ACADEMIC ORACY, Spring 2011


Location and time: Tue 15:50-17:25, G 32.

Facilitator: Kateřina Tomková, tomkat@phil.muni.cz.

Office hours: Tue 2:10-3:40, Wed12:30-2 and Thu 11-12:30 or 2:10-3:40. Assessment: active
attendance 3pts a session; *assigned presentation up to 10pts;  **students’ own initiative
presentations up to 20pts; final test max. 50 pts.jj


                                       Preliminary Syllabus



                                               Date

                                             AWARENESS

                                              SKILLS

                                               Mch 1

                                   Delimitation of the subject.

                                     Introduction of projects:

                                            skit May 4;

                                    election of best speakers.

                             Academic contexts. University hierarchy.

  Films and books set in the Academia (Changing Places, Small World, Educating Rita, Possession,
                                     Arcadia, Social Network).

                                      *Course administrator:

                                            T. Chýlová.

                    Consistent accent. Segmental sounds. Pronunciation errors.

Collection of errors taboo game. Tongue twisters, stress patterns. The most frequent mistakes made
                                        by Czech academics.

                                              Mch 15

                                    Election of best speakers.


                                Tomková: Perceptions of Non-Native

                           Pronunciation of English by Native Speakers.

                   **Presentation technicalities and skills (A.S. Pospíšilová).

                   *M.Ježek: Upton’s Model of RP (Master’s diss.) (L. Macková).

                     *I.Headlandová Kalischová: Intonation Centre (PhD. diss.)

                                          (L. Nepomucká).

                               Ideas for skit / Slam poetry contest.

                                              Mch 29

                      *Crystal&Davy: Investigating English Style (P. Romová).

                             *A.Launer: Social Dialects (A. Kobrlová,

                                          D. Matscheová).

                                  ** Rhetorics; figures of speech

                                          (O. Žižková) .

                                     **Singing (D.Lopašovská).


                                              Apr. 12

                                         **Academic debate

                                            (E. Mokrá).

                              **Academic debate in class (Z. Nývlt).

                                              Apr. 26

                               **Political correctness (M. Sučková).

                                       Finalizing the skit.


                                            Wed., May 4









                                            CREATIVITY


                                            **********


                                               NIGHT


                                            **********


                                              May 10

                               Discussion with the elected speakers.

                                            Final test.








                                                 .







                                        From Mediocre Mark


It’s wonderful, it’s marvellous

To be a clever diplomat, oh yes

It’s wonderful, it’s marvellous,

Much better than lie on a mat like Mark.


It’s wonderful, it’s marvellous

To be on the linguistic team, oh yes

It’s wonderful, it’s marvellous,

It enhances your self-esteem, oh yes!



Our Mark is good for nothing, we don’t know what to do

Apart from playing computer games all he does is chew and chew

Our Mark is good for nothing, still uncouth at 22

He slurps his soup like a hungry wolf, never says please or thank you


Take out the rubbish, help me clean, do some exercise, don’t be so mean


Well if you think that I’m an idiot, well I’m sure you do me wrong

I’ve developed my computer skills which now are pretty strong

If you treat me like a dummy I’ll go out into the world

There’ll be plenty of opportunities to prove I’m not a nerd.




SUGGESTIONS FOR CREATIVITY NIGHT:


1 The Cambridge oral test.

2 A commercial to study at the English Dept.

3 A musical on FSP or something known to everybody.