Academic year 2014-15

Communication in Technical English

Degree:	Code:	Type:
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science	21423	Compulsory subject, 3rd year
Bachelor's Degree in Telematics Engineering	21730	Compulsory subject, 3rd year
Bachelor's Degree in Audiovisual Systems Engineering	21615	Compulsory subject, 3rd year

 

ECTS credits:

4

Workload:

100 hours

Trimester:

1st

 

Department:	Dept. of Information and Communication Technologies
Coordinator:	Ralph Andrzejak
Teaching staff:	Ralph Andrzejak, Narcis Pares, Simon Mille, Mónica Dominguez Bajo
Language:	English
Timetable:
Building:	Communication campus - Poblenou

 

Introduction

The course on communication in technical English is a fundamental course in the degrees of ‘Enginyeria en Informàtica‘, ‘Enginyeria en Sistemes Audiovisuals‘, and ‘Enginyeria en Telemàtica’. It is held in the first trimester of the third academic year. It is important for all courses in the above degrees for which the study of English text books is required. Furthermore, the course is essential to attend classes in the degrees that are presented in English, during which the students have to express themselves in English, and for which homework has to be delivered in English.

The aim of the course is that all students improve their skills in communication in technical English. It will provide guidelines for the conceptualisation, structuring and writing of short as well as extended English texts. It will also contain guidelines for the conceptualisation, preparation and presentation of seminar talks in English. It will provide recommendations for the writing of formal emails. The students will learn to improve their comprehension of written and spoken English texts. The students will lead round table discussion. The importance of English in the context of university studies, science, and the job market will be illustrated. The professors will indicate valuable sources of academic and scientific information in English to the students. 

 

Prerequisites

This course does not require pre-knowledge from other courses of the degrees. 

 

Associated competences

General competences

Specific competences

Instrumental · Capacity to communicate orally and in writing in English in academic and professional contexts, both before expert and non-expert audiences. · Ability to search and manage information. · Capacity to analyze, synthesise and organize information. · Capacity to apply knowledge to the analysis of situations and problem resolution. Interpersonal · Capacity to work in international and interdisciplinary contexts. Systemic · Capacity to recognise and understand diversity and multiculturalism.

·  Appreciation of the importance of English for university studies, science, and the engineering job market. ·  Comprehension of written English text. ·  Comprehension of spoken English text. ·  Extraction and distilling of information from various English sources. ·  Preparation and Presentation of English Seminars. ·  Proficiency in written and oral communication in English

 

Assessment

1. a.   Deliveries

Article and oral presentation

You (every student individually) will

• Select one current topic from engineering
• e.g. cloud computing, robotics, video games in education, etc.
• Collect information about your topic
• Write a summary article about your topic (25 points). The deadline will be published in the first theory class. Afterwards professors publish all articles on Campus Global.
• Make a 10 minutes oral presentation about your topic (25 points). All sessions will be scheduled in the last two S-classes and the last P-classes. The exact schedule will be made available shortly after the submission of the articles.

Short tests

• Along the trimester we will make two or three short written exams (a total of 15 points for all exams). These exams will be held in the theory or practica sessions. The exact dates of the exams will not be announced beforehand. What content the students should prepare for these exams will be explained in the second theory session.

Discussion of oral presentation

You (every student individually) will

• Contribute to the discussion of the oral presentations of two other students
• Once the schedule for the oral presentations is published, you read the articles of the other students in your sessions.
• You select two different topics that interest you, say topic A and B.
• You ask two questions during the oral presentation sessions. You will have to ask one of your questions directly before the presentation of topic A. This question will be based solely on your reading of the article about topic A. (5 points)
• You will ask one other question directly after the presentation of topic B. You can base your question on the abstract and on the oral presentation of topic B. (5 points)

Short summary and question rounds

You (every student individually) will:

• First S-classes:
• Read a text and make a one/two minute oral summary (3 points). You can choose from texts with different levels of difficulty.
• Ask two questions after the summaries of two other students (2 points). 

• Second S-classes:
• Watch and listen to a short information video and make a one/two minute oral summary (3 points). You can choose from videos with different levels of difficulty. Ask two questions after the summaries of two other students (2 points).

