CHING-HUANG WANG (NATIONAL FORMOSA UNIVERSITY)

SYLLABUS DESIGN FOR ADVANCED ENGLISH READING COURSE: TEACHING AND RESEARCH : CURRICULUM AND SYLLABUS DESIGN

The purpose of the presentation is to describe the syllabus for the course titled Advanced English Reading. I have been teaching the one-year course for more than 15 years. The syllabus primarily covers course goals, requirements/assignments, readings especially textbooks, schedule, and activities. This required course, based on three theories — bibliotherapy, multimodality, and critical thinking — is mainly offered to 4-year AFL-major sophomores. Students attend the 100-minute weekly class. Throughout the course, they (a) increase vocabulary power, (b) cultivate cultural, critical, and positive thinking habits, (c) harness bibliotherapeutic resources for personal or communal support in challenging circumstances, (d) foster cooperative relationships with classmates, and (e) refine communication skills in a supportive environment. Course requirements/assignments, especially the mid-term and final exams, include bibliotherapy interview paper, reflection paper, quick-answer question production, and mini-film (script) creating, among others. Selected readings for the course are mainly textbooks such as "Tuesdays with Morrie," "Bibliotherapeutic Stories in the US," "Osho Zen Tarot," "Courage: The Joy of Living Dangerously," "If Life is a Game, These are the Rules," "The Last Lecture," "The Present," "The Fault in Our Stars," and "Views and Values: Diverse Readings on Universal Themes." The course schedule outlines weekly preview materials for students. Course activities I have designed include literature discussion (with handouts), mind-mapping, sketching, will-making, individual personal support system creating, brainstorming notes/paper, quick answer activity, playing Osho Zen Tarot, watching movies, and more. Selected course requirements/assignments, readings, and activities will be introduced during the presentation. Furthermore, to assess course outcomes, several research studies were conducted and published: "Educational Bibliotherapy Study: Taiwanese College Students' Responses to 'Tuesdays with Morrie' " (2006), "Reading ‘Courage’ for Critical and Bibliotherapeutic Thinking" (2010), "The Use of Bibliotherapeutic Materials for Educational Bibliotherapy in a Literature Class" (2011), "Life Education and Educational Bibliotherapy in an Advanced English Reading Course" (2014), and "Educational Bibliotherapy for Developing Undergraduates' Bibliotherapeutic Energy in an Advanced English Reading Classroom" (2022). A brief overview of some of these publications will be provided during the presentation.

Ching-Huang Wang is a professor in the Department of Applied Foreign Languages at National Formosa University, Taiwan. He received his Ph.D. degree in Language Education from Indiana University at Bloomington, USA, in 2002. His research interests include TESOL, bibliotherapy, identity, critical literacy, course activities, and cultural studies.