Banco de ejercicios basados en técnicas participativas para desarrollar la expresión oral en las clases presenciales de Inglés

2. Resumen
4. Desarrollo
5. Conclusiones
6. Recomendaciones
7. Bibliografía

 Resumen

El desarrollo de la habilidad de expresión oral es uno de los objetivos principales de los cursos de Idioma Extranjero Inglés que se imparten en la Universidad de las Ciencias Informáticas. El colectivo de profesoras de Inglés de la facultad 1 ha desarrollado numerosas actividades extra-docentes con el objetivo de desarrollar esa habilidad, sin embargo, es la clase el vehículo más apropiado y que más posibilidades ofrece para desarrollar la expresión oral.

En el presente trabajo las autoras proponen un banco de ejercicios a partir de una recopilación de ejercicios basados en técnicas participativas utilizados exitosamente en clases impartidas y que pueden servir de referencia a los profesores y a los alumnos ayudantes para la planificación de clases presenciales y otras actividades dirigidas al desarrollo de esta habilidad.

Introducción

El desarrollo de la habilidad de expresión oral en nuestros estudiantes es uno de los elementos que se encuentran registrados en el banco de problemas de la facultad 1 de la Universidad de las Ciencias Informáticas y uno de los objetivos de la disciplina Idioma Extranjero Inglés.

En nuestra universidad, las cuatro asignaturas que conforman la disciplina Idioma Extranjero Inglés cuentan con un sistema semi-presencial. En el caso de Inglés I y II los estudiantes tienen dos frecuencias a la semana: un laboratorio dirigido al desarrollo de las habilidades de lectura, escritura y audición, y una clase presencial dirigida a desarrollar la habilidad de expresión oral. En el caso de Inglés III y IV, tienen dos frecuencias semanales de laboratorio y una clase presencial cada quince días.

El colectivo de profesoras de Inglés de la facultad 1 ha desarrollado numerosas actividades extra-docentes con el objetivo de desarrollar la expresión oral de los estudiantes, sin embargo, es la clase el vehículo más apropiado y que más posibilidades ofrece para desarrollar la habilidad. En el presente trabajo, se propone un banco de ejercicios a partir de una recopilación de ejercicios basados en técnicas participativas que fueron utilizados exitosamente en clases impartidas por nosotras y otros aportados por diferentes autores, que pueden servir de referencia a los profesores y a los alumnos ayudantes para la planificación de clases presenciales y otras actividades dirigidas al desarrollo de esta habilidad.

El desarrollo de la expresión oral en lengua inglesa de nuestros estudiantes constituye un reto debido a que son estudiantes no filólogos, por tanto, aunque reconozcan la importancia de dominar el inglés para el exitoso ejercicio de su profesión como futuros ingenieros informáticos, muchos de ellos no sienten un verdadero interés en apropiarse de los contenidos de la lengua y esto se ve fundamentalmente en los primeros años de la carrera.

Por otra parte, la experiencia ha demostrado que la mayoría de los estudiantes llegan a nuestra universidad con una base lingüística deficiente, aunque existen estudiantes que llegan con una buena preparación, y se podría decir que con una base estratégica que les posibilita enfrentarse a la asignatura con éxito.

Si a esto le sumamos que la enseñanza– aprendizaje de idiomas en la UCI cuenta con los más modernos métodos y medios de enseñanza con los cuales los y las estudiantes no están familiarizados, sería fácil comprender que estos estudiantes que están menos preparados desde los puntos de vista lingüístico, comunicativo, estratégico, entre otros, sufren un fuerte impacto cuando llegan a nuestro centro. De ahí que, de la competencia pedagógica y metodológica del profesor o la profesora, dependen en gran medida que los estudiantes sean motivados adecuadamente y que todos los métodos y medios tan valiosos con los que cuenta el personal docente de este departamento sean utilizados apropiadamente en un ambiente psicológico desarrollador.

