings 10 % 6-Two short oral presentations 10% 7-A Mid-term 15% 8-A Final Exam or Final Project (translation, paper) 25% ----------------------------------------------------------------------- TOTAL 100% Please note: 1-Absence from a quiz or a test will be excused only if students provide written proof of the reason for the absence. The instructor is not required to give make-up. 2 quizzes with the lowest scores will be dropped. 2-Homework and assignments have to be turned in on time. 3-You will have to attend at least two mandatory conferences in my office during the term. We will meet individually to talk about your progress and concerns one-on-one. GOALS FOR THE COURSE By the end of the course, students should be able to -ask and answer questions in great detail about everyday survival topics such as going to the market, buying tickets and stamps, running errands, renting a house, etc. -talk about the weather, places of interest, daily activities, pastimes and hobbies, and to give directions and personal biographical information -carry out transactions at the bank, negotiations, make appointments, and answer telephone calls. -use appropriate Vietnamese kinship terms, forms of address and reference, and polite formulaic expressions -read simple authentic and modified Vietnamese language texts at students’ level with good comprehension of stated information -discriminate among the distinctive sounds and the six tones and pronounce them clearly and intelligibly -write short essays, personal notes, letters, and personal journal READING Students read some unsimplified authentic and semi-authentic texts corresponding to the topics or themes of the lesson such as short newspaper and magazine articles, short stories, songs and poems, maps, newspaper ads, bus schedules, travel brochures, instructions, directions, etc. The level of difficulty is at or near the students’ present level. Top-down, bottom-up processing skills as well as various micro skills are involved in the reading process. Students also learn strategies for identifying type and level of text, and for understanding vocabulary from the context of the passage. WRITING and GRAMMAR Frequent writing activities range from simple paragraphs to longer personal or informative essays. Students acquire new grammar that appears in the dialogues. In addition, they learn to detect some of the mistakes that are common in their own writing, and to correct these errors. There is an emphasis on grammar forms, meaning, and grammar use. Practice is oral as well as written. Grammar points include kinship terms, forms of address and reference, time clauses, question forms, verbs and preposition combinations, classifiers, person and number, subjects and objects. Students learn both to recognize and to use the points covered in the lessons. LISTENING Students learn to discriminate among distinctive sounds and the six tones and comprehend familiar sentence patterns and vocabulary spoken at normal speed by a native speaker. They also develop listening strategies such as detecting key words or phrases and guessing the meaning of words from context. Students watch and listen to semi-authentic and authentic video and audio tapes correspond to topic and theme of the lesson. SPEAKING Students develop speaking skills at more than a simple level, using vocabulary that is appropriate for personal topics and functions related to daily life. Expanding their base of useful survival Vietnamese, students learn to converse on topics of interest. Speaking activities focus on real communication, and students also perform out-of-class speaking assignments that bring them into contact with native speakers of Vietnamese. Students learn strategies to use when they don’t know how to say what they mean. and also strengthen their familiarity with the connections between how Vietnamese is written and how it is pronounced. In addition to small-group work and whole-class work, students will give two oral presentations to their classmates during the course. Activities include singing songs, poems, conversational tapes, watching and listening to videos, interviewing both classmates and native speakers, reporting on interview results, short speeches, and skits SOCIETY and CULTURE Aspects of Vietnamese culture are reflected in the course materials and therefore, students will learn about common life experiences of Vietnamese people such as routines, rituals, norms, values, and facts. Topics such as cuisine, festivals, geography, travel, forms of politeness, and so on, not only provide students with knowledge of the society and culture of Vietnam but also helping them become familiar and confident when functioning in that environment and culture. TEXTBOOK and MATERIALS 1-Communicative Vietnamese. Thuy Kim Le & Kim-Oanh Nguyen, Washington University Press, 2000 (required) 2-6 Audiotapes accompanying the textbook Communicative Vietnamese (required). SCHEDULE: Weekly schedule will be handed out on the first day of each week.