presentation and discussion

The Presentation (Final Major Project, updated on December 8, 2022)

For the final project, we will be doing our presentations on Zoom on December 19th and January 16th. The suggested theme for this semester's presentations is to continue to study the place you covered in the first semester. This time, focus on some aspect of the place's history. If you were not in my class in the first semester, just choose a place and tell about some aspect of its history.

The deadline for the first draft was November 28th, but everyone was late, so don't give up. Just finish it as soon as possible and send the draft to the teacher as an email attachment. The teacher needs to check it and fix English errors before you do the final presentation.

The five third year students will do their presentations on December 19th. The other five students will do their presentations on January 16th. Submit your presentation draft one week before your presentation day.

For the first draft, write your narration in the Notes section under the Powerpoint slides of your presentation. See this example of a student's presentation. Be sure to look at the yellow notes in the example file, and look at the last page that shows you what Powerpoint looks like with the Notes section open. Write your presentation narration in the Notes section.

If you are late in doing the other assignments, don't give up. Just finish everything as quickly as possible.

The 7th Assignment

This is the last assignment. Number 8 was cancelled. All the instructions are in this file. Just download it and start working on it.

The 6th Assignment

This assignment is another voice recording shadowing exercise from the mmmEnglish YouTube channel. Listen to this video.

Make a voice recording of yourself doing Step 2 of this imitation technique (from 6:06-11:55 in the video). As you did for the 3rd assignment, send your recording to the teacher as an attachment file in an email message. Before you make your recording, practice Step 2 at least two times. Be sure that you can do it well without stopping or making errors in pronunciation.

Video files are often too large for email, so be sure to record it as an audio recording.

The 5th Assignment

Lecture: Air Pollution
You can watch the video with subtitles on YouTube at this link. This lecture explains the causes and effects of air pollution, and ways to reduce the effects of air pollution in big cities.

1. Watch the video.

2. Download the document for the 5th Assignment.

3. Read pages 1-5 in that document.

4. Study the notes on page 6.

5. Write a summary of the lecture on page 7. In your summary, try to use the language expressions taught on pages 1-5. Don't copy sentences from the lecture. A summary should be short and written in your own words.

6. Rename this document with a new file name (your last name-your first name-date.docx), then send the document to the teacher as an email attachment.

DON'T FORGET THAT THE PRESENTATION ASSIGNMENT IS DUE SOON. THE FIRST DRAFT IS DUE ON 11/28. SEE THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE FOR THE INSTRUCTIONS ABOUT THIS ASSIGNMENT.

The 4th Assignment

Watch the video for this lesson here.

The document that you need is at this link.

As usual, save the document with a new file name and send it to the teacher as an email attachment.

The 3rd Assignment

English II Presentation and Discussion Mondays 14:40, Autumn 2022

Step 1: Watch this video about consonant-to-vowel linking.

Step 2: Watch and listen to this version of the lecture you studied in the first assignment:

Notice all the places in this video where one word ends in a consonant sound and the next word begins with a vowel sound.

Step 3: Play the video on your computer, with the audio turned off, while you read the words aloud. Try to speak at the same pace as a native speaker and link the words according to what you studied in the first video (Step 1). Practice this twice.

Step 4: Repeat Step 3, but this time, make an audio recording of your voice on your smartphone and send it to the teacher as an email attachment. Don’t make a video recording because video files are too large. Use the “voice recorder” in iPhone or Android smartphones. Rename the audio file so that it shows your first and last name and the date you made it. You can get better sound quality for your voice with an external microphone (so plug in an earphone-mic headset), not the internal microphone in a smartphone, and not a Bluetooth microphone.

The 2nd Assignment

This file is the second assignment. Do all the exercises, then save the file with a new name that shows your name and the date when you finished it. You should submit this one as an email attachment by 11/07.
There is a lesson on the schedule for Saturday 10/29 in addition to the usual class on Monday, 10/31. Therefore, you have to submit A2 and A3 by 11/07. After that, it will be one assignment per week.
Don't forget to start work on your presentation. The first draft is due at the end on November 28th.

Change to On-Demand Lessons on October 24th, 2022

The first four lessons of this semester have not been very successful. Ten students are registered in the course, but each week only four or five students attend, and they are not the same students every week. Therefore, it is very difficult for a teacher to make progress in this situation.