El uso de técnicas alternativas de participación propicia la formación de los estudiantes en sus esferas intelectual cognitiva, volitiva conductual y afectiva motivacional, de modo que contribuye no sólo al desarrollo de las sub-habilidades de expresión oral que es nuestro objetivo fundamental en este trabajo, sino a la formación integral de la personalidad de los estudiantes que es un objetivo mayor.

Es esa la razón fundamental por la que trabajamos con estas técnicas y consideramos que para los docentes y alumnos ayudantes, tener a mano un banco de ejercicios es de extraordinaria utilidad pues nos permite ahorrar tiempo, favorece nuestra creatividad al crear variantes de los mismos ejercicios que seguirían aumentando el banco y nos posibilita aumentar la calidad de las clases al obtener una motivación fuerte y estable; al utilizar una vía interesante, atrayente, de lograr los objetivos educativos e instructivos; al aplicar formas de evaluación individuales y grupales que son agradables, poco agresivas y por último, al lograr que los y las estudiantes se relajen y realicen actividades placenteras antes o después de enfrentarse a asignaturas fuertes como la Programación, la Física y otras.

Las técnicas alternativas de participación tuvieron un boom en los años 90. En Cuba, en 1994, se lanzó una convocatoria para presentar experiencias en este campo con el objetivo de intercambiar estas experiencias y difundir el uso de la pedagogía alternativa, de manera que en enero de 1995 salió a la luz pública el primer libro de técnicas participativas de autores cubanos donde aparecían 122 técnicas aportadas por 71 educadores.

Sucesivamente, los aportes de técnicas participativas creadas por docentes cubanos han ido in crescendo, así como los estudios en este campo, lo que denota el fortalecimiento de la pedagogía participativa en nuestro país y el perfeccionamiento permanente de la calidad de los procesos de enseñanza –aprendizaje en la realidad de la escuela cubana a todos los niveles.

En lo relacionado con la comunicación oral en Inglés como tal, autores como Rivers,1977; Littlewood,1981; Antich,1986; Finocchiaro,1989, Byrne,1989, entre otros, citados por Zaldívar(2003), reconocen diferentes actividades participativas. Entre ellas se mencionan como las más explotadas los juegos, los juegos de roles, las simulaciones, las conversaciones a título personal y las soluciones de problemas.

Actividades como adivinanzas, trabalenguas, crucigramas, sopas de letras, el ahorcado, mesas redondas, paneles, programas de televisión, spots televisivos, chistes, situaciones problémicas, etcétera, son las de mayor uso en las clases y se pueden utilizar aplicadas a contenidos diferentes. Sin embargo, existen también actividades que se crearon fundamentalmente para contenidos específicos como el clarividente, que se utiliza para los tiempos del futuro y el pretérito, el cuento, para los tiempos pretéritos, el guía turístico para las descripciones, el hipocondríaco para temas de salud, el forastero para las direcciones, etc.

Es válido mencionar que las técnicas se clasifican o bien, en técnicas lingüísticas de participación o en técnicas comunicativas de participación, aunque el marco de la clasificación no es tan estrecho. Por ejemplo, si bien el panel puede ser considerado una técnica comunicativa de participación, los contenidos lingüísticos son también ejercitados.

Al utilizar técnicas lingüísticas, es importante tener en cuenta, que si bien se centran en lo lingüístico, no se puede obviar el contexto y la creación de un vacío de información de manera que siempre exista una expectativa en los estudiantes.

Consideramos imprescindible recordar que el éxito del empleo de técnicas participativas no se limita al buen diseño de las mismas sino que el docente que las vaya a utilizar debe tener en cuenta toda una serie de elementos antes, durante y después de la utilización de la técnica porque de lo contrario los resultados pueden ser totalmente contrarios a lo que esperamos.

