Jiji Eigo (Current English): Fall Semester, 1998

<Purpose>

In this class you must find out current news (what's happening in the world) that you are most interested in, write a series of summary reports, give an oral presentation, while enhancing the computer literacy and improving reading/writing skills.

<Text>

No particular text is required.

<Tentative Schedule>

Week 1 (Sept. 30)

*Orientation/CALL

*Introduction: Search & reporting methods

*Homework #1:

Week 2 (Oct. 7)

*Searching information and writing a report:

*Homework#2:

Week 3 (Oct.14)

*Searching information and writing a report:

*Homework#3:

Week 4 (Oct. 21)

*Searching information and writing a report:

*Homework#4:

Week 5 (Oct. 28)

*Searching information and writing a report:

*Homework#5:

Week 6 (Nov. 4)

*Searching information and writing a report:

*Homework#6:

Week 7 (Nov.11)

*Searching information and writing a report:

*Homework#7:

Week 8 (Nov.18)

*Searching information and writing a report:

*Homework#8:

week 9 (Nov. 25)

*Searching information and writing a report:

*Homework#9:

Week 10 (Dec. 2)

*Searching information and writing a report:

*Homework#10:

Week 11 (Dec. 9)

*Oral presentation and evaluation

Week 12 (Dec. 16)

*Oral presentation and evaluation

　<Link sites Overseas>

　<Some example news sites on the Internet>

CNN Interactive (http://www.cnn.com/)

U.S.A. Today (http://www.usatoday.com/)

TimesFax by the New York Times (http://nytimesfax.com/)

Time (http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/)

Time Asia (http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/asia/index.html.html/)

The Japan Times (http://www.japantimes.co.jp/home.html/)

Asahi Shinbun (http://www.asahi.com/)

Mini-world (http://www.mww.co.jp/)

　<Final project>

1) First, you must choose an overseas region or a news field and continue to read the headlines until the end of the semester. Focus on what you are interested in, for example, top news on ecological problems, AIDS, natural disasters, economic crisis, sports, fashion, etc.

2) News sources are limited to ones available on the Internet.

3) Follow the same theme with Japanese newspapers. They can be normally distributed in printed newspapers.

4) The topics between overseas one and Japanese one will be compared until Week 10.

<Note> It's not easy to complete your work in a week or two. Therefore, you must constantly search the information and carefully read the news on the Internet, and write the summaries.　

<Due Dates>

●The weekly assignment should be e-mailed to the instructor (nozawa@askic.kic.ritsumei.ac.jp) no later than the following week. For example, the Week 1 homework is due before the Week 2 class.

●The final project report should be submitted to the instructor's office (Rm. 443 at Across Wing) no later than December 22.

●Style of the final report: MS-Word file in a floppy or MO disk. Don't forget to name the file with your full name.

●You must include the following in your final project report:

1) The project theme (including your original one)

2) Student Number and Name

3) Introduction in Japanese (about 400 words)

4) Information on all the news sources (publication dates, name of the newspaper, title of the article)

5) Presentation summary on the chosen topic

6) The length of the report is flexible.

7) The report with graphic data is written with MS-word.　

<Grade>

Attendance/Participation 20%

Weekly homework 30%

Oral presentation 20%

Final report 30%