Elementary Czech Language & Culture

Course code:                              CZE 100

Term and year:                          Fall 2024

Day and Time:                            Tuesday and Thursday, 8:15-9:45 AM

Instructor:                                 Mgr. IlonaFloriánová-Šaršonová

Instructor contact:                              ilona.florianova@aauni.edu

Consultation hours:                   Tuesdays, 8:00-8:15 + 9:45 to 10:15 AM

 

Art fee: 800 CZK

Art fees for this course will be used to cover: entrance fees to selected monuments in Prague - Old Town Hall, National Theater, Prague Castle and for the purchase of auxiliary study materials.

 

Credits US/ECTS	3/6	Level	Introductory
Length	15 weeks	Pre-requisite
Contact hours	42 hours	Course type	Bachelor Elective

1.   Course Description

This course is designed to develop students' practical knowledge of the Czech language, enable them to function and feel comfortable in everyday situations, and facilitate a degree of integration into Czech culture and society while in Prague. Students will learn how to ask for directions, order in restaurants, ask about goods in stores, introduce themselves, arrange meetings and invitations, and express their opinions.The course is focused on correct pronunciation and acquisition of relevant vocabulary and phraseology. Grammatical topics are introduced and used as tools enabling the use of Czech in simple conversational situations.The course also includes topics related to Czech culture as a basic introduction to Czech society and customs.As part of the course, two excursions to historically interesting places in Prague and a visit to a cafe and a supermarket are planned. At the end of this semester, students will reach the Level A1.1 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

2.   Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:

 

●     Understand familiar words and very basic phrases, concerning themselves; their family and immediate surroundings when people speak slowly and clearly.  

●     Use a vocabulary focused on exchanging personal information, shopping, ordering in a restaurant, asking for directions, time management of life.  

●     Interact in a simple way provided the other person is prepared to repeat or rephrase things at slower rate of speech and help them formulate what they are trying to say. They can ask and answer simple questions in areas of immediate need or on very familiar topics.  

●     Understand and master the basic communication strategies of Czech speakers, develop elementary speaking, listening and writing skills, engage in elementary conversation.

●     Use simple phrases and sentences to describe where they live and people they know.

3.   Reading Material

Required Materials

●      The handouts from the Textbook for Elementary Czech I prepared by the instructor and, in printed form, handed out in class

●      Some additional material will be taken from the various textbooks which will be provided during the course  / distributed in class or posted on NEO

Recommended Materials

●      Česky Krok Za Krokem 1, by Lída Holá (https://www.czechstepbystep.cz/detail-ucebnice/ckzk1)

●      For self-learning

https://www.czechclass101.com/

https://www.youtube.com/c/slowczech

4.   Teaching methodology

Classes will combine frontline teaching with interactive tasks, cooperative learning insmall groups, pair work and role plays. They will include site visits, a trip to an important city or monument within the Czech Republic.