El docente, antes de la clase, cuando diseña la actividad, debe formular el objetivo que se persigue con la actividad, la metodología a utilizar, los procedimientos, las formas de evaluación y el tiempo que tomará la actividad. Debe definir los instrumentos, materiales y medios que utilizará y realizar todas las coordinaciones pertinentes para garantizar que no exista ninguna dificultad a la hora de utilizarlos en la clase. Las reglas tienen que estar claramente definidas así como los roles de cada uno de los participantes. Es válido recordar asimismo que para la actividad todos tienen que tener tareas asignadas durante todo el tiempo de duración. El docente asigna los roles no de manera arbitraria aunque se tratara de un juego, sino teniendo en cuenta las diferencias individuales y las necesidades educativas individuales y grupales.

Durante la aplicación de las técnicas es importante que se cree un clima de confianza y necesidad de comunicación entre los participantes. Es elemental la base orientadora de la actividad: o sea, todos los participantes tienen que conocer en qué consiste la actividad, cuál es su objetivo, qué tienen que hacer, qué no pueden hacer, de qué tiempo disponen, etcétera.

El docente debe eliminar cualquier barrera que pueda existir y que limite la participación de los estudiantes, por ejemplo, la falta de disposición a participar, el temor a cometer errores, la ansiedad, la idea de que dedicar tiempo a la actividad le resta tiempo al aprendizaje de materias o contenidos que le interesan más, o incluso la desorientación de los estudiantes por falta de costumbre o desconocimiento de los procedimientos que se están utilizando.

El docente debe estar muy atento durante la realización de la actividad a cualquier situación de indisciplina y debe saber manejarla adecuadamente sin romper el clima agradable que se logró para efectuar la actividad. Este momento de ejecución es crucial para el trabajo con los valores, para desarrollar estrategias, para fomentar buenos modales, trabajar en función de las competencias (lingüística, comunicativa, socio-afectiva y socio-cultural) todo esto a partir del diagnóstico grupal e individual que tiene el profesor y que se va actualizando de manera permanente, sobre todo en este tipo de actividades donde el estudiante se siente libre, desinhibido…El docente que realiza este tipo de actividades debe ser motivador, reflexivo, crítico, propositivo y buen observador.

Al terminar la actividad, se dan las conclusiones en dependencia del tipo de actividad que se haya realizado. Si es una actividad competitiva se dan los resultados, se exhorta a los perdedores a ganar en la próxima ocasión, se llama a la reflexión acerca de que al final todos ganan, etcétera. De forma general se recibe retroalimentación de los estudiantes, si les gustó, qué aprendieron, qué desarrollaron, se evalúa la actuación de los participantes, se pueden proponer otras variantes de las reglas o los procedimientos que el docente anotaría, etcétera.

Desarrollo

En el banco de ejercicios que ponemos a su disposición en este trabajo, las actividades se encuentran organizadas por asignaturas y por temas, aunque al final aparecen un grupo de actividades libres, que no se encuentran ubicadas en ningún tema, y que el profesor o alumno ayudante que vaya a utilizarlas las puede ubicar en el tema y clase que le resulte más apropiado y conveniente.

Banco de actividades para desarrollar la habilidad de expresión oral.

Inglés I

Tema 1- Getting acquainted. Talking about yourself

1- Work in pairs

Prepare a dialogue and act it out.

Card A: You are a tourist guide. You are waiting at the airport in order to receive a tourist. Unfortunately, you cannot find the sheet of paper with his/her personal data, so ask him/her personally. Be polite.

Card B: You have just arrived at "José Martí" airport in Cuba. You are a tourist who has never been to Cuba before. You are waiting for an agent to guide you. Answer his/her questions with personal information. Be polite.

2- Make yourself a question sheet. You can use the one here and adapt it to suit your class, both in terms of the language they can deal with and what you know about them as people. Find someone who….

