Freshman Seminar Course Description

Course Title: Freshman Seminar       

Course Prerequisite:

Follow-up Course：Basic English，Advanced English

Credit: 1

Total Semester Credit Hours: 16        

Lecture Hours: 16               

Experiment/ Computer Hours: 0          

Major: English       

Course Description:

Freshman Seminar is a compulsory course for general education in the English major program. It aims to inspire first-year students to develop a greater interest in the unknown world, and to encourage and strengthen the ability to ask questions as well as analyze and solve problems. It also aims to lay the foundation for the establishment of a research-based learning style with the guidance of teachers and to create a co-operative learning environment for freshmen to explore. This course combines theoretical knowledge acquisition with classroom discussion. Beginning with aspects of biological nature and sociality of the language, this course aims to guide students to study the language, cognition and social relations in a manner in which they can better understand verbal communication and associated research related to today’s social development, scientific and technological progress, artificial intelligence and other fields. This course seeks to cultivate students’ scientific spirit and humanistic accomplishment as well as improve their English writing ability, cross-cultural communication skills, aptitude related to critical reading and its appreciation and importantly strengthen their preliminary language research and design knowledge.

Textbooks and Course Materials:

1. 王初明. 外语是怎样学会的[M]. 北京: 外语教学与研究出版社,2010.

2. C. K. Quah.翻译与技术[M].上海:上海外语教育出版社, 2009.

3. Fairclough, N. Language and Power[M]. Longman, 1989.

4.辛斌. 批评语言学：理论与应用[M]. 上海：上海外语教育出版社, 2005.

5. 严敏芬. 汉语中不礼貌构式的社会与认知研究[M]. 北京: 外语教学与研究出版社, 2013

Written by: Yan Minfen