5.   Course Schedule

Date		Class Agenda
Session 1 Tuesday, Sep 03		Topic: Who I Am? Description: to be, personal pronouns Reading: Assignments/deadlines: practicing new vocabulary for the next class
Session 2 Thursday, Sep 05		Topic: How Are You? Description: to have, numbers 0-200 Reading: Assignments/deadlines: first video until February 13
Session 3 Tuesday, Sep 10		Topic: In a Restaurant Description: food, adjectives, colors Reading: Assignments/deadlines: practicing new vocabulary for the next class
Session 4 Thursday, Sep 12		Topic: Field Trip to a Café Description: ordering in real Reading: Assignments/deadlines:
Session 5 Tuesday, Sep 17		Topic: In a Store Description: genders, the accusative Reading: Assignments/deadlines: second video project until next class
Session 6 Thursday, Sep 19		Topic: Activities Description: verbs in the present regular, parts of day Reading: Assignments/deadlines: practicing new vocabulary for the next class
Session 7 Tuesday, Sep 24		Topic: My Week Description: irregular verbs, days in week Reading: Assignments/deadlines: practicing new vocabulary for the next class
Session 8 Thursday, Sep 26		Topic: Places in Prague Description: the locative Reading: Assignments/deadlines:
Session 9 Tuesday, Oct 01		Topic: My hobby Description: to like in Czech Reading: Assignments/deadlines:
Session 10 Thursday, Oct 03		Topic: What Will You Do…? Description: the future I. Reading: Assignments/deadlines: practicing new vocabulary for the next class
Session 11 Tuesday, Oct 08		Topic: Where Are You Going? Description: the future of motion verbs Reading: Assignments/deadlines: practicing new vocabulary for the next class
Session 12 Thursday, Oct 10		Topic: What Did You Do Last Week? Description: the past I Reading: Assignments/deadlines: practicing new vocabulary for the next class
Session 13 Tuesday, Oct 15		Topic: My Plans for the Break Description: names of European countries Reading: Assignments/deadlines: My travel diary – in the present tense,
Session 14 Thursday, Oct 17		Topic:Field trip – Prague Castle Description: Reading: anyinformation (in English) about the field trip location Assignments/deadlines:
Session 15 Tuesday, Oct 22		Topic: Review Before the Midterm Description: review all the grammar and topic of the first half of the semester Reading: Assignments/deadlines:
Session 16, Thursday, Oct 24		The Midterm Exam
Session 17 Tuesday, Oct 29	Midterm Break
Session 18 Thursday, Oct 31	Midterm Break
Session 19 Tuesday, Nov 05	Topic: What Did You Do Last Week? Description: the past II Reading: Assignments/deadlines: convert your break diary into the past tense,
Session 20 Thursday, Nov 07	Topic:  Karel IV. , the Czech King Description: a short look into Czech history Reading: Assignments/deadlines:
Session 21 Tuesday, Nov 12	Topic:  Field Trip - Oldtown Hall Description: Reading: anyinformation (in English) about the field trip location Assignments/deadlines:
Session 22 Thursday, Nov 14	Topic: Who is/was that? Description: description of people Reading: Assignments/deadlines: describe one famous person so that it is clear who it is, until April 23
Session 23 Tuesday, Nov 19	Topic: My Family I. Description: possessive pronouns Reading: Assignments/deadlines: prepare a presentation about your family, until next class
Session 24 Thursday, Nov 21	Topic: My Family II. Description: student´s presentations Reading: Assignments/deadlines:
Session 25 Tuesday, Nov 26	Topic: How Was My Semester Description: review of tenses for the final presentations Reading: Assignments/deadlines:
Session 26 Thursday, Nov 28	Topic: My life in Prague and at home Description: comparative and superlative Reading: Assignments/deadlines:
Session 27 Tuesday, Dec 03	Topic: Prague – the City I Like Description: field trip around MaláStrana and a visit to a café Reading: Assignments/deadlines: script of the final presentation, until next class
Session 28 Thursday, Dec 05	Topic: Big Review before the Final Exams Description: questions for the final oral exam, comprehension, practicing correct pronunciation, construction of answers Reading: Assignments/deadlines:
Session 29  Tuesday, Dec 10	Final Exam – Presentations I.
Session 30 Thursday, Dec 12	Final Exam - Oral

6.   Course Requirements and Assessment (with estimated workloads)

Assignment	Workload (hours)	Weight in Final Grade	Evaluated Course Specific Learning Outcomes	Evaluated Institutional Learning Outcomes*
Class Participation + Homework	60	20 %	●     Understand and master the basic communication strategies of Czech speakers, develop elementary speaking, listening and writing skills, engage in elementary conversation. ●     Interact in a simple way provided the other person is prepared to repeat or rephrase things at slower rate of speech and help them formulate what they are trying to say. They can ask and answer simple questions in areas of immediate need or on very familiar topics.	1,2,3
Video projects	20	10 %	●     Understand familiar words and very basic phrases, concerning themselves; their family and immediate surroundings when people speak slowly and clearly. ●     Use a vocabulary focused on exchanging personal information, shopping, ordering in a restaurant, asking for directions, time management of life.	1,2,3
Quizzes	10	10 %	●     Understand and master the basic communication strategies of Czech speakers, develop elementary speaking, listening and writing skills, engage in elementary conversation. ●     Use a vocabulary focused on exchanging personal information, shopping, ordering in a restaurant, asking for directions, time management of life.	1,2,3
Two presentation	20	10 %	●     Use simple phrases and sentences to describe where they live and people they know. ●     Use a vocabulary focused on exchanging personal information, shopping, ordering in a restaurant, asking for directions, time management of life.	1,2,3
Midterm exam test	20	20 %	●     Understand and master the basic communication strategies of Czech speakers, develop elementary speaking, listening and writing skills, engage in elementary conversation. ●     Use a vocabulary focused on exchanging personal information, shopping, ordering in a restaurant, asking for directions, time management of life.	1,2,3
Final exam   Presentation Oral exam	20	30 %   (15 +15)	●     Use a vocabulary focused on exchanging personal information, shopping, ordering in a restaurant, asking for directions, time management of life. ●     Understand and master the basic communication strategies of Czech speakers, develop elementary speaking, listening and writing skills, engage in elementary conversation. ●     Use simple phrases and sentences to describe where they live and people they know.	1,2,3
TOTAL	150	100%

*1 = Critical Thinking; 2 = Effective Communication; 3 = Effective and Responsible Action

7.   Detailed description of the assignments

Class Participation + Homework

Students need to come to the class on time prepared. They do not leave the class unless they have a serious reason. Students need to show they are paying attention, demonstrate interest in the material and support their classmates with questions/comments about their work and the class in general. 

