Department of Second Language Studies

ENGLISH LANGUAGE INSTITUTE

SYLLABUS for ELI 80: Academic English Skills for Executive MBA Students
VEMBA Hanoi & HCMC Combined ONLINE Cohort, Fall 2021

Instructor Part 1: Priscilla Faucette faucette@hawaii.edu

Instructor Part 2: Chris Guro cguro@hawaii.edu

Course Description: This course is an integrated English language skills course for graduate students
studying in the Vietnam Executive MBA (VEMBA) program of the University of Hawai`i (UH) at Mānoa.
VEMBA ELI 80 is designed for students who have considerable language experience and advanced
proficiency in English as a second language as well as a background in business.

Course Goals: In this course, you will have the opportunity to enhance your grasp of the English language
skills required for: graduate-level coursework in English; successful completion of the UH Executive MBA
program; your work as a professional in the global arena; and your status as a graduate from an English-
medium university in the U.S. Coursework is designed to help you:
● Cope with listening and reading comprehension obstacles, and develop efficient and effective
strategies for dealing with a heavy load of academic reading.
● Develop and enhance oral skills appropriate to in-class academic interaction.
● Become familiar with Case Studies as a genre (commonly used in BUS courses like 626).
● Make effective oral presentations.
● Synthesize information from multiple sources into a written summary of a topic.
● Learn how to incorporate sources into your writing appropriately without plagiarism.

Relevance to VEMBA Business coursework: The focus of ELI 80 is English for Academic and Professional
purposes; thus, the knowledge, skills and techniques covered in each this class will be applicable in all your
MBA Business courses, as well as in your professional lives. ELI 80 is tied specifically to BUS 626 -
Leadership and Organizational Behavior. ELI 80 will help you build the understanding and skills to
successfully complete the requirements of the 15-page paper for BUS 626. From the 626 syllabus, “The final
assignment is a reflective paper on this course on how the topics covered relate to you and your organization.
The topic is Organizational Effectiveness with special focus on the topics of Change, Organizational Design,
and Organizational Culture. In brief, Change, whether encouraged by external or internal forces, is a major
focus of leaders.”

Course Materials:
● Teacher-provided course packet
● Virtual Private Network (VPN) internet access required
● Active email account—UH or other Google mail account
● Your UH ID and ability to use Zoom video conferencing software, access Laulima (UH’s Learning
management system), and Google Drive where course materials will be stored.
● Highly recommended but not required: an English-English dictionary (e.g. Longman, Oxford) and
access to a reputable online English-English dictionary (e.g., http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/)
and a discipline-specific English dictionary (e.g., http://www.investopedia.com/dictionary/)

Course Requirements for this Online Class

● Attend/sign in to classes on time and having completed all the preparation material before each
session.
 ● Actively participate in Zoom class activities including whole group and breakout sessions.
● Complete all homework assignments, in full and on time.
● Complete the two projects – summary writing assignment and final oral presentation – on
time and to the expected standard.

Grading: This is a Credit/No Credit course. In order to pass the course, you must earn a minimum grade of
75% for performance on all graded assignments. Major grade-bearing assignments:
● Attendance, homework and class participation 20%
● Written summary 40%
● Oral presentation 40%

Attendance: The UH catalog states that "Regular attendance at class and laboratory sessions is expected
for all courses in which a student enrolls. Unavoidable absences should be explained to the instructor."
Absences. In any language course, regular attendance and participation is vital to improvement and success.
If you do not attend this class regularly, and on time, you will fail the course. Specifically, the ELI requires a
minimum of 75% performance for all credit/no credit courses. However, to get 75% in performance, you really
should attend regularly. Failure to do so will likely result in a grade of NO CREDIT. If you are late or absent, it
is your responsibility to contact the teacher or other students to find out what you missed and to complete it by
the due date.

Assignments. In the event you are absent from a class, you are not excused from assignments due or
assigned that lesson. As such, if you are absent, it is your responsibility to contact the teacher or other
students to find out what assignments you missed, and to complete them by their due date. Moreover, you
must ensure that any assignments due the day you are absent reach the teacher by the start of that day’s
class or you will receive no credit for the work.

The Importance of Good Communication. Like all UH faculty, ELI teachers expect students to attend class
regularly, participate, do homework on time, and complete projects by the assigned deadlines. At the same
time, we realize that VEMBA students are busy people, with responsibilities at work and at home (as well as
your new responsibilities as a student in this rigorous program), and that there are occasionally times when
unavoidable situations (such as emergencies) make it impossible for a student to meet a deadline. If this
happens to you, it’s vitally important that you communicate with us as far in advance as possible. In those
situations, if a student lets us know in advance, and the emergency is valid, we can usually find a reasonable
compromise. But if you do not let us know, our assumption is that you chose not to do the assignment or
project (which can, of course, affect your final grade).

Plagiarism. The ELI recognizes that guidelines regarding academic honesty and intellectual property are
different across cultures. We also recognize that UH students are expected to follow a particular definition of
academic honesty, one that is common to universities in the U.S. The following is from the UH Student
Conduct Code:
The following are examples of the types of behavior that conflict with the community standards that
the UH values and expects of students. Engaging in, or attempting to engage in any of these
behaviors subjects a student to the disciplinary process and sanctions on each campus.
1. Acts of dishonesty, including but not limited to the following:
Cheating, plagiarism, or other forms of academic dishonesty....
Plagiarism is also an act of academic dishonesty and includes, but is not limited to, the use, by
paraphrase or direct quotation, of the published or unpublished work of another person without full and
clear acknowledgement. It also includes the unacknowledged use of materials prepared by another
person or agency engaged in the selling of term papers or other academic materials.

(Retrieved on October 19, 2020 from http://studentaffairs.manoa.hawaii.edu/policies/conduct_code/ )

It is ultimately each student’s responsibility to understand the rules regarding plagiarism and cheating at UH,
and to learn how to avoid such violations. Students who do not follow these rules, for whatever reason, may
be charged with plagiarism, and some instructors do not see a difference between intentional and

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unintentional plagiarism. At UH, common punishments for such violations include failing the assignment,
failing the course, suspension from the university, or even expulsion.

However, please note that, in the ELI, we take a pedagogical approach to plagiarism; that is, our goal is
to help students learn how to incorporate sources effectively in their writing. In this ELI course, if you find that
you are drawing upon ideas from other sources, and have doubts about your ability to paraphrase and cite
without plagiarizing, do not hesitate to contact us for advice or help.

Main references/sources used in course materials packet (available in the class Google Drive)

Avery, P., & Erlich, S. (1992). Teaching American pronunciation. Oxford University Press.
Fels, A. (2004). Do women lack ambition? Harvard Business Review, 82(4), pp. 50-60.
Graff, G., Birkenstein, C. & Durst, R. (2012). They Say, I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing.
New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Merrell, P. (2012). Effective change management: The simple truth. Management Services, 56(2), pp. 20-23.
Simons, R. (2005). Designing high-performance jobs. Harvard Business Review, 83(7), pp. 54-62.
Suyderhoud, J. (2003). Ocean adventures. Case Research Journal, 23(3), pp. 121-8.
Swales, J. M., & Feak, C. B. 2012. Advanced writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills, 3rd ed.
Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Additional sources will be added, as needed, to the Laulima course site in the “Resources” link, and to
appropriately named folders in Google Drive.