| Competences |
| Type A | Code | Competences Specific |
| Type B | Code | Competences Transversal |
| B8 | Be able to work in groups and in a multilingual and multidisciplinary environment. | |
| CT1 | Use information in a foreign language effectively. | |
| CT5 | Communicate information clearly and precisely to a variety of audiences. | |
| Type C | Code | Competences Nuclear |
| Learning outcomes |
| Type A | Code | Learning outcomes |
| Type B | Code | Learning outcomes |
| B8 |
Know the language used in the field of industry and information and communication technology. Be able to read and understand texts in English within the field of engineering. Be able to draw up technical documents in English. Understand technical instructions expressed orally in English. Be able to express themselves in a international working environment. | |
| CT1 |
Manage and communicate information clearly and effectively. | |
| CT5 |
Produce quality texts that have no grammatical or spelling errors, are properly structured and make appropriate and consistent use of formal and bibliographic conventions. Draw up texts that are structured, clear, cohesive, rich and of the appropriate length Draw up texts that are appropriate to the communicative situation, consistent and persuasive Use the techniques of non-verbal communication and the expressive resources of the voice to make a good oral presentation Draw up texts that are structured, clear, cohesive, rich and of the appropriate length Produce a persuasive, consistent and precise discourse that can explain complex ideas and effectively interact with the audience | |
| Type C | Code | Learning outcomes |
| Contents |
| Topic | Sub-topic |
| UNIT 1: HISTORICAL FACTS IN ENGINEERING | 1.1 Chronological description: narrative texts 1.2 Review of verb tenses: ways to express time sequence 1.3 Texts: History of Engineering, Energy Supply, Electronics in the Home, Electromagnetism, History of Computers, History of Electricity / Podcasts: Studying in the UK, Global Workers. Genres: Encyclopedias |
| UNIT 2: A COMPUTERIZED WORLD | 2.1 Physical and function description: ways to describe the physical properties, function and parts of a device, as well as how something works. 2.2 Review of prepositions and the position of adjectives (color, origin, material, purpose). 2.3 Phrasal verbs. 2.4 Texts: The IPad, Cloud Computing, Describing a Computer and How it Works, What is a Tablet PC? Tech Habits That Need to Stop / Podcasts: Engineering projects, Finding Information. |
| UNIT 3: ELECTRONIC AND ELECTRICAL DEVICES | 3.1 Making definitions: relative clauses and relative pronouns. Reduced relative clauses. Defining and non-defining relative clauses. 3.2 Structure and use of compound nouns. 3.3 Common genres in engineering. Magazine article and Research Article. 3.4 Texts: The Transistor, Graphene Electronics, Home Automation, What is a LED screen? Flexible Home Automation / Podcasts: Nanotechnology (video), Effective websites, The Future of English. |
| UNIT 4: A GREENER WORLD: RENEWABLE ENERGIES | 4.1 Expressing cause and effect. 4.2 Process description and sequence markers. 4.3 Comparison and contrast. 4.4 Visual information and in-text reference. Conditional sentences to express a hypothesis. 4.5 Genres and text layout: headings in texts. 4.6 Texts: Alternative Sources of Energy, Electricity Generation, Sources of Electricity, Nuclear Power, Nuclear Accidents, How Does a Nuclear Power Plant Work? How a Solar Cell Works / Podcasts: A Greener World; Climate Change; Hybrid Cars; Fuel from Garbage. |
| UNIT 5: AN INTERCONNECTED CITY: MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES | 5.1 Making Predictions in English. 5.2 E-mail writing and Netiquette in electronic communication. 5.3 Formal and informal language in electronic communication. Writing appropriate messages and avoiding flaming 5.4 Writing Practice on common academic situations (email writing) 5.5 Podcasts: ESL Business Writing Video - Email Tune-up (video), Lifelong Learning. |
| UNIT 6: ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION | 6.1 Expressions used in classifications. Ways of expressing criteria and giving examples. 6.2 Review of modal verbs expressing obligation, probability, deduction. 6.3 Review of linking words: coordination, subordination, and sentence adverbials. 6.4 Texts: Robotics, Types of Robots, The Three Laws of Robotics, Robots: The Future is Now, Miniature Robotics. / Podcasts: Biologically-inspired robots (video). Genres: textbooks, newspaper article. |
