Syllabus for 350-192:006 Translation Games: Hidden Meanings in Language
Jennifer Mattson
Office and Phone: Curtin 697 (414) 229-4230
Email:
If you are absent, please get assignments from a classmate and/or check the D2L site under Overheads. You will have the opportunity in class to exchange contact info with classmates.
Office hours: Tuesdays 2:00-3:15, Fridays 2:00-3:15 in my office, or by appointment. If these hours do not work for you, make an appointment with me for another time.
Mailbox: ESL Department, Curtin 672 or under my office door, CRT 697.
Class days, time and place: MW 2:00-3:15 Curtin 382
Required Text: Exploring Language, 12th edition, edited by Gary Goshgarian. Please bring the book to class on days we will be discussing it. (If in doubt, bring it.) A copy of our text is on 2 hour reserve in Media and Reserve, in the basement of the west wing of the library.
First year mentor: Tereza Pelicaric. email:
Course requirements
Three exams (each is worth 20% of your final grade); Conversation Partner participationand report (20% of grade); and class participation, including metalinguistic awareness reports, D2L discussion board postings, assignments, etc. (20% of grade). Absences will negatively affect the class participation portion of your grade and most likely your exam performance. The final Conversation Partner report is due no later than Monday, Dec. 5th. You have the option of giving a 5-minute presentation to the class about your conversation partner experience. This presentation will improve your class participation grade.
Calendar
Please make note of the following in your calendars and plan accordingly: Exam 1 will be held in class on Wed., Sept. 28th. Exam 2 will be held on Wed., Nov. 9th. Thanksgiving break is Nov. 23rd- 27th.(That sounds long but it’s not!)The third exam (not cumulative) will be held on the last day of class on Wed., Dec. 14th. There will be no final exam held during exam week. Study guides will be given in class and posted on D2L a week before each exam. Make-up exams will be given only for exceptional circumstances (such as you are very sick or someone died), and they may be more difficult than the regularly scheduled exams. Incompletes will be given only for medical or family reasons.
Grading scale used for this course:
93-1004.00A
90-923.67A-
87-893.33B+
83-863.00B
80-822.67B-
77-792.33C+
73-762.00C
70-721.67C-
67-691.33D+
63-661.00D
60-620.67D-
0-590.00F
If you are absent, it will be to your advantage to get class notes from a classmate, since the material covered in class will not necessarily be covered in the text. If you have any questions AFTER reading over your classmate's notes, please see me. Unfortunately, my teaching schedule does not permit me to give you your own personal lectures for classes you have missed. You should also check for any handouts you may have missed. Although attendance is not mandatory, it does affect your class participation grade. Keep in mind that you are responsible for what goes on in class whether or not you are there. If you have to miss an exam for any reason, schedule a make-up exam ahead of time, or in the case of last-minute emergencies, email or call on the day of the exam. (Leave a message/email if I am not available.)
The Student Accessibility Center is available to help visually-impaired, hearing-impaired, and learning-disabled students with note-taking or test-taking accommodations. If you have need of such services, please feel free to come and discuss this with me early in the semester. The English Department subscribes to UWM policies on students with disabilities, accommodations for religious observances, academic misconduct, complaint procedures, grade appeals, sexual harassment, attendance and safety.
