English TX00BP13-3003
I am teaching 6 lessons in this course. The course content is: oral and written communication needed in the field of engineering. Product demonstrations /presentations. Explaining production processes. E-mailing. Technical shapes and measures. Reading skills related to professional information, texts and terms.
The main objective of the course is to enable students’ English usage in most common communication situations when travelling for work and communicating with foreign clients and colleagues.
By the end of the course a student is able to use the English language for professional communication. The student is able to interpret and explain texts of their own specialization line orally and in writing. The student is able to tell about the products in his/her field and to describe working methods and production processes both orally and in writing. The student understands and is able to compile documents needed in working life.
I set the objectives of each lesson I’m teaching in line with the main course objectives. The objectives I’ve set for my lessons:
Lesson 1. Telephone communication. Describing technical problems.
- By the end of the lesson students will have listened to, practised and produced functional language associated with making and receiving calls from customers/suppliers. By the end of the lesson students will have practised technical vocabulary needed to describe problems and malfunctions at production sites. They will have practised extensively the lexis and functional language in dialogues and role plays orally. They will have used the vocabulary also in writing by completing the assigned tasks.
Lesson 2. Numbers and special characters. Charts.
- As the correct usage of numbers is of utmost importance in the work of engineers, the main objective of the lesson is to drill usage and pronunciation of numbers, characters and formulae. By the end of the lesson students will have gained competence in producing numbers orally by completing numerous oral exercises in pairs and groups. The students will have also practised making and describing the graphs in English, presenting them in front of the class.
Lesson 3. At the airport. Airport terminology. Question formation.
- By the end of the class students will have gained competence in using functional language for airport travel and sounding polite functional language by doing numerous oral exercises and role plays in pairs. Students will have practised measurement and giving technical specifications. Students will have explained technical texts by giving specs on the products.
Lesson 4. Energy. Sources of power.
- Students will have studied and are to interpret texts of their specialisation in the energy field. They will have performed writing tasks to practice the field lexis and will have engaged in discussions about the energy industry fields and sources of power.
Lesson 5. At the gate of the industrial site. Engineers meet.
- By the end of the class the students will be able to produce functional language for asking the way and giving directions at an industrial site. They will have practised the vocabulary associated with industrial sites and navigating them. They will have practised the professional ‘small talk’ used at the initial meetings of customers/suppliers.
Lesson 6. At the hotel. Stating problems in English.
- By the end of the lesson students will have developed the listening skills for understanding the stated problems and speaking skills in stating the problems. They will have and extensively practised the booking and staying at a hotel functional language and lexis. The students will have performed practice exercises in pair work and role-plays, solving the problems associated with travelling and staying in a hotel, both orally and in writing.
Engineering English 5Y00CG05-3008
I am teaching 5 lessons in this course. The course content is oral and written communication needed in the field of technology. Trade fairs and product demonstrations. Explaining production processes. E-mailing. Technical shapes and measures. Reading skills related to professional information, texts and terms.
The main objective of the course is to enable students’ English usage in most common work communication situations when communicating with foreign clients and colleagues.
By the end of the course students are able to take into consideration the language style of the situation and the media. The student is able to interpret and explain texts of their own specialization line orally and in writing. The student is able to tell about the products in his/her field and to describe working methods and production processes both orally and in writing. The student understands and is able to compile documents needed in working life.
Lesson 1. Transportation.
- By the end of the lesson, students will have read and explained a text in the area of transportation orally in pairs and groups. Students will have received new technical and professional vocabulary items and practiced using them in an improvised speech. The students will be able to talk about modes of transport and design transportation methods for various products.
Lesson 2. Supply chain.
- By the end of the lesson, students will have familiarised themselves with the topic of supplying goods and materials to industrial sites and engineering companies. Students will have received and practiced new technical and professional lexis, both orally and in writing. They will have created and presented their company, practicing the lessonfunctional language. Students will have argued on the topic of sustainable logistics and supply chains.
Lesson 3. Elevator engineering.
- By the end of the lesson, students will have read, explained, and discussed multiple texts in mechanical elevator engineering, received and practiced new technical and professional vocabulary orally and in writing in pairs and in groups.
Lesson 4. Special characters and numbers.
- As the correct usage of numbers is of utmost importance in the work of engineers, the main objective of the lesson is to drill usage and pronunciation of numbers, characters and formulae. By the end of the lesson students will have gained competence in producing numbers orally by completing numerous oral exercises in pairs and groups. The students will have practised making and describing the graphs in English, presenting them in front of the class.
Lesson 5. Professional written communication.
- Written communication in English in the work of many engineering professionals is an everyday necessity. By the end of the lesson students will have learned the general structure of the professional e-mail and report writing, they will be able to distinguish between formal and informal language style units and will practice professional writing by writing, reading and replying to each other’s e-mails in English.
The objectives are presented to students at the beginning of each class in order to direct their learning.
