General information


Subject type: Mandatory

Coordinator:

Trimester: First term

Credits: 4

Teaching staff: 

Juan Garcia Ramirez

Skills


Basic skills
  • B1_That students have demonstrated knowledge and understanding in a field of study that is based on general secondary education, and is accustomed to finding at a level that, although with the support of advanced textbooks, also include some aspects that involve knowledge from the forefront of your field of study

  • B4_That students can convey information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialized and non-specialized audiences

Transversal competences
  • T1_That students know a third language, which will be preferably English, with an adequate level of oral and written form, according to the needs of the graduates in each degree

Description


Since most of the specialized technical literature students will come across is in English, this course aims at familiarizing them with the typical structures, lexicon and style of Technical English. Students will learn to interpret and translate technical texts related to their subject matters and to produce basic technical writings. They will also acquire basic writing skills in order to produce formal and informal letters, application letters, electronic mails, and specialized reports.

A strong focus will also be given to listening and speaking skills so that they can overcome everyday situations facilitating their integration into an English-speaking environment.

This module contains methodological and digital online resources in case it is necessary due to Covid-19. That way the achievement of the required knowledge and skills gathered in this course content will be guaranteed.

Learning outcomes


In general terms, this subject contributes to the learning outcomes (LO) specific of the subject matter it belongs to (English) .At the end of the course, students must be able to:

  • (LO1) Produce technical writings according to the features of technical register
  • (LO2) Translate Into Catalan Gold Authentic Technical Literature SELECTED from Bibliography Sources Related to the subject-matter
  • (LO3) Understand written technical reports and answer comprehension questions about them
  • (LO4) Produce writings and technical reports using formal academic register (formal letters to make an order, a claim, ask for information, give information, participate in debates and discussions... electronic mails, summaries, abstracts and project reports) 
  • (LO5) Communicate efficiently in English in some daily situations and in those related to the subject matter
  • (LO6) Make an effective oral presentation on a topic related to the subject-matter
  • (LO7) Understand the importance of English as a “lingua franca” commonly used in science, technology, university and professional fields.

 

Working methodology


The classroom work will be based on a theoretical explanation of the syllabus items. These explanations will find practical support for the proposed exercises to be done both in the classroom and outside the classroom. These exercises will be done individually or in small groups according to cooperative learning methodologies.

Pieces of work, exercises, activities, assignments, etc., which form part of the evaluation will have to be delivered just after completing each one of the contents and never after having been returned to students as corrected by the lecturer.

The exercises and tasks leading to achieve oral skills will be done in the classroom in groups of two or more students.

Other tasks of autonomous learning will be taken into account such as reading selected articles and texts, deliverables, and exam preparation.

Due to COVID-19, some of the group sessions might have to change into a hybrid format: contact lessons and online lessons (via streaming). That way students might alternately attend contact lessons, thus respecting the maximum amount of students per classroom established by social distancing measures. Those students who could not attend contact lessons would be able to follow them online from home.

Contents


Content 1: Grammatical, syntactic and lexical aspects of technical register in the field of Computing Engineering:

  1. 's phrases and expressions and the possessive case
  2. Relative clauses and their shortening in certain situations
  3. Present and past participles (-ing and –ed forms)
  4. Complex noun phrases and noun compounds. Hyphenated phrases
  5. Specific vocabulary in management computing engineering

Related Activities:

  • Exercises on 's and the possessive case
  • Exercises on shortening of relative clauses and its eventual conversion into participle clauses and / or complex noun phrases
  • Analysis of functions and uses of –ing and –ed participles and their interpretation in the context in which they are used.
  • Exercises on noun compounds or complex noun phrases. Exercises on Hyphenated phrases.
  • Glossary of technical terms

Content 2: Technical register and technical translation. Reading comprehension of technical texts in the field of Computing Engineering:

  1. Turning non-technical register into a more technical register using selected texts and by applying the points studied in Content 1
  2. Production of technical writings according to the features of technical register
  3. Making direct technical translations into Catalan or Spanish
  4. Reading comprehension of technical literature in the field of Engineering

Related activities: 

  • Exercises to turn non-technical style texts into technical style
  • Direct translations into Catalan or Spanish
  • Reading technical articles and texts from the field of management computing engineering and reading comprehension exercises about them

Content 3: Writing Skills:

