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English Language Institute
PO Box 117051
315 Norman Hall
Gainesville, FL 32611-7051
Phone: (352) 392-2070
Fax: (352) 392-3744
studyenglish@eli.ufl.edu
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ELI STUDENT VOICES
Volume 2, Issue 1 Spring 1998
- Poetry To Mariana Class 20U The unexpected happened. Our dear friend and classmate died. A special woman. An extraordinary mother. A smile all day. Her body left us. Her smile won't. She will always be in our hearts.
- The Wooden Bench Pablo Pinto, GM 50P Sitting on the wooden bench my mind starts to fly and some verses are made with the anxiety of my soul The sun is generous with me it illuminates my book and the words are written by themselves The breeze whispers in my ear it tells me what to write and the poem is molded by the tendons of my fingers I am writing for you (they are waiting for you) Soul, sun and breeze, together for you Together with you, together my love, together in this life and in the following ones The wooden bench is right here, It was my partner in the lonely hours of the summer evenings. Now is the place for my inspiration, for my writings, for my thoughts and the place to express my feelings in this piece of paper Feelings of love, feelings of anger, hidden feelings in the dark basement of my heart The wooden bench, the old wooden bench silent witness of my fears.
- It's life Alex Platinetty, GM 50U Some people come, some people go... But the ones who really made a difference are the ones who left some tracks in our hearts and will be remembered forever. 'Every Language I(we)' speak It doesn't matter--it's what we feel inside. When we have memories of people and unforgettable situations that we lived with them, we know that it was really worthy...
Webpage Reviews
Reading/Writing 50U
Address: www.its-online.com
German Mesa
The its-online service is very complete because it has many resources to help students and teachers. It also has some advantages.
First, it's a free service that makes possible everyone's study. It has a magazine which is up-to-date and available anywhere. The material is aimed to all labels from the beginner to the advanced.
The its-online has many sections. This permits the reader to find easily what he/she is looking for. Also it is very easy to use because everybody can use internet and it is not expensive. Second, it has a magazine for teachers and students. Another advantage is that is possible to see the magazine to know if you want it or not.
Address: www.comenius.com
Andreina Estrada
The Comenius Group has an interesting and useful website. They developed this site to practice and learn English, so students, teachers, and speakers of English from around the world can have online access to relevant materials, services and products.
Basically, people who are learning English can profit very well from this site. There are several sites to explore and learn, such as idioms in which you will find definitions and clear examples how to use all the idioms. Moreover, there is a fables site that helps to develop reading skills. You can practice from vocabulary until true or false comprehension. Finally, you can complement with pronunciation, grammar, TOEFL, business English and writing.
There are many options on this site that can be useful for your learning.
Dave's ESL Caf³: www.pacific.net/~sperling/eslcafe.html
Veronica Briceno
One of the things that I found in this webpage is people who want to learn English can do it on the web. There are many different ways to learn English in a fun way. Dave's ESL Caf³ has an ESL discussion center; student forums now include cinema, computer, current news, family, food, hobbies, holiday, learning English (grammar, reading, oral skills, slang, idiom) and many others. Also, some new games. Another one is read and hear (with audio) BBC World Service Radio. I think that this program is really good to learn English. Also, it is free. Students will soon be able to learn something new each and every day.
Grammar Safari: deil.lang.uiuc.edu/web.pages/grammarsafari.html
Pei-Yi Ko
Grammar safari activities suggest "hunting" and "collecting" examples of specific words as they are used in documents accessible to anyone. They provide you with hundreds or thousands of examples of any particular English words you choose, used in authentic communication, but they don't provide any grammatical explanations for what you find.
You can do something with your examples; they may be useful for:
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Suggestions
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Grammar Safari Journal Assignments
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Introductory grammar safari activities.
In addition, you can use the find function. If you are looking for very common words or phrases, you need to locate a document first, and then use the find bottom at the top of the screen to locate the words you are looking for. If you are looking for less common words, you can make use of search engines provided to help locate information on particular topics.
I think it is useful for me because it can help me to search for a lot of information that I want.
Exchange: deil.lang.uiuc.edu.edu/exchange
Ronald Leent
Exchange is a page on the Internet which is sponsored by the Intensive English Institute and the Division of English as an International Language at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The goals of Exchange are to provide an opportunity for nonnative speakers, to express themselves through the use of English, to provide resources to improve the learning of English, and to create a unique source of knowledge and insight about different cultures.
To achieve these goals, Exchange publishes writing of nonnative English speakers from all over the world.
The sections of Exchange are:
- Cookbook: Contribute and find delicious recipes from all over the world, and find out what people in other parts of the world eat.
- World Cultures: Individuals share specific aspects of their culture, and ceremonies, rituals, holidays, traditions. If you visit this section, you can find a lot of choices here such as Impressions, Cultural Comparisons, Cultural Mishaps, Living in the USA, Festivals and Celebrations, Parenting, Food and Eating Habits, Information about Countries, Famous People, and Sports.
- Stories: Creative writing by individuals and collaborative. You can write short stories, poems, and reviews.
- Pen Pals: You can write about yourself and you will find thousands of friends all over the world.
This program (Exchange) can be useful, especially to practice your writing, but if you think to use this method to improve your English, I think it is not the best way because to learn a foreign language it is necessary to have direct contact with other people. It's true that it can help you, but it's not enough, you have to be prepared to go to classes with a firm schedule to practice and improve your foreign language (in this case, English).