| UNIT 7: BIOTECHNOLOGY AND BIOENGINEERING | 7.1 Focus on all four skills: intensive reading, paragraph writing, expressing your opinion on ethical issues related to the use of technology, and listening for specific information. 7.2 Fostering critical thinking skills using bioethical issues and related topics. 7.3 Texts: What is Biotechnology? Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), What is Bioethics? The Ethical Implications of Disruptive Technologies, Gene Editing: God's Will or God's Won't. 7.4 Online Videos: Introduction to Bioethics, What Happens to Society if We Live Beyond 130 years? 7 Times Science Played God. |
| UNIT 8: ENGINEERING PROJECTS: ORAL PRESENTATIONS | 8.1 Designing technical presentations. 8.2 Stages for the design of an oral presentation: planning, delivery, evaluation 8.3 Online Videocasts. Extensive practice on oral presentations through activities and videos. 8.4 Vocabulary and expressions used the the different parts of an oral presentation. |
| Planning |
| Methodologies :: Tests | ||||||||||
| Competences | (*) Class hours |
Hours outside the classroom |
(**) Total hours | |||||||
| Introductory activities |
|
1 | 4 | 5 | ||||||
| Seminars |
|
25 | 20 | 45 | ||||||
| Presentations / oral communications |
|
10 | 18 | 28 | ||||||
| Assignments |
|
10 | 20 | 30 | ||||||
| IT-based practicals |
|
1 | 6 | 7 | ||||||
| PBL (Problem Based Learning) |
|
6 | 10 | 16 | ||||||
| Personal attention |
|
3 | 0 | 3 | ||||||
| Practical tests |
|
2 | 6 | 8 | ||||||
| Multiple-choice objective tests |
|
2 | 6 | 8 | ||||||
| (*) On e-learning, hours of virtual attendance of the teacher. (**) The information in the planning table is for guidance only and does not take into account the heterogeneity of the students. | ||||||||||
| Methodologies |
| Description | |
| Introductory activities | At the beginning of the course, students have to take an online placement test and send their results to the professor, indicating the level of English achieved. |
| Seminars | Throughout the course, the instructor will explain the main characteristics of Technical English in Engineering. Special emphasis will be placed on students’ improvement of their English language skills in technical contexts. To do so, they will be provided with the necessary resources to read and write technical texts, as well as to listen to and talk about different topics related to their field of study. |
| Presentations / oral communications | Throughout Unit 8, the instructor will provide guidelines to deliver an efficient oral presentation related to the fields of Engineering, including how to deal with the Question and Answer period. Students will become familiar with usual expressions used when delivering presentations in English. Students are required to put into practice these strategies and expressions when delivering their own oral presentation at the end of the course. |
| Assignments | Throughout the different units of the course, students will learn the most important grammar characteristics of technical discourse in Engineering and will use them for their course project. In order to complete their course project, students will have to find information on a given topic related to their discipline; then they will have to write a document in powerpoint format and will use it to deliver their oral presentation in groups before the end of the course. |
| IT-based practicals | Throughout the course, students have to complete different tasks (containing texts, mp3 files or videocasts) related to a specific aspect or topic of Engineering which should be submitted via Moodle within the set deadlines. These tasks are used to practice the different aspects and skills dealt with in class. Students should complete the different tasks individually. |
| PBL (Problem Based Learning) | This course places emphasis on group work by enhancing the collaborative writing of documents and the oral presentation of a topic related to Engineering as a problem to be solved in which different members discuss the best approach. |
| Personal attention | During the course, instructors will be available during office hours to solve doubts or answer queries regarding "the course project" and the oral presentation. |
| Personalized attention |
| Description |
| During the course, instructors will be available during office hours to solve doubts or answer queries regarding "the course project" and the oral presentation. |
| Assessment |
| Methodologies | Competences | Description | Weight | ||||
| Presentations / oral communications |
|
During the last two weeks of the course, different groups of students will have to deliver an oral presentation for 15/20 minutes based on their course project. Each member of the group has to deliver one part of the presentation and be able to respond to potential questions about it. This activity is used to assess the oral skills of each student within the field of Engineering. | 20 % | ||||
| Assignments |
|
Before delivering oral presentations, each group has to submit its course project (in powerpoint format) about a topic related to the field of Engineering. This collaborative document allows instructors to assess students’ ability to work in teams and to do so in English. | 10 % | ||||