Feel free to offer comments or ask questions during class; your contribution is valuable. Please be considerate of others; i.e. don't talk while others are talking so that everyone can hear. Please turn off cell phones, etc. in classand that includes text messaging!!Don’t be a text-hole!You are expected to do your own work and follow UWM’s standards of academic honesty. Student academic misconduct procedures are described here:
Conversation Partnership
You will have the opportunity to broaden your horizons by meeting with an international student from UWM on a weekly basis. You will meet with the same international student to help them practice English conversation at least 10 times per semester for approximately an hour, usually in English unless you happen to be interested in learning Korean or Arabic or whatever your partner speaks. (Sorry, the Spanish speakers are taken by the Spanish Dept.) You can meet wherever and whenever you’d like and discuss whatever you and your partner find mutually interesting. I will give you some suggested topics if you’re running dry of topics to discuss. The ESL students have classes from 1:00- 5:30 pm Monday – Friday and may be available before or after classes and maybe on weekends. This is not tutoring. You do not have to teach them English pronunciation or grammar or help them with their homework. They are usually interested in American slang (and the swears, of course). You can ask them questions about their culture and answer questions about American culture. You will meet your international student the second week of classes at an introductory pizza party (free!) in Greene Hall, which is one big room, on Thursday, Sept.15thfrom 5:30 – 7:00. You will probably stop meeting your partner in the beginning of December, although you may choose to continue beyond the required 10 meetings. It is your responsibility to pursue your partner. If your partner dumps you, LMK ASAP so I can find you a new one. At the end of the semester, you will write a brief report -- worth 20% of your grade -- about the experience. You will be downgraded if you do not meet a minimum of 10 times. You also have the option of telling the class about your experience at the end of the semester to improve the participation portion of your grade. NOTE: Talk to me about this if you do not speak American English as a first language.
Metalinguistic awareness assignments
You will write your metalinguistic awareness observations on the discussion board on D2L. You will be given assignments in class to observe language phenomena in the real world and report back about your observations to the class. This will count toward your 20% participation grade. Sometimesyou will give your observationsorally in class.
Extra Credit
Keep your eye out for articles, essays, TV segments, conversations you participate in and overhear, comics, links, etc. that you come across that relate to topics we are discussing, have discussed, or will be discussing. This will help you integrate material covered in class and in the readings with the real world. You may also read articles not assigned in your text and write a thoughtful commentary on them. You can receive extra credit points for pieces submitted that are clearly identified (source and your name) and attached to an original one-page thoughtful commentary, including, for example, how the item relates to our class. Do not simply regurgitate what is in the article; the point is to show that you have put some thought into the issue. What do you think about the viewpoint expressed? If your extra credit is about a TV commercial or program or a conversation you have heard, simply describe it briefly before you discuss it. Here is an excellent source for writing papers and doing research:
Do not recycle assignments from other classes; submissions must be original to this class. You can earn a maximum of 3 points for the semester of extra credit, with up to one point given for each piece submitted. If you choose, you may also write a longer essay (3 pages) on a single topic, and earn all of your extra credit that way. The extra credit points are added to your final course grade AFTER your three exams are averaged. In other words, if your final course average is 88 (which is a B+) and you have submitted 3 extra credit pieces for which you receive the full three points, your final grade for the course would then be a 91 (A-). If the 3 points fail to bump you up a step (e.g. 83 to 86; both are Bs), then you will still be given the higher grade (B+ in this case). If you only submit enough for 1 or 2 extra credit points, this "bump up" option is not available. Extra credit is due no later than Monday, Dec. 5th. No credit will be given to extra credit submitted after the deadline.
The Writing Center
You can go to the Writing Center for FREE synchronous online as well as f2f tutoring.The Writing will open Monday, Sept. 19th in Curtin 127. The satellite location is in the Library East Wing. It is open to writers at any level, from any discipline and with many types of projects.
Writers can make their own 30 or 60 min appointments via the website, or they may simply walk in to Curtin Hall 127 or the Library East Wing to see if a tutor is immediately available. Synchronous online tutoring is also an option via the website.
Please visit more info and to make appointments. There is also a link under D2L class info.
Using UW-Milwaukee Desire2Learn (D2L) course web sites
Materials for this course are available on a Desire2Learn (D2L) course web site. You may see these materials there anytime, using a standard web browser.
Recommended browsers: For a PC-compatible computer, use either Internet Explorer or Firefox. For Apple (Mac) computers, Safari or Firefox are recommended. The browser needs “Sun Java Runtime Environment” (Java-scripting) enabled for a recent version of Java. (NOTE: A complete and up-to-date list of recommended browsers and settings can always be found at: contact the UWM Help Desk, as described at the bottom of this page, if you have questions about these requirements.)
