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.