Intercultural Competencies course T000103
Course main objectives:
By the end of the course students have:
– deeper understanding of culture and cultural differences in general
– concepts to discuss about cultural issues
– skills to work and communicate in intercultural environment.
The course has a “culture general -approach”. The study topics among others are: defining culture, intercultural skills and sensitivity, cultural adaptation, intercultural communication and teamwork skills. The objective is to move from cultural awareness to understanding and appreciation.
Objectives of my lessons:
Lesson 1. Cultural adaptation.
The objective of the class is to acquaint students with what cultural adaptation is, it’s stages, how it might be different for people from different cultures; define culture shock, with the help of theory understand the reasons why culture shock happens and how people adapt.
Lesson 2. Cultural observation vs Interpretation.
The Min objective of the class is to give students theoretical tools to assess intercultural situations and move beyond the assumptions and rapid judgements. Through several cultural exercises students will develop the skill of observation and will train coming up with a number of possible explanations of the intercultural situation before making their evaluation. The main objective of the exercises is to increase students’ ability to understand cultural differences and be able to communicate in intercultural environments.
METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH TO PLANNING LESSONS
Language is born in interaction and communication with the surrounding world. We use language to understand the incoming information from the world and communicate what we need to say. Language is used and must be learned through interaction. I am a dedicated follower of communicative language teaching methodology, which sees interaction as main means and final goal of the learning process. My lessons are highly interactive. I build my lessons so that the students have a chance to produce the language items and units studied immediately, especially in speech through peer interactions.
In planning an efficient language lesson stating the objectives is the 1st thing I do. What knowledge/ skills do I want my students to have opportunity to acquire? Based on that I decde on the structure of the lesson. Structurally language learning can be seen as the combination of 3 systems (lexis, grammar and functional language) and 4 skills: reading, listening, writing and speaking. When I decide on what I want my students to learn / practice during the class, I look at it structurally and decide whether it’s going to be a system lesson, a skill lesson, or a system + skill lesson. Most often it’s a system + skill lesson. Very common combinations I use would be:
reading skill + lexis system
listening skill + functional language system
reading skill + grammar system
speaking skill+ functional language
speaking skill+ lexis system, etc.
In my teaching I also use TBLT (task-based language teaching) approach, when the objective of a class or a class stage is to complete certain close to real world/ work task in pairs or groups using English. For example, in the teaching practice I’m using activities where students need to interview peers and create and present a chart, develop a detailed plan for transportation of certain goods, write and answer work related e-mails.
Most of the lessons during the teaching practice were designed as combination of systems and skills lessons, incorporating tasks.
When I plan my lessons, I design the procedure based on system and skill teaching communicative methodology. The teaching practice in OUAS was not an exception. Most of the lessons were designed according to the lessons’ target language points and skill needed to be addressed.
Most often I design my SYSTEMS lessons (or parts of a lesson) following the stages below:
- Engage stage.
Aim of the stage is to set students into an English mood and t to generate interest in the topic and context in a fun, interesting and quick way. It could be done with a picture, puzzle, short video, quote, personalised questions, game, etc. - Contextualisation stage or a diagnostic task.
Aim is to show usage of items in context and convey or test the general meaning of the items. Usually it’s through a written or recorded text, teacher’s story.
Diagnostic: give a task to check how much of the target language students already know and what needs to be expanded or paid more attention to. - Meaning illustration stage.
Aim of the stage is to to illustrate the concept of the new items, make the students discover the meaning. Usually I do it with a guided discovery task, where students have to deduce the rules/ meaning from the context and find the correct meaning. For example a matching task. - Meaning check stage.
Aim: to check that learners understand the concept of the new items. Could be done with concept check questions. - Form clarification stage.
Aim of the stage: to clarify parts of the form of the new item especially tricky areas or where the students are likely to make errors. - Pronunciation clarification.
Stage aim: to highlight the pronunciation of the new item and specifically stress. - Restricted practice.
Stage aim is to to provide initial accuracy-focused practice. It could be done in writing or orally. - Freer practice.
Aim of the stage is to to provide communicative practice of the target language. That is where students get a chance to try to reproduce the language items is a free speech/ writing. - Error collection and correction.
Aim: to encourage learners to learn from their errors. Collecting overheard 4-5 mistakes throughout the previous stages and encouraging students to correct them on their own.
Every stage has pair share (except for meaning check) and open class feedback conducted by me. Pair share helps to produce language items without feeling pressure, promotes collaboration. Open class feedback encourages students to stay tuned throughout the lesson paying attention to how lesson progresses, as after pair share, I can call on anyone. Students stay stimulated.
Most often I design my SKILLS lessons (or parts of a lesson) following the stages below:
- Generate interest in topic stage.
Aim is to generate interest in the general topic of discussion in a fun and quick way. It could be done with a picture, puzzle, mind map, short video, quote, personalised questions, game, etc. - Generate interest in text stage.
Aim is to generate interest in the recorded, written or produced by the teacher text. - Orientation to the text.