………… has two televisions

………… likes maths

…………. speaks French

…………. plays basketball

………….. has nice handwriting

………….. likes animals

…………. plays a musical instrument

…………. speaks English well

………….. has an interesting hobby

………….. plays an unusual sport

………….. likes strange food

…………. speaks to animals

Make a copy for each student in your class.

Hand them out and go through any difficult vocabulary etc. Check what question they will have to ask in order to 'find someone who' ,e.g.

" Do you have two televisions?"

" Do you like maths?"

" Do you speak French?" etc.

It is a good idea to check all the questions first.

Then ask the students to stand up, mill around the room, if possible in your classroom, and find a different person in the class for each phrase. They should then write the name of their classmate in the correct gap (so that they then have complete sentences on their handouts, which read e.g. " Carlos has two televisions", "Maria likes maths" etc.

3- Work in pairs.

Card A:You are the clerk at a hotel. A customer arrives. You have to:

• Ask his/her name
• Find out how to spell his/her name
• Ask his/her age
• Ask where he/she is from
• Ask his/her passport number
• Ask his/her nationality
• Ask his/her address
• Ask what languages he/she speaks
• Thank him/her and take leave politely.

Card B: You are a tourist who arrives at a hotel desk. You have a reservation in this hotel. Answer the clerk's questions in a polite way. Respond to thanks and take leave politely.

4- Work in pairs

Card A: You have a new roommate; he/she has just arrived in the university. Introduce yourself and try to get as much personal information as you can.

Card B: You are new in the university. Your new roommate will ask you some questions about yourself. Answer politely.

5-What a story!

Aims – to practice narrative speaking

You need – a selection of pictures, approximately one for every student in your class. They can be of anything at all; picture cards of objects, clothes, places etc or pictures cut-out from magazines. The activity tends to work better if the pictures are interesting or attractive in some way.

Procedure –

1- Put the students into small groups and give each group a few, randomly selected pictures.

2- Ask them to create a story which involves all the pictures you have given them in as natural and convincing a way as possible. They don't need to write it down, but they may want to take notes for themselves. Set a time limit (eg. 5/10 minutes).

3- Go around the class helping where necessary and encouraging them to be as imaginative as possible.

4- The groups now take it in turns to tell their stories. The students listening have to try and guess what pictures the group telling the story had. If you want to, you can allocate points for the number of pictures correctly guessed – it all helps to ensure that the groups not actually involved in story telling are involved in listening!

6- Interview

Place the students into groups of four. Two students speak about the interview card questions, while the other two monitor the mistakes in their notebooks. Then the two who were monitoring speak about the topic, while the other two students monitor them. After both pairs have spoken, the students go over the mistakes that they found.

What are some unusual things about your family?

What makes your family typical? Is this either good or bad?

Do you like children? What qualities about them do you like?

What irritates you about children?

Do you think it is better to be part of a large family or a small one? Why?

Is it better for a family to have a working mother or a mother who stays at home with the children?

What is the best way to punish a child?

Are there any forms of punishment that you would never implement?

Tema 2- Getting around. Describing people

1- Working in pairs, prepare a dialogue according to the situation given and be ready to act it out in class.

Student A: Your sister comes to Havana to visit you and she arrives at the bus station this afternoon. You cannot go to pick her up. One of your friends is going there for you, but he/she does not know her. Answer any questions your friend may have as to describe your sister in detail.

Student B: Your friend's sister comes to Havana to visit him/her. She arrives at the bus station this afternoon, but your friend cannot go to pick her up. So you are going there for him/her. As you don't know your friend's sister, you should ask some questions to get a description of her in detail.

2- Work in pairs

Ask your partner who is his/her favorite actor/actress, and then ask him/her to describe that person. Later you have to exchange roles and you will describe your favorite actor/actress.

3- Find the Differences

Aim: Speaking (describing people and actions), listening, grammar (there is/are….., s/he has ……., s/he is …….ing, s/he is + adjective)

Not

eg: Find or draw two pictures which are the same except for seven features. Photocopy them on separate sheets of paper.

