Attendance is required. It is essential in learning a new language. Your participation in class activities and discussions is important for your learning. You are expected to ask questions during class, engage in group work, and do your homework. Participation grades will be posted after each unit and averaged for the semester.  

You are required to: 

1. prepare the class content before you come to class; 

2. attend every class meeting and actively participate in all class activities; 

3. review the materials you learned in each class meeting and engage in additional practices to internalize them. 

Student performance will be rated on a 10-point scale based on the degrees of your active and collaborative participation and preparedness. 

• Active:  It is not enough to simply follow the instructor’s direction and do classroom activities. You must regularly volunteer to share your responses when the instructor asks for volunteers.  

• Collaborative participation: You must show cordial and cooperative attitude to maximize our limited time and maintain friendly relationship 

• Preparedness: You have practice speaking dialogues, read the Grammar Notes and memorized vocabulary in the Vocabulary Summary Sheet, practiced new grammatical patterns/conjugation, practiced reading and writing well.   

Your class participation and performance will be graded daily based on the following scale:  

• 10 = very high degree of both active participation and preparedness 
• 9 = high degree of active participation and high degree of preparedness 
• 8 = moderate degree of both active participation and preparedness 
• 7 = low degree of active participation and preparedness 
• 5 = present but barely effective or often shows signs of inattention (See Grading Policies for examples.) 
• 0 = absent 

Additional considerations:  

• Punctuality: If you come to a class more than five minutes late, your grade may be reduced by 20% or more. 
• Active and timely participation: If you are not paying attention, or underusing the learned structures and vocabulary during classes, your participation grade will be lowered.    

If you indicate inattention or non-participation during classes, you will receive a score of 6 or below. The score you receive depends on the severity of the problematic behavior. Such behaviors include signs of disengagement (e.g., sitting far behind the screen, turning off the camera, walking away from the computer), taking too much time to answer when your name is called, responding in English, working on homework or another subject, etc.