Discussion rounds

• First three P-classes:

  • You will participate in discussions rounds. Any topic related to engineering, technology or society can be discussed. The topics will be decided jointly by the students before each discussion. In each of the three discussion rounds, you should make two valid contributions. What a valid contribution is, will be explained in the first P-classes. Each contribution will be credited with 2.5 points. Accordingly, in each round, you can earn 5 points - a total of 15 in the three rounds. In one week, you cannot earn more than 5 points, even if you make more than two contributions.

1. Grading system

• You can earn a total of 100 points. 
• Your final grade will be your number of points divided by 10.
• You need a grade of 5.0 to pass the course. If you do not pass, you need at least 30.0 points without the points of the article and oral presentation to enter in the July evaluation.
• All points -except for the article- are earned during the classes. If you do not come to the classes, you cannot recover these points. The only exception is if you are ill at the day of the class and have a medical certificate. No other reasons will be accepted. No exceptions will be made.
• There is no final exam.

• If you have earned at least 30.0 points without the points of the article and oral presentation, you can submit a new article and present a new oral presentation in the July evaluation. The points in this July evaluation will replace those earned for the article and oral presentation during the first trimester. Your grade will be calculated again. If you then reach a grade of at least 5.0, you pass.

• If the sum of points without the points of the article and oral presentation is 29.99 points or less, you cannot enter in the July evaluation. You have to do the course again next year.

 

• Summary

 

Categoryc	Elements	Weight	Recoverable
Treballsa	Article	25%	Yes
Proves d’execucióa	Oral summary of texts / Questions	5%	No
	Oral summary of videos / Questions	5%	No
	Round table discussions	15%	No
	Questions on oral presentations of other students	10%	No
	Short exams	15%	No
Proves de validació d’execucióa	Oral presentations	25%	Yes

 

 

^aWe here use the official Catalan terms for the categories.

 

 

Contents

1) Introduction.

Review of the importance of English in various contexts. Overview of the delivery structure of the course. Clarification and motivation of the goals of the course. Overview of the essentials of successful technical communication.

2) Recommendations for a good writing style.

Detailed guidelines for the selection of the right English words and the writing of English sentences. Writing of physical and technical units. Avoiding plagiarism.

3) Writing abstracts in technical English.

The aim of abstracts. Elements of abstracts. Detailed guidelines for the writing of abstracts. 

4) Writing short documents in technical English.

Examples and elements of short documents. Steps of writing short documents in technical English. Detailed guidelines on the correct use of references.

5) Oral presentations in technical English.

Examples of presentations in technical English. Guidelines for the conceptualisation, preparation, and presentation of seminar talks.

6) Writing extended research reports in technical English.

Examples and elements of research reports. Detailed guidelines on how to write extended research reports. 

7) Guidelines for formal email writing.

8) Indications of valuable sources of academic and scientific information for undergraduate studies and beyond. Review of sources of academic online lectures. 

 

Methodology

The course corresponds to 4 ECTS corresponding to 100 hours or workload for the students. Each student will attend 18 hours of theory classes, 10 hours of practice sessions, and 8 hours of seminar sessions. Accordingly, 36 hours are spent in classes. 20 hours are assigned to the collection of information needed to prepare the article and seminar (see Section 5). 20 hours are assigned to the writing of the article. 15 hours can be used to prepare the oral presentation. The remaining 9 hours should be spent to prepare the exams as well as for the study of text books and didactic resources.

In the theory classes, the professors will present the content summarized in Section 4. Furthermore, exemplary homework deliveries will be discussed in detail in the theory sessions. The purpose of this feedback is to indicate and avoid common mistakes. In the first two seminar sessions, the students will give short summaries of short texts and information videos. In the last two seminar sessions, the students will present their seminars. In all four sessions, the participation of all students forms part of the continuous evaluation (see Section 5). In the practice sessions, the professors and students will jointly discuss extended English texts and information videos on engineering topics. One session will be dedicated to the comprehension of the different English international accents, and several sessions will consist of an round-table debate on a current topic of engineering.

 

Resources

• A number of valuable of sources of academic and scientific information in English will be specified during the classes.
• C. Turk and J. Kirkman, Effective writing, Second Edition, Spon Press, 1989