Teaching & Learning Centers (TLC) and Language Resources

The TLC -- Join us!

The TLC offers Spanish, Portuguese, Quechua, and Catalan conversation, tutoring and second language (L2) writing support. All sessions are led by Masters and Ph.D. level instructors currently teaching in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese.

TLC services make a difference. Both instructors and students comment on improved classroom performance, as well as added confidence in using these languages outside of the classroom. We welcome comments and suggestions from students as we continue to offer ongoing support and encouragement in acquiring proficiency in Spanish, Portuguese, Quechua, and/or Catalan.

Any TLC tutor may help with tutoring, conversation, and reading and writing. All services are free of charge.

Tutors are instructors who can help with questions related to class work and homework (in Spanish, Portuguese, Quechua) from our face-to-face classroom and online courses at the beginner, intermediate, and/or advanced levels. 

Conversation practice on topics related to classroom vocabulary. Sessions last 15 minutes and are offered on a first-come, first-served basis. Sessions may be extended to 30 minutes pending instructor availability. Plan to arrive at the beginning of a session. Group size is no larger than 2 students per room. Individualized Instruction students must sign in electronically for each 15 minute session in order to receive credit.

Learning Strategies for Conversation & Listening:

  • Communication is the goal, do not worry a lot about grammar.
  • Listening is as important as speaking. Repeating what you hear as an active listener is a helpful learning technique.
  • Just one other person is all it takes to have a conversation! Spend 15 minutes with an instructor (and perhaps with another classmate), just speaking casually. [NOTE: See also the Conversation Tables organized by the student-run SPPO Club. Sign up for their email list or see their Facebook page to find out about other fun activities that they organize!]
  • Talk to yourself. Keep a running verbal account going in your head (or even aloud when appropriate) of things you see and ideas you have.
  • Tune in to Spanish TV, watch YouTube videos in your L2, or rent a film in your L2 to adapt yourself to the rhythm and patterns of speech. Invent your own short account of what you have seen (using vocabulary you have just heard) and tell it to someone else, or tape record it and assess your own progress!

Instructors can help with questions related to class work and reading/writing assignments for all of our undergraduate courses. To receive support with your writing, you must bring a completed draft of your assignment, along with the assignment guidelines and course syllabus, so that the tutor is aware of the writing support policies specified for your course. 

What to bring with you:

  • A concrete sense of the assignment. Topic? Audience? Expectations?  A copy of the assignment prompt is always very helpful.
  • A copy of your paper. What stage of writing are you in?
  • Your own goals for the consultation. What kind of help do you want? 
  • Specific questions for the TLC tutor. What aspects or sections of your paper do you think need attention?

What to expect when you arrive:

  • We will ask you about the objectives of your essay and how you plan to successfully fulfill those objectives. The process of becoming a better writer is not achieved through writing consultants correcting your errors.
  • We will ask you to identify areas that have been most troublesome in reaching your writing goals and what you hope to accomplish with your writing consultation. Talking about your paper may be more rewarding than us reviewing each line that you have already written.
  • If you bring a draft, we will read and respond to all or part of your paper, depending your needs, goals, and the time available. We will point out general problem areas in grammar, structure, and development, as well as providing strategies for proofreading more effectively. We will practice skills with you that will improve your long-term writing ability.
What we can do for you:
  • Read part of the paper depending on your needs, goals, or the time available
  • Discuss what is working well and what is not working well in your paper
  • Explain grammar points, depending on weaknesses we see in your paper
  • Help you discover the questions you need to ask in order to complete your assignment
What we do not do:
  • Write the paper for you
  • Revise a document to perfection
  • Edit or correct mechanical glitches
  • Help with papers that are not part of your course assignments in our Dept.

 

  Schedule

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese Teaching and Learning Centers (TLC) give currently enrolled undergraduate students assistance through walk-in tutoring, instructor-guided small group conversation, and expert writing help. 

TLC tutoring hours will be offered both in-person and online for the Autumn 2024 semester. Please click on the buttons below to view this semester's TLC instructor schedules.

