01:098:111 Elementary Vietnamese

 

Students will sign up for 1 of the weekly virtual meetings with the instructors. These meetings will be to use the language in communicative tasks and activities. Questions about technology, difficulties with a homework exercise or other logistical issue should not be discussed in this class meeting time. Office hours can be used for those issues. It may be possible that the instructor will request reshuffling your class meeting times to pair you with classmates at your same level.

Most technology issues should be addressed to Danielle through email or during her virtual office hours, and most language/exercise issues should be addressed to Ms. Diem through email or during their virtual office hours.

We will all read and answer email within several hours if we get the email between 7am and 4pm M-Th. Emails arriving after 4pm or Friday-Sunday might be answered within several hours, but they also might wait until the following morning.

Course Materials: Let's Speak Vietnamese. Author: Nguyen Bich Thuan and Le Pham Thuy Kim ISBN: 978-0-9796015-0-7, Publisher: Le-Nguyen Press.

This is a fully online course; however, it is NOT self-paced. There will be weekly assignments and weekly virtual meetings. You will need a lot of self-discipline to remain motivated and finish exercises and tasks by the required deadlines. You will complete watching the assigned presentations and doing the assigned tasks BEFORE the virtual meeting.

In any online course, there will be some technology problems. Despite the preparation, and instructions, there will be times when suddenly someone’s microphone stops working or when the connections aren’t working correctly—please follow our backup plans and prep instructions to minimize these disruptions. Also be responsible to have your computer updated with the recent versions of quicktime, flash, etc. Please have patience as we figure out ways to prevent future similar problems.

The instructor will hold virtual office hours every week to address any questions about the class, assignments, and specific language points. Students will sign up for one 45-minute-virtual class meeting every week. These meetings are to practice producing the language with the teacher and other students. The focus of this time will be interacting in the target language. Students who miss more than one virtual class meeting are required to schedule a virtual video meeting with the instructor as soon as possible.

Language learning is an active skill that needs to be practiced regularly. Therefore, attendance and participation in a language class are extremely important. While one can occasionally make up missed assignments, there is no way to make up the missed virtual classroom interaction and active listening and speaking. Therefore, our attendance policy is very strict.

1 absence = acceptable, but you must take responsibility to find out and catch up on the missed work.
2 absences = straight percentage—participation grade also affected.
3-4 absences = straight percentage, but you may also lose overall grade points.
5+ absences (whether excused or not) = you have missed so much of the course that it is unlikely you have learned enough of the language well enough to pass to the next level. Overall grade points will be lowered

Participation: Your involvement in the class activities and willingness to do pair work, listen, practice, etc… can modify your attendance grade up or down. Excused absences do not figure into the total number of absences provided that the student has turned in an acceptable written excuse (such as a doctor’s note) to the coordinator and tutor/instructor before or upon returning to the class for each day of class missed. Generally, a busy schedule, a work conflict, a missed alarm clock, etc… are NOT excused.

Class begins promptly on time. This means you should be signed in online, tech ready, and prepared to begin at the appointed time. Please set up appropriate technology before the start time of the class. The following scale will be used: 1-5minutes late = Your participation grade will be lowered. 6+ minutes late = Absent

The instructor will speak as little English as possible, and expects you to do the same. Always try to communicate in the target language first. Your efforts to speak in the language will be reflected in your participation grade. When you listen, do not worry if you do not understand 100% of what the instructor says. Try to catch the main idea. If you can’t, use a phrase below to help you understand. Use these phrases on the attached handout to help you stay in the target language.

25% Attendance & Participation in virtual meetings: You need to attend all required virtual classes and participate actively in class. If you need to miss a class, email the teacher and the coordinator as soon as possible. You must use a headset speakers/microphone during the virtual meetings because of the very bad feedback we get without them. If bad feedback happens anyway, please disconnect and reconnect as quickly as possible in order not to lose class time. Please note that perfect attendance does not mean perfect participation. Participation will include willingness to do in-class activities and your effort in class.

25% Online Preparation exercises and presentations (focusing mostly on learning new items and recognition of language): Your tutor/instructor will assign regular presentations to watch and preparation exercises to complete before the virtual meetings. These assignments will be open for a limited time only. The virtual class times will be spent using the new language in various communicative activities and tasks. D2L unfortunately will call all of the activities quizzes—but they are practice. They will be graded, but you can take them an unlimited number of times during the open period with the highest grade being recorded. That means that you can keep taking the practice “quiz” until you get a score you are happy with. We have set it to take the highest score, whichever attempt that is, so there is no harm in repeating the activity until you get 100% (or the score you wish to get.) These activities will close forever on the date/time specified.

25% Homework (focusing mostly on production of language): Your teacher will assign various types of homework throughout the semester (expect up to 2 hours of homework for every hour in class). Different homework assignments will address different skills individually or in various combinations: some reading, writing, listening, speaking, grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation is to be expected. No late homework will be accepted; however, the lowest two homework grades of the semester will be dropped. Please note—this homework is separate from the online preparation activities. This homework will focus more on production and may or may not be online.

25% Language Learning Portfolios/Projects/Presentations: Students will have at least 3 projects during the 15 week semester. A project will involve the student demonstrating their proficiency in more than one skill. For example, most projects will have both a speaking and writing component, and may also include a listening or reading component. The tutor/instructor will provide guidance in topic choice, grading rubrics, and feedback. The D2L group will have more details and ideas.

BTAA DISTANCE LEARNING COURSEW/MSU VIA ZOOM