IMBA English - Fall Semester 2021 (if offered)

• A course for students in the International MBA program of the USTC School of Management
• The overall course goal is to improve the students' ability to use English to express themselves clearly and function well in an English business/management environment.
• Those with excellent English will get even better at using the language in this context.
• Those with weak English will improve, and all will be at least "good enough".
  
• Look at the bottom of this page for PowerPoint lesson files and other material for this course, to be made available as the course proceeds.
• Course Syllabus and schedule (MS Word format)
  

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Links:

Lesson 1, Lesson 2, Lesson 3, Lesson 4, Lesson 5, Lesson 6, Lesson 7, Lesson 8, Final Exam

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IMBA English Course News:

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• Final exams are not yet scheduled. See the info below about exams.
  
• The Fall 2019 course was held in EMBA Classroom #5 (Second floor, Management R&D Building, Room#212). Any 2021 version will be at the IIF campus.
  

Publishing English Course General Information for Students:

• Class dates for Fall 20219 semester are ??. The exams are on ??.
  
• The Fall 2021 course has 8 lessons, each on a ?? from ?? to ?? (four classroom hours)
  
• Classes will be held in ??.
  
• There is no textbook for the course. Handouts will be given as needed.
• Bring paper and pen to class. A computer is not necessary but a handheld device with internet and dictionary access may be useful.
• Phones and handheld devices are allowed in class but must be silent and must not be used for communicating with people. You can use your computer, tablet, or smartphone to look something up on the Internet but do NOT check your text messages, social networks, or email and do NOT respond to or make phone calls.
  
• The marking scheme for the course is the following. 
  
• [20%] Homework assignments
• [20%] Participation in class activities and discussions (including attendance, being on time to class, and appropriate behavior)
  
• [25%] Performance in the court case activity of Lessons 6-7: use of skills in this simulated practical situation, assignment related to the activity
• [35%] Final exam (15% written exam, 20% oral exam)
• Class activities are designed to focus on students developing four types of skills.  

  Focus Skills	Rationale
  Thinking skills: Logic, analysis, recognizing nonsense, expressing ideas clearly	You need to be able to express clear ideas and communicate your viewpoints. Using English is not just saying words; it is having something worthwhile and sensible to communicate to others.
  Speaking skills: Pronunciation, listening, language rhythm, accent reduction (if needed), politeness, inflections and implications, body language	In the first five five lessons, this will be an English pronunciation review to reduce accents. You do NOT need perfect pronunciation since an accent is normal in international business, but you must be understandable. You need to know how your mother tongue affects your pronunciation of English.
  Presentation skills: Organization, clarity, preparation, posture, reading an audience, presentation aids (e.g. PowerPoint), handling nervousness and shyness	Whether in a formal presentation or an informal discussion, you need to be able to communicate ideas. This is not specifically an English skill but you do need to know how to present well in English if you want to excel at international business.
  Discussion and culture skills: Interacting in a group, truly listening, polite ways to agree and disagree, understanding worldviews	You must learn about international cultures and worldviews. You need to know how to interact in a group setting and discuss issues. You must sound intelligent even if the topic is completely new to you.

• Lessons 6 and 7 will focus on one major activity,  a court case team competition that involves all students using the skills studied in the course.
  
• These lessons will start and end at the usual times, but the structure and timing within that time period will be different.
• Lesson 8 will include an analysis of the court case arguments, a review of course material, and a preview of the final exam.
  

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IMBA English Course Material

This list will be updated each week.
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Lesson 1: ?? ?, 2021

• Lucky activity (be careful with definitions)
  
• Introduction to course and teacher
• Course Syllabus (.docx)
  
• Pronunciation: General introduction, consonant overview, z-s-th
• Consonant handout (.doc)
  
• Discussion of topics: Guessing, reasoning, convincing
  
• Homework:
• 
  
• Bring to next class a selfie photo of yourself to glue onto your attendance card.
  

Lesson 2: ?? ?, 2021

• Giving explanations that fit the observed data
  
• Introduction to logical thinking
• Strategies for Arguments (.docx)
  
• (The other side of this handout will be used next lesson. Keep the handout!)
  
• Pronunciation: review of th, f-v-w
• Vocabulary and techniques for politely agreeing and disagreeing
• Agreeing and Disagreeing (.docx)
  
• Team planning activity that should involve a lot of agreeing and disagreeing (politely!)
  
• Intro to class discussions 
• Homework due before next class:
  
• Email to Murray (msherk@ustc.edu.cn) one or two suggestions for class discussions: current events, cultural issues, etc.
  

Lesson 3: ?? ?, 2021

• Logic and fallacies
• 15 Fallacies handout (.docx)
  
• Pronunciation: sh-measure, l-r-n
• Using pronunciation handout from Lesson 1
  
• Presentation organization
• Good features that make a presentation good and memorable
  
• Bad features that ruin a presentation
  
• Discussion of current event: Price gouging
  
• Homework:
  
• Create examples of fallacies
• 
  

Lesson 4: ?? ?, 2021

• Continuing and completing the discussion on price gouging.
• 
  
• How do we make decisions?
• Data, analysis, experience, and instincts
• The Monty Hall Problem:
• 2 goats and 1 car behind 3 doors. Choose a door. Should you switch your choice after seeing a goat behind an unchosen door?
• Murray's program to test strategies: MontyHall.jar
  
• This is a Java program that should run on Windows, iOS, and Linux. I (Murray) wrote it myself so trust me when I say it has no hidden tricks to skew the odds.
  