Ask students to work in pairs. Give one copy of each picture to the pairs. The pairs are not supposed to show their copies to each other. Partner A's will describe their copy and Partner B's will listen carefully and examine their own copy to find the differences. They can ask questions if they require more detailed information or need any clarification. The pair that finishes first wins the game.

Talking about likes and dislikes

3- Work in pairs

St A: Invite your friend to go with you to a Chinese restaurant. Then talk about your likes and dislikes regarding food.

St B: One of your friends has invited you to go with him to a Chinese restaurant, but you don’t like Chinese food. Talk about the kinds of food you like and dislike.

Talking about daily activities

1-Acting as a journalist…

Write down a set of questions to interview three people having different jobs and occupations at the University. Figure out their possible answers to gather information about their daily activities and be ready to report back to class.

2-A T.V. Show at the University…

Work in small groups of three students and put together all the information you found by means of the interview in the previous exercise. Then act out a conversation as if you were on a T.V. show. One of you will play the role of the host of the show and the two others will role-play the workers at the University.

3- Este ejercicio consta de dos partes, primero los estudiantes hacen un dibujo de las actividades que realizan en las vacaciones y en la segunda parte intercambian los dibujos para hablar de las actividades que realizan los miembros de los otros equipos.

Drawing what we do on vacation…

Gather in teams and talk about the activities you do during vacation. Then you have to make a drawing portraying the activities you do. You cannot use captions but figures and percentages to express frequency. (e.g.: 50%, 75%)

Reporting about your counterpart team drawing…

Now exchange your drawings with a counter-part from the other team. Then you will have one minute to interpret the drawing so as to report back to the whole class what they do on vacation and how often they do so.

Be careful when mentioning the frequency adverbs that match with the percentages of your friend’s activities.

4- Memory Game – Grammar

This is an adaptation of a familiar memory game.

The game is played around the class and can be used to practice a variety of language.

If, for example, the present tense is being practiced, you can start the game by saying, eg:

" Kate plays tennis at the weekends".

The person to your left has to continue the game by repeating what you have said and add a sentence of his or her own, eg:

"Kate plays tennis at the weekends and goes to bed late".

The third person has to remember what the first and second people said and add a new sentence eg:

"Kate plays tennis at the weekends, goes to bed late and gets up late".

The sentences can be as long or as short as the students choose. If a student cannot remember what was said, or gets it wrong, he or she is 'out'. (It is generally quite a good idea to be strict about accuracy – otherwise the game can take too long)

The winner is the last remaining student.

Variations The game can be adapted to any tense (eg. 'Tom went to the cinema, and met his friends… and they ate a pizza' for the past; 'I'm going to be a millionaire and I'm going to buy a yacht… and I'm going to sail around the world' for going-to future) and involves no setting up, photocopying etc.

Tema 3- Schools and education. Describing places.

1- Your classmates have never been to your place. Choose one of the rooms of your house and describe it. Be ready to report it to the rest of the class.

2- The tourist guide.

Work in small teams.

You can do this activity out of the classroom; you can choose any of the locations of the university and take the students there. You can ask them to prepare beforehand, they will be able to select the place they want and be ready to describe it to the rest of the students in the class.

One of the students in the team will be the tourist guide he will describe the place and the others will ask questions about it.

3- Work in pairs:

Card A: You are a doctor and you receive an adult patient that is not feeling very well. According to his/her symptoms and to this guide, give him/her the right prescription as well as some useful advice to get well soon. Do not forget to be polite.

Card B: You are not feeling very well and you go to the doctor. You think that you have the flu. Explain to him/her how you feel and ask him/her if you can take other medicines apart from those prescribed by the doctor. Do not forget to be polite

Inglés II

Tema 1-Going shopping

1-Work in pairs. In turns, play the roles on the cards below.

