LEARNING ENGLISH:
- HOME & FAMILY
- NEIGHBORHOOD
by Jeffrey Gavin
SUBJECT AREA: Development of English language proficiency.
PUBLISHER: Hartley, Inc.
(800) 247-1380
COST: $79.00 list price (each)
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Ages 4-Adult
APPROPRIATE FOR: Students learning English and/or life skills.
REQUIRED HARDWARE: Mac LC, 12" color monitor, CD-ROM drive, 4MB of
memory (5MB recommended), System 7. An IBM Windows version is also available
OPTIONAL HARDWARE: Microphone (required for voice recording capability),
printer.
EDUCATIONAL GOALS: To help students become proficient in the English language
while becoming familiar with American home and community activities. Theme
vocabulary and language construction is learned through activities that
allow practice in specific contextual situations.
DESCRIPTION: Two CDs provide 13 situational learning activities.
HOME and FAMILY:
1. "It's The Weekend": Provides a conversation describing
weekend activities.
2. "Who is Uncle Roberto?": Provides practice in choosing
and describing facial features.
3. "Moving In": Describes rooms and furnishings in a house
through a moving exercise.
4. "Saturday at the Brisco House": Describes household cleaning
activities and chores.
5. "Welcome to Burger World": Simulates the experience of working
in a fast food restaurant, including dealing with money exchanges.
6. "What's for Dinner?": Gives options for making dinner choices.
7. "Stop and Shop": Simulates a trip to the supermarket, using
a grocery list.
NEIGHBORHOOD:
1. "The Money Machine": Provides simulated practice using an
Automated Teller Machine.
2. "An Expensive Day": A conversation among family members
leads to plans for a trip to the mall and movies.
3. "Meet You at the Mall": Provides a simulated shopping trip
to the mall with choosing stores, exchanging money, selecting a movie, and
purchasing tickets.
4. "Extra! Extra! Read All About It": Provides practice reading
articles for content to match the appropriate headlines and photos.
5. "A Quiet Afternoon In Cornerstone?": Gives a picture of
the buildings and people in the community.
6. "Search For The Missing Map": Teaches about the different
sections of the library.
STRENGTHS: The activities in this program provide stimulating situations
for practice in becoming more familiar with conversational English. The
graphics and auditory feedback are motivating and reinforcing. These features
make the program accessible to poor and non-readers. The activities are
untimed and can accomodate a wide range of levels.
A student monitoring system is a nice built-in feature.
WEAKNESSES: Some of the activities may take too long time for lower functioning
students to complete. While younger children can benefit from hearing conversations
and seeing situations, the activities themselves are geared more to older
students.
SUMMARY: Learning English provides realistic situations and conversations
in which students can become more proficient in the English language. The
program is appropriate for students in a life skills curriculum.
Jeffrey Gavin is a graduate student in the Special Education Department
at Trenton State College.
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