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Students' Resources & Archives: English as
Second Language
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.
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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 |
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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.
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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
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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.
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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 |
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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.
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Last update:
November 2, 2011 15:33 |
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