FSS:CJVTER Terminology of European instit - Course Information

CJVTER Terminology of European institutions

Extent and Intensity

0/2/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Taught online.

Teacher(s)

Abigail Mokra, M.A. et M.A. (lecturer)
Mgr. Colin Kimbrell, Ph.D. (assistant)
Mgr. Dana Plíšková (assistant)
Mgr. et Mgr. Petra Trávníková, Ph.D. (assistant)
Mgr. Zuzana Vašíčková (assistant)

Guaranteed by

Abigail Mokra, M.A. et M.A.
Language Centre Faculty of Social Studies Division – Language Centre
Contact Person: Mgr. Dana Plíšková
Supplier department: Language Centre Faculty of Social Studies Division – Language Centre

Timetable of Seminar Groups

CJVTER/01: Mon 16:00–17:40 U44, A. Mokra
CJVTER/02: Wed 16:00–17:40 U36, A. Mokra

Prerequisites

B1/B1+ level of English

Course Enrolment Limitations

The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 30 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 3/30, only registered: 0/30

fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with

there are 15 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display

Course objectives

The aim of this course is to familiarize students with basic terminology related to the European Union, the European integration process, E.U. policies, institutions, political development, and history. Students will learn to engage this newfound vocabulary for use in both written and listening comprehension practice in their other courses of European studies, and in active conversation about their field of study. The primary objective of this course is vocabulary acquisition, comprehension and practice. This course was conceived to be intended for European Studies students in their first and second semesters of study.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the students should acquire the ability to identify, comprehend, and contextualize basic terminology in relation to the European Union and its institutions.

Syllabus

• Throughout the semester we are going to cover European Union terminology, history, current academic scholarship, and current events. Students will select topics of interest in these areas each semester to be the focus of the course; the course materials and topics covered are therefore extremely diverse and vary by semester.

Teaching methods

• reading and textual analysis • listening comprehension exercises • class discussions • continuous self-paced homework • one multiple-choice test • presentation skills • academic poster theory

Assessment methods

Specific division of mark scoring:

• Vocabulary Journal Homework: 6 points
• Participation in discussions during class: 10 points
• Summary of written academic article: 10 points
• Political party presentation: 20 points
• Group-work facilitation of current events: 20 points
• Didactic exit test: 30 points
• Quizlet vocabulary assignment completion: 6 points
Total: 100 points


Assignment Descriptions:
1. Political party presentation: Your presentation should be between 10 and 12 minutes long, not including the time set aside for questions from your classmates at the end. You should sign up for one specific political party of the EU on a list that will be circulated around the 3rd week of the semester. No more than one student may sign up for a single political party, i.e. 5 students may not all present on UKIP. Following your presentation you should expect that your fellow students will provide you with questions and helpful feedback, and I will provide individualized feedback as well on an evaluation form. Your presentation should end with a references slide with all of your sources listed in APA citation format (you may not simply list URLs in a bulleted list). One of these sources must be in English.

2. Group discussion facilitation on current events: You will each be assigned as a member of a permanent group of at least 2-3 people, but you will be evaluated individually for this “assignment.” You should get to know the students in your group well, as you will be collaborating in person or over email outside of class to prepare your discussion questions. Each group will be called at least 2 times throughout the semester to facilitate a discussion; and students will receive 10 points each time they’re present with their group to facilitate during their group’s discussion week; both/all group members should be actively participating in the facilitation! Each week, when a group is facilitating, the rest of the class should be responding to their discussion questions and discussing the group’s findings versus their own opinions. I will also participate in the discussions and serve as a type of moderator to help keep the discussion flowing naturally. To prepare for a facilitation, each group should read the group presentation instructions, and correspond with their group members about their opinions and findings. If you will be absent, obviously your groupmate will have to facilitate without you...and you should also email me to make up the points for your participation. Group discussion facilitation will only last about 20-30 minutes each class meeting. There are 10 discussion weeks planned currently. Once you’re assigned a group number, remember this number! You will be assigned your group number on the first day of class.

3. Summary of a written article: There will be one specific homework assignment where I will ask you to read an article at home, and during the following class I will ask that you draft a summary of this article. We will then peer-review these summaries, and workshop them, to assess the strong and weak points of the summaries. This will allow students to develop an understanding of how to improve their written summary skills, and to express themselves generally, and competently about a topic related to the E.U.

4. Quizlet vocabulary databank completion: Throughout the semester you will be assigned sets of vocabulary terms (reviews will be conducted both for homework and during class). You will be asked to know all of these terms by the end of the semester, and a random selection of these terms will be selected for the exit test.

5. Vocabulary journal homework: Each week I will ask you to write a short journal entry on one of the topics in the bulleted list below (you can always add your own EU field-related/International Relations field-related topics).The idea behind asking you to write a little bit each week in a “journal style” is motivated by the portfolio assessment style of this course; it’s based on the idea that there should be visible progress between the first meeting and the last meeting, and this can best be achieved by practicing each week. This style directly contrasts the end-of-term summative-style assignments like a final essay, where you would be assessed merely on the merit and quality of this last, single assignment. Your vocabulary journal will be assigned as homework writing, but on occasion you may be given time in class to complete it. For the format, you as a student should keep 1 Word file for all of your entries; you will edit this file, and re-submit your edited version the following week. How (paragraphs, bulleted points, etc.) you choose to write your journal is up to you, but you must clearly label each entry with the date of your entry; also, each journal entry should be between 25 to 40 words in length. In total, you should have 10 journal entries by the end of the semester- 1 for each of the Quizlet vocabulary sections. For each entry, you should choose at least 3 of the Quizlet vocabulary words in the set assigned for the week, and use them in your writing. The primary focus of your writing for each journal entry should focus more on responding to the question, and explaining your thoughts and opinions thoroughly; the grammar and mechanics (syntax, how a sentence is structured, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, etc.) should be secondary, but they are still important. Be sure that you spell-check your written journal responses, and remember that if you made a spelling mistake in your journal entry from last week, you can still correct it when you re-submit the following week.

6. Didactic exit test: There will be a test that will focus on all of the content areas covered throughout the duration of the course. There will be 30 multiple choice questions and vocabulary matching questions.

Grading Scale:
100-95 A
94-89 B
88-82 C
81-76 D
75-70 E

Language of instruction

English

Further Comments

Study Materials
The course is taught each semester.

• Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2021, recent)
  
• Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fss/spring2021/CJVTER