Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music

Office of Academic Affairs

Department of General Studies

Course Title: Conversational English

Code: INGL 3011
Class Schedule: Monday/Wednesday, 4:30-6:00
Professor: Laura Martínez
Office Hours: By appointment
Email: englishclass.pr@gmail.com
Facebook: facebook.com/englishclass.pr

Course Description
This course gives advanced students the opportunity of practicing their oral English
skills in a conversational manner. It focuses on acquiring music terminology and
developing fluency for everyday situations.

Objectives
1. Develop fluency and linguistic self-awareness;
2. Improve pronunciation and clearness in speech;
3. Acquire music terminology;
4. Correct fossilized mistakes in grammar and syntax;
5. Learn and use idiomatic expressions;
6. Feel confident while speaking English.

Course Topics
This course may be divided into three main topics. The first two standard topics are
music theory and talking about music. The third topic is decided by the students the
first day of class as well as the calendar of activities.

Evaluation
Attendance and Participation* 50%
Oral Presentations (2)† 40%
English Correction Quizzes (2) 10%
100%

*Three unexcused absences will result in the drop of a full letter grade. Participation
is measured by the content of conversation; speaking in Spanish incurs a severe
penalty upon your grade.
†Oral presentations are evaluated with a rubric that measures linguistic accuracy,
clarity, and fluency.

Internet References
About.com: English as 2nd Language: http://esl.about.com/
Dictionary.com: http://dictionary.reference.com/
The Forest of Rhetoric: http://rhetoric.byu.edu/
The Literature Network: http://www.online-literature.com/
Merriam-Webster Online: http://www.merriam-webster.com/
The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/
Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/
Read Book Online: http://www.readbookonline.net/
Work Reference: http://www.wordreference.com/
The Writing Lab & Owl at Purdue University: http://owl.english.purdue.edu

Model Rubric (Oral Presentations)

1 2 3 4 5

Verbal Tenses

Subject-Verb Agreement

Vocabulary

Clarity

Fluency

Resourcefulness

(You are being evaluated on a scale from 1 to 5 where 1 is deficient, 3 is average,

and 5 is excellent.)