| IT-based practicals |
|
Throughout the course, students have to complete different tasks which should be submitted via Moodle within the set deadlines. These tasks are used to practice the different aspects and skills dealt with in class. | 10 % | ||||
| Practical tests |
|
The final exam includes activities and questions in which students have to demonstrate they have learnt the grammatical and discoursive aspects of technical English texts dealt with throughout the course. | 30 % | ||||
| Multiple-choice objective tests |
|
The final exam also includes activities with multiple-choice questions about expressions frequently used in engineering texts. | 20 % |
||||
| Others | Class attendance and active participation throughout the course are also taken into account for the assessment of the course. Students have to attend, at least, half of the classes in this course. |
10 % |
| Other comments and second exam session | |||
|
Use of electronic devices during examinations At the beginning of exams, students will be required to turn off completely their electronic devices (either mobile phones, laptops or tablets) and keep them either within their bags or on the instructor's desk. During the exam, it is completely forbidden to have these devices on and answer messages or calls. Failure to follow these regulations will imply that the student will be disqualified and his/her grade will be 0. FIRST CALL is divided into: 1) Final exam (including practical texts and multiple-choice tests) 30 + 20 = 50% of the final grade 2) Course project (including both the written document in ppt format and the oral presentation): 10% written document + 20% oral presentation = 30% 3) Tasks using ICTsubmitted via Moodle= 10% 4) Attendance and active participation = 10 % The final grade will be the result of the different percentages of the activities mentioned above: 50 + 30 + 10 + 10 = 100 %. Nevertheless, in order to be able to average all the grades earned in the course, students should obtain at least 4,5 in the final exam. Only those students who attended at least half of the sessions and followed continuous assessment (i.e. tasks, written document and oral presentation) will be allowed to take the final exam. SECOND CALL: If students failed to pass their first call based on continuous assessment, they will have to take just an exam (with practical texts and multiple choice tests about all the contents of the course) for the second call. The result of this exam will determine the final grade of the course. |
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| Sources of information |
| Basic |
Rueda, Carmen, Workbook of Technical English, 2018, URV
Dummett, Paul , Energy English - For the Gas and Electricity Industries, 2011, Heinle ELT
Brieger, Nick and Allison Pohl, Technical English - Vocabulary and Grammar , 2008, Heinle ELT |
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| Complementary |
Williams, Ivor, English for Science and Engineering, 2008, Heinle ELT
Ibbotson, Mark, Cambridge English for Engineering, 2008, Cambridge University Press
Ibbotson, Mark, Professional English in Use. Engineering with Answers: Technical English for Professionals, 2009, Cambridge University Press
Cox, Martin R., What Every Student Should Know About Preparing Effective Oral Presentations, 1a edició, 2006, Allyn & Bacon
Raman, Meenakshi and Sharma, Sangeeta, Technical Communication: English Skills for Engineers, 2ª edició, 2011, Oxford University Press
Powell, M., , Presenting in English. How to Give Successful Presentations, 1996, Language Teaching Publications
Bombardó, C. and M. Aguilar and C. Barahona, Technical Writing: A Guide for Effective Communication, 2007 (2ª edició 2008), Edicions UPC (Politext) |
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| Recommendations |
| Other comments | |
| Academic Plagiarism: You must do your own work throughout the course. If it is determined that you have plagiarized a task from the Internet or from another student, you will receive a zero for the assignment. If you do it again, you will fail the whole course. If the instructor finds that your course project has been plagiarized in part or in its entirety, you will receive a zero for the project and will fail the course. Besides, the Dean of Academic Affairs for our College of Engineering will also be notified. Remember that academic plagiarism is a serious academic offense. |
(*)The teaching guide is the document in which the URV publishes the information about all its courses. It is a public document and cannot be modified. Only in exceptional cases can it be revised by the competent agent or duly revised so that it is in line with current legislation.