This document outlines the syllabus for an Advanced Communication Skills course taught at Xiamen University Tan Kah Kee College. The course is designed to improve students' English communication skills, including reading, writing, listening and speaking. Students will give presentations on topics related to Western culture and evaluate each other's presentations. The syllabus details the class schedule, presentation schedule, assessment criteria, and expectations for class participation, attendance and punctuality. Students will be graded based on their attendance, class participation, presentation, evaluation of other students' presentations, and a final critical essay exam.

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Syllabus
Lecturer: Michael Nusbaum
Semester: 1 of academic year 2009-2010
Course Title: Advanced Communication Skills
Credit Value: 2
Class Hours: 34
Contents
page
Contact information 2
Course classification and outcomes 2
Prerequisites 2
Text book and references 2
Teaching contents and requirements 2-4
Schedule 2
Materials 2
Presentation schedule 3
Presentations 3
Changing presentation dates 4
Checkers 4
Class participation 4
Final exam 4
Assessment 5
Remarks
Other rules/recap 5

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Contact information
E-mail: nusoralenglish@gmail.com
Office: Room 806 in Main Teaching Building 3
Office hours: By appointment only
Course Classification and Outcomes:
This course is designed for students at Xiamen University, Tan Kah Kee College with a high
level of English. Students need to think critically and use all four skills:
- Reading: Doing research in English and evaluate the information.
- Writing: Avoiding plagiarism and creating a coherent PowerPoint presentation with
proper grammar, spelling and punctuation.
- Listening: Checking other students’ presentations and listening to information.
- Speaking: Presenting an interesting topic, telling a presenter the strong and weak points
of the presentation and participating in class discussions
Prerequisites:
You need to have a high level of English in speaking, writing, listening, and reading.
Textbook and References:
- Online Resource materials
Teaching Contents and Requirements:
Schedule
Week Date Topic Materials
1 Sep 10 Introductions, syllabus Syllabus, skills audit
2 Sep 17 Plagiarism and how to avoid it “Plagiarism, paraphrasing,
sources, and research”
3 Sep 24 Critical thinking
4 Oct 11 Doing (online) research Three chapters of Wadsworth
5 Oct 1-9 Vacation
6 Oct 15 Creating PowerPoint presentations
7 Oct 22 Presentations I
8 Oct 29 Presentations II
9 Nov 5 Presentations III
10 Nov 12 Presentations IV
11 Nov 19 Presentations V
12 Nov 26 Presentations VI
13 Dec3 Presentations VII
14 Dec10 Presentations VIII
15 Dec17 Presentations IX
16 Dec 24 Presentations X
17 Dec 31 PBS Documentary Jun 8: final exam online
18 Jan 7 Poster boards
19 20 Jan
14-21
Exam weeks
Materials
This class requires some reading materials, but it mostly is a practical class. Most of the
readings you need to do on your own. In the first five classes we will discuss necessary skills

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to complete the presentation and everybody gets a chance to show their ability.
Presentation schedule
Presentation Date Presenter Checker 1 Checker 2
I Oct 29 1 10 11
2 12 13
3 14 15
II Nov 5 4 16 17
5 18 19
6 20 21
III Nov 12 7 22 23
8 24 25
9 26 27
IV Nov 19 10 28 29
11 30 1
12 2 3
V Nov 26 13 4 5
14 6 7
15 8 9
VI Dec3 16 10 12
17 11 13
18 14 16
VII Dec10 19 15 17
20 29 30
21 27 28
VIII Dec17 22 25 26
23 23 24
24 21 22
IX Dec 24 25 19 20
26 9 18
27 1 2
X Jan 7 28 3 4
29 5 6
30 7 8
Presentations
All students will give a ten-minute presentation on a topic they choose themselves. The only
limit is that it needs to be related to western culture. Find out something about western culture
that interests you and teach your classmates about this. Two students will check the
presentation, giving comments afterwards. The presenter needs to create three to five
discussion questions on his/her topic that open up class discussion. This discussion is led by
the presenter. Before the presentation the presenter hands a print out of the PowerPoint slides
to the teacher and to the two checkers (6 slides on one page). Presentations are judged on the
following criteria:
- Presentation: clear voice, pleasant tone (no memorization), body language,
connection between PPT and what is said
- English speaking: pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary
- English writing: grammar, vocabulary, punctuation (on ppt)
- PowerPoint: large font, good organization, short texts, use of graphics/music/video
- Topic: interesting/original, enough information, relevance, discussion questions

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- Sources: references and sources
See the “Presentation checker form” for more details.
Changing presentation dates
All dates are chosen arbitrarily. Everybody has enough time to prepare for their presentations,
so changing dates should not be necessary. If an emergency arises (such as long illness or
family issue), let your teacher know as soon as possible, so we can think of a solution together.
Unless there is an emergency, students are not allowed to change the dates of their
presentation among each other. All requests go through your teacher personally, either by
talking or sending an e-mail. Requests through classmates are not good enough.
Checkers
Every student is a checker twice during the semester. Checkers judge the presentation by the
same criteria as the teacher. After the presentation they should discuss the strong and weak
points of the presentation and make suggestions for improvement. Checkers use a standard
form which they print out themselves and give to the teacher afterwards. Checkers also
receive a grade based on how well they checked the presentation, what remarks they made
and what suggestions for improvement they offer.
Class participation
After each presentation there is a class discussion (10-15 minutes) on the presentation topic.
Students are expected to show their opinions; the teacher does NOT point at students to speak.
Class participation also includes coming to class prepared: presenters need to have their
presentation fully ready, checkers need to understand the judging criteria, and everybody else
needs to be ready for a discussion. Bring a pen, notebook, and this syllabus to every class.
Class participation is very important and makes up 30% of your grade. Without your
participation this class will not work.
Final exam
The final exam will be a critical essay. Details will be announced online in January.
Assessment:
Attendance 10%
Class participation 30%
Presentation 20%
Checking 20%*
Final exam 20%
* The score for checking is based on two times, which count for 10% each.
Remarks
The College requires you to attend at least 2/3 of your classes or you may not take part in the
final exam. There are 34 classes, so 2/3 is 23 classes. For every missed class, you loose 0.33%
on your attendance mark even if it is an excused absence due to e.g. illness. Attendance is
taken at the start of class, so be on time. Let me know by e-mail if you cannot attend a class.
Issues about how the class is run:
Students are expected to speak up in class. This is a western-style taught classroom and
therefore College students will be expected to take responsibility for their own learning. The
teacher will not force the students speak or do their homework. If the students do not take
speak up on their own or neglect to do their homework, there will be consequences. Further

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rules are as follows:
1) Students must bring one A4 or B5 notebooks (for class notes), a pocket organizer, a
pen or pencil and print out of the week’s and the previous week’s online materials in a
folder. Students that do not come prepared will be asked to leave. You must keep your
notes organized and not write notes all over your textbook.
2) Punctuality: all students must come at least two minutes early in order to start on time.
If they don’t, they won’t be allowed into class.
3) If students think they have a way to improve the class, the teacher expects them to
speak up. Speaking amongst each other or to other faculty members doesn’t improve
anything. Again, western culture requires face to face communication.
4) This is a very serious class. The teacher takes his job seriously and therefore expects
the students to take their work seriously. This means that the teacher will not have
special friendships with any student. This also means that the students will do the
necessary work to the best of their ability.
5) Every student must speak English at all times. If students fail to do so, each student
receive a fine of 1 Yuan RMB. You are all English majors. The only way to master a
language is to speak it!