To find and browse the D2L course web site:
1.From to the UWM home page ( click on the dropdown menu to select D2L Course Access – OR – go directly to the D2L login page at
2. On the Desire2Learn Welcome screen, type in your ePanther Username (your ePanther campus email, but without the “@uwm.edu) and Password. Then hit [Login].
3.On the D2L MyHome screen, find the area called My Courses. You’ll see your active courses here, arranged by Semester, with the newest semester at the top.
4. Click any course title to see the Course Home page. Click [Content] in the navigation bar to begin exploring the site.
5. If you have any difficulty getting into the course web site, please close down your web browser completely and open it up again. Then try logging on again, using the instructions above. If you do not know your ePanther username or password, please get help as indicated below.
7.When you are finished looking around your D2L course sites, always click on [Logout].This is especially important if you are in a computer lab. Otherwise, the next person who uses the machine will be using your D2L account!
What to do if you have problems with Desire2Learn (D2L)
If you have any difficulties with D2L, including problems with your login (e.g., you forgot your password, or if you just can’t get on), please contact the UWM Help Desk. You may do one of the following:
·Report the problem via online web form at GetTechHelp.uwm.edu
·Call the UWM Help Desk at 414.229.4040 if you are in Metro Milwaukee (or just dial 4040 on a UWM campus phone).
·Go to Bolton 225 (this lab is not open all day or on weekends – call 414.229.4040 for specific hours)
·From outside the 414 or 262 area codes, but from within the USA, you may call the UWM Help Desk at 1.877.381.3459.
Reading Syllabus for Translation Game (subject to change)
Required text: Exploring Language, 12th edition, edited by Gary Goshgarian. (on 2- hour reserve in the library if you don’t want to buy it.)
Week 1: Expectations; Conversation partners; Culture shock; Metalinguistic awareness. Kingston, p. 88;Lamott, p.101; Lederer, p.122; Cofer, p.173. D2L assignment.
Week 2: Prescriptive/descriptive attitudes. Leo, p.115; MacNeil p.143; Bryson, p.159; Grambs, p. 303.Conversation partner pizza party Thurs. 5:30-7 in Greene Hall. D2L discussion board assignment.
Week 3: Matched Guises; Dialectology; dialect reduction;Sample dialect survey. Esling, p. 154.
Week 4: Translating Wisconsinisms. Video: "American Tongues”. Short review on Mon. Exam 1 on Wed.
Week 5: African-American Vernacular English. Malcolm X, p. 65; Haygood, p. 334.
Week 6: AAVE;Video: Oprah on Black English. Naylor, p. 460; Geis, p. 463.
Week 7: Language and technology. Keller p. 214; Rosen p. 230.
Week 8: Language and technology. Needleman, p. 250, Kuttner, p. 253; Nunberg, p. 255.
Week 9: Translating genderlects: Holmes, p. 262; Kornheiser, p. 268; Macaulay, p. 270; Tannen, p. 281.
Week 10: Genderlects. Belgium, p. 294; Gamble, p. 297; Akin, p. 300; Berreca, p. 339. Review Mon. Exam 2 on Wed.
Week 11: Child language acquisition; Slang; Names. Pinker, p. 45.
Week 12: English-only issues. Marin, p. 82; Mujica, p. 168; Crystal, p. 178; Wallraff, p. 187; Power, p. 198; McGray, p. 203. No class Wed.: Thanksgiving!
Week 13: Translating politically-correct terminology. Egan, p. 357; Lakoff, p. 436; Maggio, p. 443; Kakutani, p. 453. Conversation partner presentations.
Week 14: Politically-correct terminology. Wheelchair, p. 364; Kors, p. 466; Lawrence, p. 473; Delgado, p. 489; Zone, p. 492. Conversation partner presentations. Conversation Partner Report and extra credit due Mon.
Week 15: Review and Conversation partner presentations on Mon. Exam 3 on Wed.