|
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). Approximately 34% of the sections in the department are reserved each semester for these students. 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 almost paralyzed with fear due to negative 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.
 |
|
Rebecca Casey, protagonist of Connect with English |
|
The Developing Functions of Oral English classes revolve around a video series titled Connect with English which is viewed in the language laboratory. Classroom activities consist primarily of conversational and written exercises based on the video story. Grammar is presented as needed through homework and lab exercises along with classroom review. While verbal fluency and listening comprehension are the principle focus of the courses, students also work with reading and writing skills in order to achieve general communicative competence in English.
Instructors utilize a wide range of communicative activities in the classroom, including:
- Listening to and completing the lyrics of songs
- Listening to and completing taped conversations and narratives
- Working in small groups on problem-solving tasks or learning games
- Performing jazz chants in chorus
- Solving crossword and word search puzzles
- Completing written assignments in the Video Comprehension and Grammar Workbooks, as well as those prepared by the professor to deal with grammatical issues in more detail
- Practicing pronunciation individually and in groups
- Watching and discussing video segments in detail
- Preparing short essays on topics of personal relevance
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 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. Students also participate in Internet chat sessions with U.S. college students in English and Spanish once a week (one hour total) for additional practice in writing and reading comprehension. [Note: this service has been temporarily suspended this semester, but may be reinstated in the future.] As a special bonus, during each class session, students meet informally in groups of 3 or 4 with native (or near-native) speakers of English who serve as conversational partners. (For a PowerPoint presentation in Spanish giving more details on the chat sessions and conversational partners component, click here.)
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 |
 |
|