Card 1: You want to buy a present to your girl/boyfriend because of Saint Valentine's Day. You see an ad in a shop with a special sale. Make up a dialogue as you get into the shop and buy the present.

Card 2: You are a salesperson at a shop. You have a special sale for Saint Valentine's Day. A costumer who is looking for a present comes in. Talk to him/her and try to sell the best of your products.

2- Work in pairs

Suppose you are helping your mother to prepare a party, but there are some things you need to buy. Go to the supermarket to buy them. Prepare a dialogue with one of your classmates and be ready to act it out in class. Here is a list of the things you are supposed to buy, but you can add more if you wish. Remember to use different prices.

• A bottle of oil.
• Three pounds of sugar.
• A quarter of a pound of coffee.
• Two pounds of tomatoes.
• Eight ounces of cocoa powder.
• Two bottles of wine.

3. Work in teams of three to act out a dialogue according to the situation given. Be creative and natural as in real life.

Card A:You invite your classmate to have dinner at a restaurant. Once there, you ask the waiter for the menu. Ask your friend about his/her favorite food. Order the meal . At the end ask for the bill.

Card B: Your classmate invites you to have dinner at a restaurant. You are a little shy and you are not sure to accept his / her invitation. Once at the restaurant decide what to eat and drink.

Card C: You are a waiter. A couple of friends arrive at the restaurant to have dinner. Ask for their preferences and take the menu order. Be ready to tell the price of bill.

4. Market scene

This is an extremely noisy activity so you may need to check whether it's possible for your class.

Write out phrases that a market-stall holder might call out, e.g.:

Lovely, fresh oranges!

2 kilos of tomatoes, only…. ( fill in suitable price)

Wonderful pineapples!

The best peaches in town! etc.

Give one to each student. (You can duplicate and have some students calling out the same things).

Ask the students to memorise what is on their cards before you collect them in again.

Ask the students to stand up, position themselves as if in a market, if possible in your classroom, and shout the phrases as loudly as they can.

It sometimes takes a few minutes for students to really get into this, but encourage them to do so, shouting in the manner of market-stall holders. Shouting a memorised phrase can be a good way of getting the more timid members of class to lose their inhibitions about a foreign language.

You can now extend this activity; ask the students to add another phrase of their own, e.g.

Lovely fresh oranges!  Just arrived this morning!

2 kilos of tomatoes, only….  Cheapest today!

Wonderful pineapples!  All the way from Brazil!

The best peaches in town!  Come and buy!

or give them their second phrases on more cards.

act as a shopper and travel round this market, buying things from the stallholders

get half the class to be shoppers and half stallholders, then change over

turn it into a competition and award points for the most encouraging/convincing salesperson.

Tema 2- Making a phone call. A computer request.

1- Work in pairs

Card A: Your PC is quite slow lately, in a way that it makes difficult to work on it. Call 6060 at the university, report the problem.

Second part: It's been a week now since you reported the problem about your computer. Call 6060 again and complain about the delay.

Card B. You work at the reception of Computer Assistance at the university. You should always be polite to customers. Keep in mind that the customer is always right.

2- Select one of the following statements and prepare a brief oral presentation. Be ready to express your opinions to the rest of the class.

• Cell phones can cause cancer.
• There are more phones in the city of Manhattan than in the entire Africa.
• Students at the university must be careful with public phones.
• Doctors should always have a telephone at hand.
• You may not use my phone because you could damage it.

3- Give the role cards to the students, one of them is going to act as the person who is making the phone call and the other as the receiver. After they have played one of the situations they can exchange the cards with another pair.

Role cards for the callers

a) You are running late because you were talking to a customer on the phone. You need your roommate to lend you some money because you are going to a movie. You should be home in about 20 minutes.

b) You are running late because you had to prepare for a meeting tomorrow. You need your roommate to lend you his or her car because you are going to a beach party. You should be home in about an hour and a half.

c) You are running late because you had to finish designing your company catalogue. You need your roommate to lend you a shirt because you are going out with some friends. You should be home in about 10 minutes.

d) You are running late because you had to give a presentation. You need your roommate to record the TV program "Enemies" on channel 8 because you won’t be home in time to watch it. You should be home in about an hour.

