Weekly Class Schedule (Novice-Intermediate)

Practice on Your Own

Imagine your instructor has asked you to send him your weekly class schedule. He has specifically asked about the times of your classes, when they are and how long they are.

• Draw a graph with the days of week: Sunday, Monday...
• Write the names of your classes in the squares inside the graph. Look up the names of classes you don’t know or write them down to ask your conversation partner. Look up the names of major subjects in academia. (Maybe you don’t know how to say “Advanced Methods in Molecular Biology” but you can say “my biology class.”)
• Under each class name write the time of the class in numbers, for example 10:00‐11:30 AM, or 3:00‐4:15 PM.
• Write down questions about each class: Which day is the class? (Monday) What time is it? (from 10:00 to 11:45 AM) How long is it? (1 hour and 45 minutes). It is important to write down the questions for each class and answer them completely, and also to practice them out loud. Be attentive to the use of prepositions/postpositions; they may be different from your own language.

Practice in Conversation Session

• Be prepared to tell your conversation partner about your weekly schedule: I have X number of classes on X days... Pay close attention to the possible corrections of your use of prepositions/postpositions in the target language and how they are different from your own.
• Give your schedule to your conversation partner and be prepared to answer their questions. You conversation partner may go beyond the materials on the schedule, asking you about who teaches the class, how you feel about that class, and what you like or dislike about the class. Be prepared to be asked about classes that you are not taking.
• Be prepared to ask your conversation partner about their weekly schedule – days, times, time length – and their feelings about some of their weekly engagements.