Aim : to orientate, to set context of what they are going to read/listen to, who is speaking, how long it is, accent, any culturally relevant information student need to know for comprehension. - Gist task stage (Reading/listening task 1).
Aim is to have students practice reading and listening for gist, quickly without understanding every word. - Pre-teach vocabulary stage.
Aim is to ‘unblock’ the meaning of key vocabulary necessary to succeed with the detailed reading or listening comprehension task that follows. - Detailed comprehension task stage (Reading/listening task 2).
Aim: to provide the students with an opportunity to read for details and important points in the text. - Personal response to the text/topic stage.
Stage aim: to have students talk freely about the content of the text and then topic discussed in the lesson. - Error collection and correction stage.
Stage aim is to correct any errors heard and to allow the students to participate in the correction of these.
Like with “systems” every stage in “skills” has pair share and open class feedback conducted by me.
Example of a teaching lesson plan 1 (English TX00BP13-3003).
- Engage in topic (text): picture guessing game. In pairs make a guess of what’s going on?
Interaction pattern: pair share –> open class feedback - Orientation to the listening text: male and female speakers, accent British, length 3.22 min.
Interaction pattern: teacher - Listening task 1 (gist task): find answers to 2 questions on the board when you listen.
Interaction pattern: solo–> pair share–> open class - Vocabulary: matching task for meaning illustration.
Interaction pattern: solo–> pair share –> open class - Meaning check: open class CCQs (concept check questions).
Interaction pattern: teacher + students - Pronunciation drill.
Interaction pattern: all together –> random individual - Listening task 2 (detailed comprehension): Mona’s notepad. Listen again and check if Mona’s written down all the system’s malfunctions Gary mentioned correctly.
Interaction pattern: solo–> pair share–> open class - Dialogue role play: use the vocabulary from the text to role play the dialogue you just listened.
Interaction pattern: in pairs. No open class feedback. - Role play cards: create a dialogue with your partner based on the situation you receive on the card.
Interaction pattern: pair work. Random pair open class feedback. (2-3 pairs). - Language point: prepositions of Time. Guided discovery for meaning illustration –> substitution table.
Interaction pattern: solo–> pair share–> open class - Meaning and form check: elicit answers in open class.
Interaction pattern: teacher + students - Restricted practice: gap fill exercise. Insert the correct preposition.
Interaction pattern: solo –> pair share–> open class - Freer practice: preposition board game. Throw the dice and make a sentence with the time word you land on. Use the correct preposition. Peers make sure the preposition is correct. Correct position use: 1 point, incorrect: = O.
Interaction pattern: groups of 3. Peer feedback. No open class feedback. - Generate interest in text: brainstorm 5-7 reasons why engineers travel for work?
Interaction pattern: groups of 3 –> open class feedback (2 groups). - Reading task 1: arrange the information from the text in the correct order.
Interaction pattern: solo–> pair share–> open class - Reading task 2 (Detailed comprehension): decide whether the statements are true or false.
Interaction pattern: solo –> pair share –>open class - Personal response to text/ topic: discussion questions.
Interaction pattern: pair share –> open class - Alias game for lesson lexis recap.
Interaction pattern: pair share. No feedback. - Error correction.
Interaction pattern: pair share–> open class - Feedback.
Interaction pattern: students –> teacher.
Example of a teaching lesson plan 2 (Engineering English 5Y00CG05-3008).
TRANSPORTATION.
1) Engage in the topic + text: mindmap. Transportation: Why? What? When?
Interaction pattern: groups of 3 –> open class feedback.
2) Gist task. (Reading task 1): read the text and put the paragraph titles in the correct order.
Interaction pattern: solo –> pair share –> open class feedback.
3) Preteach vocabulary. Task 1. (unblocking the meaning): choose the most appropriate word option.
Interaction pattern: solo–> pair share–> open class.
Task 2. Explain the meaning of the word to your partner in English.
Interaction pattern: pairs –> open class feedback: concept check questions (CCQs).
4) Detailed comprehension task (Reading task 2): mark the statements true or false. If false, provide true information.
Interaction pattern: solo–> pair share–> open class.
5) Personal response: ask and answer questions in English.
Interaction pattern: pair share –> open class with random questions on the list.
6) Lexis. Diagnostic task: Flinga. List the vehicles for air, rail, road, water transportation. Use internet and dictionaries to find the names of vehicles.
Interaction pattern: groups of 4 –> open class feedback with the map on Flinga.
7) Meaning illustration: match pictures with words.
Interaction pattern: pair share –> open class.
8) Pronunciation drill of the unfamiliar vehicle names or with most tricky sounds.
Interaction pattern: all together –> random individual.
9) Restricted practice (oral): choose means of transportation and vehicles to use for transporting goods from point A to point B.
Interaction pattern: groups of 3-4 –> open class feedback.
11) Lexis revision: Kahoot! game.
Interaction pattern: solo.
12) Error correction.
Interaction pattern: pair share –>open class
13) Feedback.
Interaction pattern: students –> teacher.
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