You are running late because you had to meet a client. You need your roommate to put a bottle of wine in the fridge because you are having some friends over for drinks after work. You should be home in about 30 minutes.

e) You are running late because you had to finish a report. You need your roommate to put your pants in the dryer because your pants are wet and you will need them to go dancing tonight. You should be home in about 2 hours

f) You are running late because you had to write some e-mail. You need your roommate to tidy up a bit because your parents are coming over for a visit. You should be home in about an hour.

g) You are running late because you had to wait for your paycheck. You need your roommate to thaw some chicken out because your girlfriend/boyfriend is coming over for dinner. You should be home in about 45 minutes.

Tema 3- At the doctor’s office. Making an appointment

1- Role play

Student A: You are a patient and you need an appointment with the doctor because you have had a terrible headache since last weekend and you have been depressed for many weeks.

*You need an appointment as soon as possible because you feel awful and you need to travel to your city on Friday. *

Student B: You are doctor Martinez’s secretary. A patient comes because he/she needs an appointment with the doctor. Check the schedule and give him/her a date. If the patient can’t come this day try to help him giving another possibility.

2- Read the instructions carefully and work alone first, once you are ready act it out with your partner.

Card A: Imagine you need to make an appointment with your doctor because you are not feeling very well. Call your doctor and explain him how do you feel.

Card B: Imagine you are a Doctor and one of your patient call you to make an appointment because he/she is not feeling very well. Ask him/her how He/ She feels and give him/her a date.

At the doctor’s office. Get well soon.

Role play

Card A: Imagine that a friend of yours had an accident and he /she is at his/her house now. You go there and visit him/her. Express him/her your sympathy, ask how he/she feels, give him/her good wishes.

Card B: Imagine you had an accident and you are in your house now. A friend of yours goes to visit you. Tell him/her how you feel. Thanks him/her for visiting you.

Tema 4- Computers World

1-Prepare yourself to compare a digital camera and a film camera. Be ready to report your opinion to the class. You may refer to the quality of the pictures, the price of the cameras, that is, which is cheaper or more expensive etc. 

2- Work in pairs.

Student A: You are not very sure about the different names of computer devices. Ask your friend questions like:

-What is an output device?

-What is the translation into English of impresora/monitor /and dispositivos de audio?

-Ask your friend his/her opinion about any of these output devices' use?

Student B : One of your classmates approaches you to ask some questions about output devices. Be ready to answer about the concept, the translation into English and give your own opinion on the use of any of them.

 3- The professor has to assign this task in the lab class so the students have time to prepare themselves.

Work by yourself.

In today's lesson you are supposed to make a brief presentation on output devices. Prepare yourself to talk about this topic. Follow the following hints.

-Printers, types of printers and their use.

-Monitors, type of monitors.

-Audio outputs, components and formats.

4-Work in Pairs

Card A: You´re not very good at creating word documents but your partner knows how to do it. Talk about abilities, express interest and ask for instruction (help).

Card B: One of your friends needs your help for creating word documents. You are really good at it. Talk about abilities, express interest and give instructions.

Inglés III

Tema 1- Input and output devices

1-Take a look at the cartoon given below and get ready to answer these questions.

a. Do you find it funny?

b. Do you think this man knows much about computer devices and their use?

c. Suppose you are the listener, what would you say to him?

2- Working in pairs or small groups, discuss these questions. Use the phrases below to help you.

a. What sort of difficulties do you think are experienced by computer users with limitations of vision or mobility?

b. What types of devices could be helpful to blind users?

c. How can a person with mobility limitations communicate with a computer? Think of possible tools or solutions.

blind person       Brailer printer       optical head pointer       adapted keyboard on-screen keyboard       voice-recognition system       screen-pointing device

3- You can take the list of products printed to the class and give a list to each of the student.

