Professor Xiaoye You
ENGL471/CHNS462
Rhetorical Traditions
Spring 2018
Instructions for the Border-Crossing Activity
Border-crossing activity is an attempt to encourage students to communicate across national, language, and cultural boundaries, ultimately to improve their communication ability and cultural sensitivity.
In this particular activity, seventeen Penn State undergraduate students will be paired up with nine students from Nanjing University and nine students from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. All participants have watched two movies and written an essay of about 500 words. Students are asked to make one or two observations/arguments on the two movies (See the Movie Essay Prompts). The student essays will be made available on www.across4seas.com at midnight on April 10 (noon on April 11 in China). The essays will be numbered and each essay will constitute a thread. Free exchange is encouraged between the students underneath the original essay. Students are also encouraged to exchange ideas through emails or WeChat. Hopefully mutual understanding will be fostered and sensitivity to English styles used in different communicative contexts be cultivated. To post comments, one will need to login in first. The username and password will be provided by the professor.
Students will work in groups. Every group will have two Chinese students and two American students. When you read an essay, you can analyze both its content and form, discussing linguistic, rhetorical, and cultural issues. Alternatively, you can use the reader response guide attached to organize your comments. You make comments and suggestions in these areas in the hope of improving each other’s essays and enhancing mutual understanding. When you make a comment, please be sure to offer a brief explanation in your correspondence. When you make a suggestion for the student essay, please be sure to 1) describe the essay in a way to help the student see the purpose of this writing; 2) evaluate the student’s progress towards the goals of the movie essay assignment; 3) suggest specific advice that the student can follow in his or her revisions.
Please go back to your post in a day or two to read and respond to any follow-ups from other students. Make sure that you exchange with a student for his or her essay at least three times within two weeks (by April 25). Then you revise your essay based on the feedback received (by April 28). You post your revised essay and your reflections (See Reflection Prompts attached) in the same thread where your original essay is posted.
At the end of the activity, your performance will be assessed in the following three areas: attitudes, knowledge, and skills. See the evaluation criteria attached.
Please keep all your postings and your ensuing email correspondence, and turn them in for grading in the end of the semester.
Movie Essay Prompts
Please write an essay in at least 500 words to discuss the two movies “Mona Lisa Smile” and “And the Spring Comes.” You are expected to examine any aspects of Chinese and American culture represented and non-verbal strategies used in both movies. Choose one or two cultural aspects or communicative strategies as the focus of your essay and express your opinions by drawing examples from the movies as evidence.
Cultural representations include, but are not limited to:
- Women’s empowerment
- Social and physical mobility
- Personal development & growth
- Success and the means to achieve it
Verbal strategies
- ethos, pathos, logos
- 义 (yi)，礼 (li)，智 (zhi)，信 (xin)，言 (yan)
Non-verbal strategies include, but are not limited to:
- Camera shots, movements, angles
- Framing, cuts
- Lighting
- Characters’ clothes, makeups, accessories, gestures, etc.
The American movie “Mona Lisa Smile” is on reserve in the Music and Media Library on the second floor of West Pattee Library. You can check it out for two hours (and to watch it in the library). The Chinese movie “And the Spring Comes” can be watched for free at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSy0z9_uCys
The movie essay will be due on April 10, on which day we will conduct peer review to improve your essay. Soon after that, we will post your essay on a web platform to initiate the border-crossing activity with students at Nanjing University, China.
Reader Response Guide
Overall Response (State your general reaction to the text; your main observation)
Focus (State what you think the focus statement is; indicate whether all sections of the text fit the focus)
Development for Readers (State what reader position you see, if any; indicate whether the text supplies enough or too much, or too little detail for the reader position)
Organization and Coherence (State what organization you see; identify what parts fit and which don’t; comment on coherence—how helpful or not helpful the transitions are between sections)
Design (Comment on the overall visual effectiveness of the text; indicate whether the layout of the page is consistent with the audience, genre and purpose of the text)
Language, Grammar, Conventions (Point out significant or repeated errors in these categories)
Main Emphasis for Revision (State the most important thing to change for the next version)
Reflection Prompts
When the online exchange is over, you are expected to revise your movie review and reflect upon the exchange activity. To guide your reflection, please refer to the following questions. Please share your thoughts on question 1, 2, 3, 7, 8 and answer one more question out of the rest. Thank you.
- What were your expectations for the border-crossing activity? Are your expectations met? Why or why not?
- Please name three things that struck you most when you interacted with the Chinese peers, and explain why. (You may comment on the differences and/or similarities in lexical choice, writing style, idea presentation, rhetorical preference, cultural convention etc.)
- Did you incorporate what had been discussed into the revised draft? If so, please elaborate on how the discussion had led to the revisions you made. If not, please explain why.
- Do you think the activity is beneficial to you in terms of knowledge gains or skill enhancement? If so, please elaborate. If not, please explain why.
- What kinds of persona did you create and present in this activity? How about your Chinese peer’s persona? Do you notice any difference and/or similarity? Any textual evidence to support your claims?
- Could you provide three adjectives to describe the activity? Please explain your choice.
- Could you provide three adjectives to describe your feelings about the activity? Please explain your choice.
- Any additional comments, suggestions, and observations you would like to make to better help us assess your performance in this activity?
Performance Assessment Criteria
Your performance in the border-crossing activity (20 points) is represented in the portfolio of the first draft of the movie essay, online forum posts, the revised movie essay, and your reflections. Your performance will be assessed in the following three areas: attitudes, knowledge, and skills.
Attitudes
- Your drafts and reflection are handed in on time and your forum posts are prompt.
- You keep an open mind throughout the activity.
- You are eager to engage in the discussion of a variety of issues (language, social, cultural, etc.).
Knowledge
- You demonstrate (increased) knowledge of your home culture/society.
- You demonstrate increased knowledge of the other culture/society.
- You demonstrate linguistic, stylistic, and generic knowledge in writing.
- You demonstrate digital literacy (e.g. emoji, external links, cross-reference, etc.) throughout the activity.
Skills
- You make constructive and critical (not condescending or overrated) comments when discussing with your peers.
- You engage your peers in an in-depth discussion on a variety of issues (linguistic, social, cultural, etc.).
- You can draw upon a variety of communicative resources throughout the activity.
- You can make informed decisions in choosing the appropriate communication tools and strategies to get your messages across.