Honors English Program
The Honors English Program aims to strengthen the future occupational or academic competitiveness of outstanding students who are non-English majors. The goals of the courses are to improve students’ language skills and help them to overcome the cultural and language barriers that prevent them from comprehending disciplinary content written in English or expressing their thoughts using English.
- Enhance students’ listening and reading skills and strategies, allowing students to have more access to professional knowledge.
- Enhance students’ speaking and writing skills so that students will be better able to express their views in their future academic or professional careers.
- Deepen students’ understanding of cultural diversity in the international community, help students to further develop an international perspective, and cultivate students’ critical thinking skills.
- Please consult the English Department for details.
The following courses, choose 3 from listening and speaking field, 3 from reading and writing field. 12 credits are required to complete Honor English Program.
Field | Course Code | Course Title | Credit |
English Listening and Speaking | PGUK001 | Intermediate Aural-oral Training in English | 2 |
| PGUK003 | Communication Skills in English | 2 |
| PGUK005 | English Group Discussion | 2 |
| PGUK007 | Oral Presentation in English | 2 |
| PGUK008 | Topical Reporting in English | 2 |
| ENU5002 | Situational Listening Comprehension Practice in English | 2 |
| ENU5006 | Advanced Aural-Oral Training in English | 2 |
| ENU5008 | English Oral Training | 2 |
English Reading and Writing | PGUK002 | News Media English | 2 |
| PGUK004 | Readings in English Prose | 2 |
| PGUK006 | Guided Writing in English | 2 |
| PGUK009 | Studies in Cross-cultural Issues | 2 |
| PGUK010 | Introduction to Translation | 2 |
| ENU0277 | English-Chinese Translation (I) | 2 |
| ENU0278 | English-Chinese Translation (II) | 2 |
| ENU5003 | Interactive Reading in English | 2 |
| ENU5007 | Selective Readings in English and American Literature | 2 |
| ENU5009 | Reading and Writing in English | 2 |
Intermediate Aural-oral Training in English
| This course aims to develop course takers’ English listening and speaking skills so that they can improve their communicative abilities for personal and educational purposes. By the end of the semester course takers are expected to understand familiar and unfamiliar topics and to communicate effectively. |
Communication Skills in English | The course aims to enhance non-English majors’ oral English communication skills, especially in conducting daily conversations, giving a speech, and debating a controversial issue, i.e., three oral activities they will most likely encounter in daily life. For conducting daily conversations, students will learn how to use conversation starters to break ice with strangers, to identify hot buttons, use listener expressions and self-disclose to sustain a conversation, to employ disclaimers to avoid embarrassing questions or offensive comments, and to use pre-closing statements to end a conversation. For giving a speech, students will learn about audience-analysis, ways to outline ideas, types of attention-getters and clinchers, ways to visualize statistics, general principles of using visual aids, and delivery skills. For debating a controversy, students will learn about argument structure, types of reasoning and evidence, and ways to evaluate an argument. Through class activities, such as group discussion, group presentation, and mini exercises, students will acquire the needed knowledge and skills through abundant hands-on practice. Finally, students’ performance will be evaluated via multiple exams and a learning portfolio, which documents their efforts and progress. |
English Group Discussion | This course aims to enhance students’ English language proficiency, communication competence and interpersonal skills in order to work effectively and constructively in small group discussions. More specifically, the course will provide students with extensive language practices and many speaking interactions that will help them to express their opinions and build effective oral communication skills. In particular, through the case studies of controversial issues presented in class, students will engage in discussions that require their critical analysis and active participations. In sum, from the course, students will (1). learn to work productively in team discussions (2).gain practical experiences in leading and participating in small group discussions and (3).develop their speaking competency in English. |
Oral Presentation in English | This is a task-based course aimed at improving oral English and presentation skills. The instructor will provide input, guidance and feedback as appropriate, necessary and upon request. After taking this course, students should be able to (1). present your ideas clearly (2). speak with confidence in front of an audience (3). use power point and/or audio-visial aids effectively (4) project a positive image with a presentation. |
Topical Reporting in English | The overall goal of the course is to enhance students’ capabilities of four skills–listening, speaking, reading and writing. Materials on a good variety of topics such as education, culture, art, technology, business and medicine are offered either by the instructor or suggested by the students. Films of cultural interest and other relevant materials are also brought into the classroom. Students are required to prepare materials in advance as well as to report and discuss related issues in class through extensive reading and in-depth analysis of the issues. The course is intended to improve students’ reading comprehension on various topics and to arouse their awareness of the significance of viewpoints. Based on the knowledge and skills they have gained in the first stage, students are expected to produce feature stories or topical reports in the second stage of the course. |
Situational Listening Comprehension Practice in English | To enhance students to understand the English content heard in different situations by listening to multimedia language materials, viewing and discussing the content of multiple situations. |
Advanced Aural-Oral Training in English | Focus on listening and speaking ability training, so that students can clearly understand the content of the report or speech, and make notes, summarize the main points, and can express personal opinions. |
English Oral Training | Introduce various basic oral expression skills and strategies to help students express their opinions in a short time and can publish brief reports. |
News Media English | This course aims to enhance students’ English proficiency through guided reading of various types of news articles. Students will have a chance to familiarize themselves with the style of journalistic writing, build their vocabulary, sharpen their reading comprehension, and keep current with world news. As the class is conducted entirely in English, students will also get a chance to improve their spoken English. |
Readings in English Prose | Students will gain an appreciation of prose literature in English, broaden related contextual knowledge, and improve their English comprehension and critical thinking. |
Guided Writing in English | Students will improve their ability to express their ideas and opinions clearly and coherently in writing. With a focus on academic writing skills, students will be given instruction, advice and feedback on the process of writing, include planning and organising, style and editing, and the conventions of different types of writing. By the end of the course students will have completed for assessment two longer written assignments and as well as numerous shorter pieces completed in class. |
Studies in Cross-cultural Issues | This course enables participants to become more effective intercultural communicators. Intercultural communication at its most basic refers to understanding how people from different cultures behave, communicate and perceive the world around them. Understanding this, we are better equipped to avoid conflict and misunderstandings. Over the duration of the course, students will be asked to reflect on how their own culture informs how they think, communicate and behave. Developing an understanding of how their own language and behaviour is informed by cultural values and assumptions will enable them to better understand others. Students will be introduced to cultural dimensions such as individualism-collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, masculinity-femininity, long-term orientation and indulgence versus self-restraint. They will be led to understand how these dimensions inform everyday interactions. Students are requested to arrive for class with enquiring minds. |
Introduction to Translation | This course is designed to introduce basic theories and skills about translation. Through various exercises and practices, students are expected to understand the differences between translation and interpretation, acquire basic translation skills, and enhance the communication abilities both in English and Chinese. |
English-Chinese Translation (I) | Assist students in understanding the basic skills of translation, the role of translators, the current situation of the translation market, etc. |
English-Chinese Translation (II) | Demonstrate understanding of basic theories and concepts in translation as applied to the writing, editing, and analyzing various types of text. |
Interactive Reading in English | The main purpose of this course is to expand students’ abilities to read, reflect and discuss various cultural and global topics. |
Selective Readings in English and American Literature | This course sets out to introduce and examine selective works of different genres in English and American Literature. |
Reading and Writing in English | Students will learn how to write narrative, expository, and argumentative essays that incorporate emotional, informational, and reader-response writing strategies. They will also learn to appreciate the use of these essays and strategies in essays by their peers and published writers. |