  1. Production of writings and reports according to formal academic register
  2. Writing formal letters to make an order, a claim, to ask for information
  3. Writing formal electronic mails
  4. Writing an abstract or a summary
  5. Writing a report on a given topic or project related to the subject matter

Related Activities:

  • Exercises to compare informal and formal registers
  • Formal letters to make an order, a claim 
  • Writing formal emails
  • Writing an abstract or a summary of an article or a technical report
  • Writing a report on a topic related to the subject matter

Content 4: Functions / Oral Skills:

  1. Conversations to develop oral skills within professional everyday situations: contrast information, pros and cons, make orders, participate in discussions on specific topics...
  2. Short oral presentation (2-3 minutes) on a topic of interest to the students
  3. Oral presentation in a group of about 10 minutes on the project developed for the module "Entrepreneurship and Innovation". First, an elevator pitch has to be made.
  4. Fostering group discussions and debates around the topic of the short oral presentation

Related Activities: 

  • Exercises of listening and conversation on topics and professional everyday situations for a computing engineer. They will be performed in small groups
  • Short oral presentation (2-3 minutes) on a topic of interest to students
  • Oral presentation (about 10 minutes) in the group of the project developed in the module "Entrepreneurship and Innovation". Elevator pitch about the project (1 minute)

Learning activities


Aiming to gather evidence of the achievement of learning outcomes (LO), the following activities will be carried out:

activity 1: Analysis of grammatical, syntactical and lexical features of technical register in the field of engineering (Content 1) (Evidence of Learning Outcomes LO1 and LO7). Individual activity

Making different exercises on 's structures, participles in –ing and –ed, shortening of relative clauses, and complex noun phrases.

  • Exercises on 's and the possessive case
  • Exercises on the reduction of relative clauses
  • Analysis of participles in –ing and –ed in technical texts
  • Exercises on complex nominal sentences

Regarding competencies, this activity has an impact on general competence CB1 and on crosscurricular competence CT1

This is 10% of the final mark

Specific goals:

At the end of the activity, students must be able to:

  • Identify and differentiate the use of 's structures with a particular focus on the Genitive Case, interpret them accordingly and produce them.
  • Know the different ways of reduction of relative clauses and reduce them accordingly
  • Know the function and correct translation of participles in -ing and -ed
  • Produces correct complex noun phrases

 

Activity 2: Technical register and technical translation. Reading comprehension of technical literature in the field of computing engineering (Content 2) (Evidence of Learning Outcomes LO2, LO3 and LO7). Individual activity

Turning non-technical register into technical register. Direct translation into Catalan or Spanish of technical passages previously selected from authentic technical literature (specialized magazines, books, technical magazines, Internet, …) Reading comprehension of technical passages and articles selected from bibliography sources in the field of engineering

  • Exercises on conversion from non-technical to technical register of selected passages
  • Direct Translation Into Catalan Gold OR SELECTED PASSAGES
  • Exercises on reading comprehension of technical texts

Regarding competencies, this activity has an impact on general competence CB1 and on crosscurricular competence CT1

This is 10% of the final mark

Specific goals:

At the end of the activity, students must be able to:

  • Produce simple technical passages according to the features of technical register
  • Translate technical literature into Catalan or Spanish according to basic literary criteria
  • Answer comprehension questions of selected technical passages or articles

 

Activity 3: Writing Skills (Content 3) (Evidence of Learning Outcomes LO4 and LO7). Individual activity

The student will practice writing texts and reports according to an academic style and will have to know the essential features to produce a summary or an abstract.

Taking the professional environment into account, the student will have to write formal letters to make orders, claims, information requests, and will also have to produce formal electronic mails.

  • Writing a report summary or an abstract
  • Producing other formal writings (emails, orders, claims,)

Regarding competencies, this activity has an impact on general competencies CB1 and CB4 and on crosscurricular competency CT1

This is 20% of the final mark

Specific Objectives:

At the end of the activity, students must be able to:

  • Differentiate formal from informal writings
  • Choose the appropriate type of formality in writings depending on the situation
  • Produce other formal writings
  • Produce an academic-style report on a project or piece of work and write a summary or an abstract

 

Activity 4: Oral Skills (content 4) (Evidence of Learning Outcomes LO5, LO6 and LO7) Group activity

Students will practice certain situations in the daily professional life of a computing engineer, such as testing information, making orders, participating in discussions on specific topics.

They will work on the most important aspects of a good oral presentation on a topic related to their subject matter.