I want to help every student get the credit for this course, so I am going to be flexible and make a plan that suits the students best. Many of the students are in third or fourth year and they are busy job hunting, preparing their graduation thesis and so on. Some students have no other classes on Mondays, so it takes a lot of time for them to come to school for just one class. It seems like the best way to proceed is to do what the students want, so I will do the rest of the classes as on-demand lessons and zoom lessons.

You might think the teacher is being lazy and just doesn’t want to teach in the classroom, but doing the lessons on-demand or by zoom is actually a lot of work, so I need the students’ cooperation with this plan.

Students need to study independently for 60-90 minutes every week in order to complete the assignments that I am going to give. Students have to complete all the assignments in order to get credit. Students also have to finish their final presentation project and be ready to present it in a zoom lesson. We will start the presentations on December 12th, and you need to finish the draft of your PowerPoint file and your script two weeks before that on November 28th.

The 11 lessons that remain in the semester are listed below.

Assigned	Content	Submit
10/24	1. Short lecture: Compare and Contrast of President Kennedy and President Lincoln	10/31
10/29 (Sat.)	2. Short lecture: the US civil war	11/07
10/31	3. Shadowing exercise. Make a voice recording and send it to the teacher.	11/07
11/07	4. Short lecture: A theory about the extinction of dinosaurs	11/14
11/14	5. Short lecture: Acid rain and solutions to pollution	11/21
11/21	6. Shadowing exercise. Make a voice recording and send it to the teacher.	11/28
11/28	7. Study of a short segment (14 minutes) of the documentary film King Corn	12/05
	Submit the first draft of your presentation. Send it to the teacher as a PowerPoint file. Write the narration (every word you will speak) in the Notes section under each slide of the presentation.	11/28

Presentations, on zoom, 3 or 4 students per day
12/12
12/19
01/16

In total, you have to finish 7 assignments and the final presentation. You have to submit the 7 assignments on time—within one week of the dates above. For example, Assignment 1 is due on 10/31, one week after it was assigned. DON’T SUBMIT ASSIGNMENTS LATE. THE TEACHER IS BUSY AND CANNOT ACCEPT A LARGE NUMBER OF ASSIGNMENTS COMING LATE AT THE END OF THE SEMESTER.

Here are the details of the 1st assignment

1. Watch the video comparing Presidents Kennedy and Lincoln (with English subtitles).

https://youtu.be/eS2f5omOpS4

2. Complete the assignment by using this file. When you finish, save it with a new file name that shows your name and the date you completed it. Send that file to the teacher: riches@seijo.ac.jp before October 31st. I will send information about the 2nd assignment after October 24th.

On October 24, 2022, I will be in the classroom between 14:40 and 15:10, and I will also open a zoom session, so you talk to me or ask questions then. You can also ask me questions by email or WebClass. I sent the link to the zoom meeting by email and WebClass.

October 10, 2022

Write a three-minute speech that compares and contrasts the American Black Bear and the Grizzly Bear. Use the expressions on page 3 of the lesson about Asian and African elephants as a model for this exercise. This link about bears is a good source to use. You can make a comparison and contrast in terms of face, ears, body shape, size, weight, color, claws, footprints, dangers to humans, diet, habitat.

You can download the transcript about elephants here and watch the video here.

When you do your research for your presentation, you might find a movie in the "biopic" genre that is useful for your study. Here are some examples related to national history of various countries. Some of these are biopics and some are historical dramas based on actual events. You can probably find these in Japan at DVD rental stores:

Racism in America

12 Years a Slave, Ali, American History X, BlacKkKlansman, Malcolm X, Mississippi Burning, The Best of Enemies, To Kill a Mockingbird

American Politics and Presidents

All the President's Men, Born on the Fourth of July, Bridge of Spies, JFK, LBJ, Vice, W., Lincoln, Nixon, Milk, Platoon, Snowden, The Right Stuff, The Trial of the Chicago Seven, War Machine, Wasp Network,Thirteen Days

World War II

Darkest Hour, Downfall, Schindler's List, Hacksaw Ridge, Patton, The King's Speech, Catch 22

Environment and Public Health

Erin Brokovich,The Insider, Minamata, Silkwood, A Civil Action

20th Century History (not American history)

Dr. Zhivago, Frida, Gandhi, Lawrence of Arabia, Reds, Seven Years in Tibet, The Last Emperor, The Last King of Scotland, Invictus, Tesla, Che (Part One and Part Two), Colette

Renaissance and Enlightenment Era

Elizabeth, The Mission, A Man for All Seasons, Amadeus, Braveheart

September 26, 2022