The Fun Web: the city.sfsu.edu/~funweb
Juan Carlos Del Castillo
The FUN web is a good website to look up. In there you will find some great things for English students. You will get some hints for improving your foreign language (English). You will get chat rooms for practicing. On that site you can also find some friends on the chat rooms.
The FUN web is a good choice to look up if you are learning English.
Address: www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj
Napaporn Girapunthong
This website has a lot of information about grammar, writing, reading, listening and games. It is appropriate for someone who wants to learn about the English Language or someone who wants to take a TOEFL test. In my idea, this website can help me to develop the English language because the subject-matter in this website is the same as the TOEFL, and can test my ability to doing a practice for the TOEFL. I like this website, but this website isn't appropriate for someone who is a beginner at learning the English language because it doesn’t clearly explain why an answer is incorrect or correct.
Learning English on the Web: www.lang.uiuc.edu/r-li5/esl
Jirawat Panpiemras
Learning English on the Web Site is created by the University of Illinois at Champaign USA. This web site consists of many useful things, such as listening and speaking, reading with understanding, grammar and writing, etc. In the listening and speaking site, you can listen to the news, radio, and recorded conversations. In the learning oral English online, you can listen to many conversations such as making friends, apartment hunting, asking for the way and going to a party which you can use in real situations. In weekly idioms, you can listen to a dialogue to learn idioms. This web site is very useful to learn English because you can practice listening and speaking by yourself. When you have nothing to do, you can use it. It is fun and useful. Moreover, you can learn about idioms that sometimes teachers don't teach you, but you will hear many idioms out of class. I recommend this website to everybody who wants to improve their English.
EF Englishtown: www.englishtown.com
Oscar Pena
This site has a lot of things. You can practice your reading comprehension and your writing and then send it so they can check it for you. It also has a chat, which by the way doesn't work with Netscape. It has games, in which you can practice vocabulary, cultural information, and dictionary. However, I didn't like it well because I thin you would never learn English this way, but at least you can practice and have fun.
Address: thecity.sfsu.edu/~funweb
Alex Platinetty
It's an excellent site because it shows a lot of addresses and takes you there. You can easily find games, texts, grammar, slang and everything that you need and you're looking for.
It's a good way to complement or start your English studies. Certainly, you're going to find something that interests you if you want to learn English.
Address: www.comenius.com
Yael Blich
I choose to concentrate on the idiom index since the Comenius Group always gives us a lot of opportunities to learn English. This gives us a list of idioms. First, we read the idiom, then we have the definition and also we have an example dialogue that uses it. I think it is a good way to study idioms, especially the example dialogues are contemporary and clear. But there are also disadvantages to this, and this is if I want another idiom not from the list, they don't have it. In addition to this, I think if it has something that asks you questions and tests you after you study it, it would be more useful.
Advice to New Students
Reading/Writing 200
What Every Visitor to Gainesville Should Know
Lucia Meneses, Paula Parugas, Angelica Ramires
Gainesville is a little town in Florida. It's so peaceful. The people of Gainesville are so nice and friendly. It has one the most popular Universities--the University of Florida (UF). Almost all the population in Gainesville are students, so it's a young city.
If you want to come to study here, you should know these things:
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Everyone loves the Gator football team.
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Make sure to give your roommate all of his/her phone messages.
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When driving, be very careful of walkers and bikers.
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Everybody hates FSU Seminoles.
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Keg parties are always fun.
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Don't call anyone in the morning before 12pm.
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If you borrow something from your roommate, ask them first.
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Leonardo's has the best pizza.
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The best discotheques are Florida and 238.
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If you are hungry in the middle of the night, Denny's, IHOP, Perkins and Waffle House are open 24 hours.
What Every New ELI Student Should Know
Danielle Lacerda, Neitzel Bustillo, Gil
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The ELI student must pay tuition to the senior secretary in 315 NRN and they only accept a cashier's check, a money order or a traveler's check.
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All international students must have health insurance.
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If the students have not paid tuition or they have not purchased health insurance (by the deadline), they will not be able to attend classes.
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Students who pay tuition after the official deadline must pay a $100 late fee.
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Students must not have more than three hours of unexcused absences in oral skills or grammar or more than five hours in reading/writing.
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The students will be considered tardy after five minutes. Three tardies count as one absence.
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All ELI students must speak only ENGLISH in the ELI and at ELI activities.
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All ELI students must do the CELT test at the beginning and end of each session to receive the certificate.
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The students of the ELI have the same rights and privileges as other UF students.
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The students are required to show proof of immunization for measles, mumps and rubella and have a tuberculosis skin test by the second week of class. IF they don't show proof, they will not be allowed to attend class.
What Every Prospective ELI Student Should Know about Gainesville
Ulises Velàsquez and Carlos Rubiero
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They should know first where to go because they can get lost.
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They need to know about the traffic rules for cars.
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They should know the bus routes because they will need it someday.
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They should know about the traffic rules for bicycles.
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They should know about the American people's behavior. It is not the same as yours.
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They should know about the traditions of the American people.
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They should know about what is the best time to withdraw money at an ATM because some hours could be dangerous.
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They should know about the American laws because in their countries, maybe they can drink beers in the street or buy beer and cigarettes under 18 years old. But here, they cannot do that.
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They should know about the food in the US. Maybe it could be difficult for them to find their native food.
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They should know, if they want to guy something, they need to ask in English and pay with American money.