 

Homework assignments provide opportunities to practice covered course material. Students should expect short homework assignment for each class.  Homework assignments may include exercises from the course materials, and other short assignments that would be delivered either via NEO or on paper as specified for each of them on NEO.

 

Assessment breakdown

Assessed area	Percentage
Active participation and presence in class	50
Careful preparation and elaboration of all assigned tasks	50
	100

Midterm and + Quizzes

Students take one graded half-semester quiz testing topics and grammar (covered in the first half of the semester) and two small quizzes in which

their mastery of vocabulary, grammar, use of language structures will be assessed. Detailed information about all quizzes will be discussed in class in advance and posted on NEO.

 

Assessment breakdown

Assessed area	Percentage
Demonstrating knowledge of concepts and essential issues, in listening, reading and writing	50
Applying acquired language skills, in writing	50
	100

Video projects + Two presentation

Students will demonstrate their ability to present short mini-dialogue videos in Czech using practical phrases and role playing in everyday situations -

 

The ability to use the learned knowledge to present the given topic in an interesting and comprehensible form for classmates is evaluated.

 

Assessment breakdown

Assessed area	Percentage
Present the topic in an interesting way	25
Appropriate and imaginative use of limited vocabulary so that classmates can understand	50
Pay attention to the correct pronunciation	25
	100

 

Final exam (Presentation + Oral exam)

 

As a final project, students present a PowerPoint presentation summarizing the main topics discussed in class – information about the student, his family, studying in Prague, plans for the future and more. The ability to use the learned knowledge to present the given topic in an interesting and comprehensible form for classmates is evaluated. Detailed instructions and will be discussed in class and provided on NEO.

 

The oral exam assesses the students' ability to communicate in Czech, to understand the question and to demonstrate knowledge of the basic communication strategy of Czech speakers in the answer. The form of the exam is collective - students ask and answer each other. Detailed instructions will be discussed in class and posted on NEO.

 

Assessment breakdown

Assessed area	Percentage
Present the topic/answer in an interesting way	25
Appropriate and imaginative use of limited vocabulary so that classmates can understand	50
Pay attention to the correct pronunciation	25
	100

8.   General Requirements and School Policies

General requirements

All coursework is governed by AAU’s academic rules. Students are expected to be familiar with the academic rules in the Academic Codex and Student Handbook and to maintain the highest standards of honesty and academic integrity in their work.

Electronic communication and submission

The university and instructors shall only use students’ university email address for communication, with additional communication via NEO LMS or Microsoft Teams.

Students sending e-mail to an instructor shall clearly state the course code and the topic in the subject heading, for example, “COM101-1 Mid-term Exam. Question”.

All electronic submissions are through NEO LMS. No substantial pieces of writing (especially take-home exams and essays) can be submitted outside of NEO LMS.

Attendance

Attendance, i.e., presence in class in real-time, at AAU courses is default mandatory; however, it is not graded as such. (Grades may be impacted by missed assignments or lack of participation.) Still, students must attend at least two thirds of classes to complete the course. If they do not meet this condition and most of their absences are excused, they will be administratively withdrawn from the course. If they do not meet this condition and most of their absences are not excused, they will receive a grade of “FW” (Failure to Withdraw). Students may also be marked absent if they miss a significant part of a class (for example by arriving late or leaving early).

Absence excuse and make-up options

Should a student be absent from classes for relevant reasons (illness, serious family matters), and the student wishes to request that the absence be excused, the student should submit an Absence Excuse Request Form supplemented with documents providing reasons for the absence to the Dean of Students within one week of the absence. Each student may excuse up to two sick days per term without any supporting documentation; however, an Absence Excuse Request Form must still be submitted for these instances. If possible, it is recommended the instructor be informed of the absence in advance. Should a student be absent during the add/drop period due to a change in registration this will be an excused absence if s/he submits an Absence Excuse Request Form along with the finalized add/drop form.

 

Students whose absence has been excused by the Dean of Students are entitled to make up assignments and exams provided their nature allows. Assignments missed due to unexcused absences which cannot be made up, may result in a decreased or failing grade as specified in the syllabus.

 

Students are responsible for contacting their instructor within one week of the date the absence was excused to arrange for make-up options.

Late work: No late submissions will be accepted – please follow the deadlines.

Electronic devices

Electronic devices (e.g. phones, tablets, laptops) may be used only for class-related activities (taking notes, looking up related information, etc.). Any other use will result in the student being marked absent and/or being expelled from the class. No electronic devices may be used during tests or exams unless required by the exam format and the instructor.

Eating is not allowed during classes.

Cheating and disruptive behavior

If a student engages in disruptive conduct unsuitable for a classroom environment, the instructor may require the student to withdraw from the room for the duration of the class and shall report the behavior to the student’s Dean.