For questions or issues related to the TLC, please email sppotlc@osu.edu. 

TLC Schedule - Spanish instructors      

TLC Schedule - Portuguese & Quechua instructors

 

Additional Language Learning Resources

The Department recognizes that students studying a second language learn in multiple ways, with different strategies, and for various levels of fluency in diverse fields (i.e. Business, Education, Public Health, International Studies, Agriculture, etc.). We are pleased to complement face-to-face language services offered in the Department's Teaching & Learning Centers for Spanish, Portuguese, Quechua, and Catalan with various e-language learning resources. For each language, you will find a collection of recommended online resources from countries around the world: radio stations, grammar exercises, newspapers and magazines, dictionaries, and TV and movie channels.

We welcome comments and suggestions from students as we continue to offer ongoing support and encouragement in acquiring proficiency in Spanish, Portuguese, Quechua, and Catalan.

Listening Practice

  • Spanish Proficiency Exercises link , from the University of Texas, is a compilation of brief video clips in which native speakers of Spanish from various locations throughout Latin America and Spain demonstrate various language tasks. This site is ideal for those looking for additional pronunciation or listening comprehension practice.

Dictionaries

  • Wordreference.com offers a Spanish dictionary provided by Espasa Calpe publishers. In addition, free language forums are also available.
  • La Real Academia Española (rae.es) offers a Spanish dictionary in addition to Español al día, Consulta, Banco de datos, Conjugación verbal, Diccionarios académicos y Biblioteca.
  • Yourdictionary.com offers general and specialty dictionaries (business, medical, slang, etc.) as well as a thesaurus and word games.
  • Freelang.com dictionary offers a basic Spanish/English freeware dictionary program.
  • Diccionarios.com is provided by Spes Editorial, publishers of Larousse, Harraps' y Vox.

Grammar Review

If you are confused by nouns, articles, verbs, direct and indirect object pronouns, and more, click here for a quick Grammar Review [PDF]. It will provide you with the parts of speech, verb conjugations, and basic definitions of language structures. You may download Acrobat Reader from the Adobe site.

Newspapers and Magazines

TV, Movie, and Radio

For your listening and viewing pleasure, there is a variety of sources for TV programs, radio shows, and foreign films.

  • Infórmate con CNN Infórmate offers a collection of twenty-one video segments from the archives of the internationally renowned CNN en español news network. Infórmate is available at the OSU Main Library (Microforms/Periodicals). [PC 4065I542003 video]
  • On-line TV. Jump TV and Beeline TV offer free, online access to channels from around the Spanish-speaking world. Enjoy news, TV shows, movies, music, entertainment and sports. A high-speed internet connection is recommended.

Language Skills Development

  • CLICABrasil, from the University of Texas at Austin, offers a variety of activities (for intermediate to advanced students) including videos, short texts, and grammar exercises available as PDF files.

Listening Practice

Online Grammar 

Dictionaries

  • Linguee English > Portuguese translation and complete dictionary
  • Infopédia various vocabulary-based resources and grammar tools 
  • Collins Portuguese Dictionary

Newspapers 

The Ohio State University Quechua Learning Community

Dictionaries

Lessons & Exercises

  • Quechua: The Market: A Quechua unit from New York University that introduces basic vocabulary, the present, past, future and imperative tenses, suffixes and basic grammatical explanations. Each lesson includes a transcript and comprehension questions.

Audio/Video/Text

Study Abroad

  • Centro Tinku: Study Quechua in Cusco, Peru. This program is FLAS-eligible.
  • Acupari: Study in Cusco, Peru with the Asociación Cultural Peruano Alemana Región Inca.
  • Otavalo Spanish Institute: Study Kichwa in Otavalo, Ecuador.

Reference Tools

  • Enciclopèdia complete online dictionary, thesaurus and encyclopedia for Catalan language & culture
  • Softcatalà link vocabulary translation to / from Catalan for Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Occitan (Aranès) and Aragonese