The Clock Tower at the Rio Piedras Campus, University of Puerto Rico -  La Torre del Reloj del Recinto de Río Piedras, Puerto Rico
General Information
Academic Offerings: Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral degree information and course catalogs
Faculty & Administrative Staff
Students: Information for new and current students, student manuals, research and more...
Our publications: Tonguas, Sargasso, the Academic Technology Bulletin, and the Department of English Newsletter
English Department, College of Humanities, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus - Departamento de Ingles, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de Puerto Rico

Need a PDF viewer?
Download the Adobe PDF Reader


Website designed by:
TheLinq.com
English Department, College of Humanities, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus - Departamento de Inglés, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras
   
Home Contact us News Jobs Site Map Upcoming courses
 
   

Students' Resources & Archives: English as Second Language


Other Resources & Archives:

 English Resource Center
 Richardson Seminar Room
 Literature
 Writing
 Linguistics
 Communication
 Caribbean Studies
 Caribbean Island Cultures Network
 Theses List
 Other useful links
Other related links:

 Campus Information
Photo Gallery of English Department
 Graduate Students' Directory
 Graduate Students' Activities (PDF)
 Graduate Student Manual
 Funding & Economic Assistance:
    For Undergraduate Students
    For Graduate Students


Developing Functions of Oral English (formerly Conversational English)

The Developing Functions of Oral English (formerly Conversational English) component provides services to students with limited skills in English according to their scores on the College Board English test (ELASH) and the Humanities English placement test (HEPT). There are four levels of Developing Functions of Oral English: INGL 3031-3032 (Level 1), 3041-3042 (Level 2), 3051-3052 (Level 3), y 3071-3072 (Level 4). The component is under the supervision of Dr. Robert Dupey.

The mission of the Developing Functions of Oral English component is to provide a comfortable and familiar environment to support students in the learning process. Many arrive filled with fear due to less than optimal experiences in previous English classes. As they participate in verbal interaction with their professors and peers, the students acquire the grammatical structures and the vocabulary necessary to be able to express themselves in everyday conversations. In the process they lose the terror they associated with English.

The goal of the Developing Functions of Oral English classes is to guide and structure the participation of limited proficiency students in communicative activities and to serve as a resource to expand their knowledge and their mastery of the linguistic patterns involved. We help them to learn the norms for appropriate expression in different contexts, depending on the interlocutors, the formality of the situation, and other essential social factors. In addition, we teach them to express deference, irreverence, sympathy, sarcasm, humor, and other emotional states in their speech and to recognize and employ the non-verbal gestures that are peculiar to native speakers of English.

INGL 3031 student
Touchstone student book
The Developing Functions of Oral English classes revolve around two series. The first, based on a corpus of the most frequently used elements of conversational English, is titled Touchstone and consists of a Student Book with a classroom audio CD that brings to life the dialogues in the Student Book, a Workbook to practice the grammatical and discourse skills taught in the classroom, a student audio CD to give students more aural reinforcement at home, and a an on-going video story about young people involved in work and study situations which is viewed on computers in the language laboratoryin segments. Classroom activities consist primarily of building conversational skills and strategies using the different components of the Touchstone series.
Student Book of Touchstone, Level 1
 

The second series, Tell Me More, is an attractive, video-enhanced, self-paced, computerized learning system utilized in the language laboratory. It gives students a solid foundation in many aspects of grammar, pronunciation, and listening comprehension. Students follow individualized learning paths as they work their way through the different activities and skill sets.

Tell Me More

While building verbal fluency and listening skills are the principle focii of the Developing Functions of Oral English courses, students also work on reading and writing tasks in order to achieve general communicative competence in English.

Instructors may utilize a wide range of communicative activities in the classroom, including:

  • Listening to and completing taped conversations and narratives
  • Working in small groups on problem-solving tasks or learning games
  • Improvising and role playing conversational interactions
  • Solving crossword and word search puzzles
  • Completing grammar assignments in the Workbooks, as well as in the computerized laboratory
  • Practicing pronunciation and listening comprehension individually and in groups
  • Watching and responding to video interactions orally or in writing
  • Preparing short essays, journals, or blogs on topics of personal relevance
  • Making oral presentations on topics under discussion in the class
  • Many other activities depending on the level and the instructor

Intensive Developing Functions of Oral English

For students who are candidates for graduation and still have not fulfilled their second year English requirements, students who plan to study in the United States very shortly and need to immerse themselves in the language before leaving, or foreign students whose exposure to English has been limited, the department also offers a limited number of intensive sections of Developing Functions of Oral English. The intensive sections are special, condensed, semester-long versions of the year-long courses.

Intensive class
In the intensive classes, students spend six hours a week working on the vocabulary, social formulas, pronunciation, and grammar needed to carry out everyday conversations and read common written materials in English. They use the same series described above for the regular sections. In addition, they participate in either a language lab or work with conversational partners who are native speakers of English for one hour a week.
Intensive class

Teaching Developing Functions of Oral English courses

Many graduate students and part-time instructors end up teaching sections of Developing Functions of Oral English at some point in their careers. The following resources may be of great help as they prepare their lessons and deal with problems in the classroom.


English as Second Language: Links Go back to the top of the page

  Dave's ESL Café
   
  Dr. Grammar
   
  English on the Run
   
  ELT Web
   
ESL Resources for Students
   
Grammar Quizzes about Places
   
Grammar Quizzes
   
Portland Community College Links for Students
   
Selected Links for ESL Students
   
  An extensive index of English language learning and teaching resources on the web.
   
Grammar sites
 

Check out the following grammar sites for helpful hints and practice exercises useful to both teachers and students:

http://www.odu.edu/al/jpbroder/egpc.html

http://www.englishgrammar101.com

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/english-usage

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar

 

  Linguistic Funland TESL
 

List of links to world language and Chinese language resources on the web.

   
PIZZAZ!: People Interested in Zippy and ZAny Zcribbling
 

Poetry and Fiction activities for ESL students and teachers.

   
Puerto Rico TESOL
   
TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages)
   
  The Survey of English Language Usage
  A project by University College of London, which aims to create a parsed and searchable Diachronic Corpus of Present-day Spoken English (DCPSE). Site includes links to other English language usage archives on the web, book reviews and other information on contemporary English language usage.
   
  Verb Conjugator
  A universal verb conjugator covering 30 languages.
   
  Verbix verb conjugations and grammar
  An independent non-profit organization that aims to promote and protect linguistic diversity [UNESCO Observatory: Multilingualism]. Site contains verb conjugations for hundreds of languages, ranging from national and international languages to regional and even extinct languages.
   
www.beginningesl.com
 

Prof. Vivian Mayol's website dedicated to teaching English to very young children.

   
   
Go back to the top

 

 

 

 

 


 
Last update:  November 2, 2011 15:33
Home Contact Us Terms of Use Privacy Policy Site Map