Students engaging in behavior which is suggestive of cheating will, at a minimum, be warned. In the case of continued misconduct, the student will fail the exam or assignment and be expelled from the exam or class.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism obscures the authorship of a work or the degree of its originality. Students are expected to create and submit works of which they are the author. Plagiarism can apply to all works of authorship – verbal, audiovisual, visual, computer programs, etc. Examples are:

●               Verbatim plagiarism: verbatim use of another’s work or part of it without proper acknowledgement of the source and designation as a verbatim quotation,

●               Paraphrasing plagiarism: paraphrasing someone else’s work or part of it without proper acknowledgement of the source,

●               Data plagiarism: use of other people’s data without proper acknowledgement of the source,

●               False quotation: publishing a text that is not a verbatim quotation as a verbatim quotation,

●               Fictitious citation: quoting, paraphrasing, or referring to an incorrect or a non-existent work,

●               Inaccurate citation: citing sources in such a way that they cannot be found and verified,

●               Ghostwriting: commissioning work from others and passing it off as one’s own,

●               Patchwriting: using someone else’s work or works (albeit with proper acknowledgement of sources and proper attribution) to such an extent that the output contains almost no original contribution,

●               Self-plagiarism: unacknowledged reuse of one’s own work (or part of it) that has been produced or submitted as part of another course of study or that has been published in the past,

●               Collaborative plagiarism: delivering the result of collective collaboration as one’s own individual output.

At minimum, plagiarism will result in a failing grade for the assignment and shall be reported to the student’s Dean. A mitigating circumstance may be the case of novice students, and the benefit of the doubt may be given if it is reasonable to assume that the small-scale plagiarism was the result of ignorance rather than intent. An aggravating circumstance in plagiarism is an act intended to make the plagiarism more difficult to detect. Such conduct includes, for example, the additional modification of individual words or phrases, the creation of typos, the use of machine translation tools or the creation of synonymous text, etc. The Dean may initiate a disciplinary procedure pursuant to the Academic Codex. Intentional or repeated plagiarism always entail disciplinary hearing and may result in expulsion from AAU.

Use of Artificial Intelligence and Academic Tutoring Center

The use of artificial intelligence tools to search sources, to process, analyze and summarize data, and to provide suggestions or feedback in order to improve content, structure, or style, defined here as AI-assisted writing, is not in itself plagiarism. However, it is plagiarism if, as a result, it obscures the authorship of the work produced or the degree of its originality (see the examples above). AAU acknowledges prudent and honest use of AI-assisted writing, that is, the use of AI for orientation, consultation, and practice is allowed. For some courses and assignments, however, the use of AI is counterproductive to learning outcomes; therefore, the course syllabus may prohibit AI assistance. A work (text, image, video, sound, code, etc.) generated by artificial intelligence based on a mass of existing data, defined here as AI-generated work, is not considered a work of authorship. Therefore, if an AI-generated work (e.g. text) is part of the author’s work, it must be marked as AI-generated. Otherwise, it obscures the authorship and/or the degree of originality, and thus constitutes plagiarism. Unless explicitly permitted by the instructor, submission of AI-generated work is prohibited. If unsure about technical aspects of writing, and to improve their academic writing, students are encouraged to consult with the tutors of the AAU Academic Tutoring Center. For more information and/or to book a tutor, please contact the ATC at: http://atc.simplybook.me/sheduler/manage/event/1/.

Course Accessibility and Inclusion

Students with disabilities should contact the Dean of Students to discuss reasonable accommodations. Academic accommodations are not retroactive.

Students who will be absent from course activities due to religious holidays may seek reasonable accommodations by contacting the Dean of Students in writing within the first two weeks of the term. All requests must include specific dates for which the student requests accommodations.

9.   Grading Scale

Letter Grade	Percentage*	Description
A	95–100	Excellent performance. The student has shown originality and displayed an exceptional grasp of the material and a deep analytical understanding of the subject.
A–	90–94
B+	87–89	Good performance. The student has mastered the material, understands the subject well and has shown some originality of thought and/or considerable effort.
B	83–86
B–	80–82
C+	77–79	Fair performance. The student has acquired an acceptable understanding of the material and essential subject matter of the course, but has not succeeded in translating this understanding into consistently creative or original work.
C	73–76
C–	70–72
D+	65–69	Poor. The student has shown some understanding of the material and subject matter covered during the course. The student’s work, however, has not shown enough effort or understanding to allow for a passing grade in School Required Courses. It does qualify as a passing mark for the General College Courses and Electives.
D	60–64
F	0–59	Fail. The student has not succeeded in mastering the subject matter covered in the course.

* Decimals should be rounded to the nearest whole number.

 

Prepared by: Ilona FloriánováŠaršonová

Date: 2024-04-30

 

Approved by: Ted Turnau

Date: 2024-06-03