• If this will not run on your computer, download/install Java from https://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp
  
• Personal philosophies and worldviews, offensive and neutral language
• Politely discussing worldviews (.docx)
  
• Pronunciation:
  
• Vowel overview (.docx)
  
• Front Vowels (.docx)
• Presentation visual elements using PowerPoint
• IMBA English Lesson 4 visual aids info.pptx
• What is wrong with these slides.pptx
• Murray's Example of PowerPoint features.pptx
  
• Homework: The purpose of this homework is to get you using features of PowerPoint that you might not have used before. These features must be used in a reasonable way - just because PowerPoint provides a feature does not mean that feature can be used in an arbitrary way! Don't overuse effects - be wise. I'm looking for good judgment in how you use the capabilities that PowerPoint provides.
  

• Assignment 4: Due in one week (a couple days later is OK, but you will have homework after Lesson 5 too)
  
  

  
  

Lesson 5: ?? ?, 2021

• Discussion of worldview issues and government policies in MurrayLand (an imaginary land of environmentalists and productionists)
• Pronunciation:
  
• Central vowels (.doc)
• Back vowels (.doc)
  
• Whose Canada pin is it?
• Gaining and checking information through cross-examination
  
• Introduction to court (i.e. legal case) terminology
  
• Introduction to the Lord Moulton's estate activity to take place in Lessons 6 and 7
  
• Legal Team:
• Claimant: Testifies on Day 2 and is cross-examined by two opposing lawyers
• Witness: Identity and evidence to be decided by team. Testifies on Day 1 and is cross-examined by two opposing lawyers.
• Lawyer 1: Day 1: Gives the team's opening statement and cross-examination of one opposing witness. Day 2: Direct examination of team's claimant and cross-examination of one opposing claimant.
• Lawyer 2: Day 1: Direct examination of team's witness and cross-examination of one opposing claimant. Day 2: Cross-examination of one opposing claimant and gives closing statement.
• Strategist: Does not speak during the court case but coordinates the team's strategy. Writes 500-word summary of the team's case.
• 15%: English of the summary. Spelling, grammar, wording, sentence structure.
• 20%: Section “Court Argument” -- A 300-word review of the positive argument that your claimant should win, covering what was actually presented by your team in court. Do not criticize other arguments in this section; just state how you built your case.
  
• 15%: Section “Further Analysis” -- A 200-word section covering the strongest reasons supporting your case, whether presented in court or not. This can include criticisms of other claimants’ cases, comparing their arguments with your own. You may include arguments that you thought of later and wish had been mentioned in your team’s closing statement.
• Due by email to msherk@ustc.edu.cn on or before the Sunday after the case ends.
  
• Note: Only the strategist writes about the case. The others on the legal team have no writing assignment because they speak during the case.
  
• Each Jury Member:
  
• Write 500-word summary of your reasons for voting as you did. (~100 words about each claim)
• Your summary should include about 100 words for each of the five claims, although you could take as few as 50 words for a poor claim, and you could take up to 150 words to cover the claim that you voted for.
• Do not try to cover all the good/bad reasons for each claim. Instead, specify the main reason(s) that convinced you to vote for or against that claim.
  
• Your comments should show that you understood the main idea of each claim, whether or not you believe the evidence was convincing.
• 25% is for English (e.g., spelling, grammar, sentence structure); 75% for content (clarity, ideas, logic).
• Due by email to msherk@ustc.edu.cn on or before the Sunday after the case ends.
  
• Homework:
  
• Basically, legal team members work to prepare their case. Legal teams will likely have to meet before next class to coordinate their work and make sure their team's claim is organized and convincing.
• Jury members can relax... their homework for this unit comes after the case is over.
  

Lesson 6: ?? ?, 2021

• Final team preparation for court case (10 minutes)
  
• Court case day 1

Lesson 7: ?? ?, 2021

• Court case day 2

Lesson 8: ?? ?, 2021

• ResumePPT assignment returned
• 
  
• Court case debriefing and analysis
• 
  
• Course review
• Language: Pronunciation, polite language
  
• Convincing presentations: visual aids (e.g. PowerPoint), organization
  
• Culture: Worldviews
  
• Argumentation: fallacies, strategies
• Oral exam scenario
• Conversation with Alison (Murray's wife) to convince her to do something.
• 2019 grading rubric for oral exam
• I (Murray) will not be saying anything. I will just grade you while observing the conversation between you and Alison.
  
• Preview of Final Written Exam

Final Exam (part written, part oral):

• Final exam schedule
  
• Written exam: To be scheduled in our regular classroom.
  
• Oral exam: To be scheduled. Five-minute conversations with Alison in Murray's office (Room ??). Each student has one time slot in one of the sessions: 10:40-12:11, 1:30-2:47, 3:20-4:37.

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