They will have to foster group discussion on the topics presented

  • Exercises on listening comprehension
  • Short oral presentation of 2-3 minutes on a topic of interest to the student fostering group discussions and debates
  • Oral presentation in the group of about 10 minutes on the project developed for the module "Entrepreneurship and Innovation". An elevator pitch has to be made as well.
  • Oral exercises in the classroom

Regarding competencies, this activity has an impact on general competencies CB1 and CB4 and on crosscurricular competency CT1

This is 30% of the final mark. This activity has to be passed in order to comply with the learning outcomes

Specific Objectives: 

  • Communicate efficiently with reasonable accuracy and fluency in certain real professional situations
  • Make an effective oral presentation on a project developed in the group on the module "Entrepreneurship and Innovation".
  • Make an elevator pitch 

 

Activity 5: Exam (Content 1, 2 and 3) (Evidence of Learning Outcomes LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, and LO7) Individual activity

This is a written paper with exercises on the points studied in contents 1, 2 and 3 of the module.

Regarding competencies, this activity has an impact on general competencies CB1 and CB4 and on crosscurricular competency CT1

30% of the final mark. A minimum mark of 4 (out of 10) is required in this activity

Specific Objectives: 

  • Demonstrate to have acquired all the contents delivered all over the course and put them into practice (MECES-2 point a, point c)

 

 

In case of partial or total lockdown, the learning activities will remain the same.

Evaluation system


Assessment Methodology:

Homework and classroom exercises will be collected on all the items of the course according to the following assessment criteria:

  1. 10% of the final mark: exercises on 's structures, relative clauses and their possibilities of reduction, participles in –ing and –ed, complex nominal phrases, hyphenated phrases and specific vocabulary
  2. 10% of the final mark: exercises on conversion from non-technical to technical register, direct technical translation and reading comprehension
  3. 20% of the final mark: exercises on writing skills: formal letters, emails, reports, summaries,…
  4. 30% of the final mark: exercises on oral skills: listening comprehension, oral presentation and participation in discussions and debates. It is mandatory to pass this activity
  5. 30% of the final mark: written exam in which there will be exercises and tasks to demonstrate the acquisition of knowledge related to contents 1, 2 and 3 of the syllabus. A minimum mark of 4 (out of 10) is required.

 

If necessary, there will be a resit test of points 1, 2, 3 and 5 of the assessment (see above): 70% of the final mark. The remaining 30% corresponds to activity 4 above (Oral Skills)

Rules for Doing the Activities

 

If one of the activities, tests or exercises is not delivered in two time by the student, it will be considered as not assessed.

The student will not be allowed to use notes, dossier, or dictionaries in the exam (s)

 

VERY IMPORTANT:

 

Total or partial PLAGIARISM of any of the assignments will be automatically qualified as FAIL (0). And, if plagiarism is repeated, it may mean that the module has a definitive qualification of FAIL (0).

PLAGIARISM consists of copying text from unacknowledged sources, whether this is part of a sentence or a whole text, which is intended as the student's own text. It includes cutting and pasting from Internet sources, presented unmodified in the student's own text. PLAGIARISM IS A SERIOUS OFFENSE. Students must respect authors' intellectual property, always identifying the sources they may use. They must also be responsible for the originality and authenticity of their own texts.

REFERENCES


Basic

Handouts. J. Garcia. 2020

Complementary

English for Science and Technology, Trimble, L. Cambridge 1985

 

www.edn.com

The Essence of Technical Communication. Herbert L. Hirsch. IEEE Press. 2000

Technical Writing and Professional Communication for Nonnative Speakers of English, Huckin and Olsen. McGraw-Hill, 1991

Essential Grammar in Use. Murphy, R. Cambridge 2003

Polytechnic Dictionary of Spanish and English Languages. F. Beigbeder Atienza. Diaz de Santos, SA

Dictionary of Computer Science and Related Technologies. Michel Ginguay. Ed. Masson

McGraw-Hill Computer Dictionary

Dictionary of Information Technology. Peter Collin Publishing

 

www.esl-lab.com

 

www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish 

Test Your Professional English: Business: General. Flinders, Steve, and Steve Flinders. Harlow, Essex, Eng: Pearson Education, 2002. Print.

 

www.acm.org

 

www.cepis.org/upgrade

 

www.computer.org

 

https://www.eenewsautomotive.com/