Work in pairs:

Which of the products in the list would be most suitable for the purposes given here? Discuss the pros and cons with a partner.

2. to store data and programs at home
3. to hold large amounts of information in a big company
4. to store illustrated encyclopedia for children
5. to hold historical records in the National Library
6. to store high-quality audio and video, and hold several movies in different languages

Hard disk drive Super fast 8 ms hard drive. Capacity ranges from 2 to 6 GB

Iomega's removable drives The Zip series uses 100 MB and 250 MB disks. In the near future it could replace the floppy disk as the portable storage medium. The Jazz series can hold 2 GB cartridges. Ideal for back up hard disks.

CD-ROM drive Each CD disk holds 650 MB.

CD-Recordable drive Makes it possible to write data to CDs as well as read it

Magneto-optical (MO) disk systems Erasable optical-magnetic 5.25' cartridges with 2.6 GB of storage capacity. can be erased and written on like a hard disk. Rewritable 3.5' optical disks with a storage capacity of 640 MB.

DAT Data tape drive Digital audio tape drives to store computer data. Used for back-up purposes. Slow access. Huge amounts of information (about 10 GB)

Digital Video Disk-ROM drive Each DVD-ROM disk has a capacity of up to 17 GB, and can hold various full-screen movies. The drive can also read your CD-ROMs.

Tema 2- Word processing

1. Take a close look at the cartoon given below and discuss the answers to the questions.

a. Why do you think the cartoon was entitled "Dangerous situation"?

b. Does the woman know anything about the function of the buttons in the keyboard?

2- Choose one of the following statements. Write down a brief oral presentation explaining if you agree or disagree with the stated idea and be ready to report it to the rest of the class.

• Word processors are totally inefficient.
• Word processor are full of advantages.

3- Read the following names of Cuban famous persons and say why they are or were well-known for.

After the students organize the personalities in the four fields they belong to(writers, dancers, doctors, baseball players), ask them to tell you which fields would they include in a database to keep information about those professions.

Tema 3-Computer graphics, desktop publishing and multimedia

1. Take some pictures of different kinds of graphics, some created by computer.

a. Look at the pictures above, which were all created on computer. Which ones are three-dimensional? What are the advantages of creating three-dimensional images?

b. From the pictures, can you suggest which people might use computer graphics professionally? What would they use them for?

c. Can you think of other professionals who use computer graphics? How do they use them?

2. The professor can assign this task before hand and in the face to face class do a simulation of the conference where the students will present their speech about desktop publishing.

You are taking part in an international conference dealing with present-day computers. It is your turn to present a report about Desktop Publishing. To do so, you may follow the tips given below:

1-DTP: Its definition and use. 2. Software involved in producing a DTP document. 3. Hardware required for DTP. 4. Features that DTP software provides.

Tema 4- Careers in computing

1. Work in pairs A and B.

Your partner has one of the computing jobs listed in Unit 27. Find out about his or her occupation by asking questions like this:

Where do you work?                 How long have you been working there?

What do you do?                     What qualifications do you have?

Try to identify his/her occupation when you have asked these questions.

St A: Systems analyst

You work in a large hospital. You collect and analyse information about hospital procedures. You get the information by talking to the doctors, nurses, and administrators in the hospital. You identify tasks that computers can do so that time and money can be saved. Then you design a system to perform these tasks.

You've been working in this job for five years. You've also worked for a software company. You have a degree in business studies but you later trained as a systems analyst.

St B: Computer services Engineer Technician

You work for a computer service firm. You repair computers and other devices such as printers. You also upgrade computers. People phone in when they have a problem and you go to their company, find out what is wrong, and repair the fault.

This is your first job. You've been working for the firm for two years. You have a diploma in Computer Systems Engineering.