Engineering Communication Skills

Objectives

Engineering Communication Skills is a course that introduces you to the technical and academic language and skills that you need to study specific subjects in English during your degree.

The main aim of the course is to familiarise you with dealing with basic technical communication at university level. To do this you will:

Improve your reading, speaking, writing and listening skills in English in a technical context.

Build up your knowledge of technical language in English.

Demonstrate learner autonomy by maximising use of learning resources and producing quality work.

Learning outcomes

Participants will be able to...

1. Understand and analyse specialised academic texts looking for general and specific information.
2. Understand everyday conversations and the general idea of technical discourse.
3. Gain competence in writing more effectively and precisely.
4. Participate with a certain confidence and coherence in conversations in class or in small groups.
5. Prepare and give a technical presentation.
6. Understand technical vocabulary and grammatical rules and apply them to some extent in context.

Competencies

General skills

• Show a positive attitude to lifelong learning, innovation, creating value and acquiring knowledge.

Specific skills

• Work in a multilingual, multidisciplinary environment, and give oral presentations and write reports in English in the field of science and engineering.

Basic skills

• Students can communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialists and non-specialists.

Core skills

• Become the protagonist of one's own learning process in order to achieve personal and professional growth and acquire all-round training for living and learning in a context of respect for linguistic, social, cultural, gender and economic diversity.
• Use oral, written and audiovisual forms of communication, in one's own language and in foreign languages, with a high standard of use, form and content.

Content

1. Technical vocabulary
2. Listening: Everyday and technical conversations and monologues set in a professional context
3. Reading: Short technical texts and articles
4. Oral communication: Class discussions, debates and authentic interaction in the classroom
5. Oral production: Technical presentations
6. Writing: email, opinion essay, for and against essay, report and motivational letter

Evaluation

Course assessment is a mixture of formative and summative assessment. The final mark of the subject (NF) is the weighted average of the marks of the following items.

Component 1. Theory and Skills

• Test 1 (20% of NF): Writing, Grammar and Vocabulary, Listening. May be retaken.
• Test 2 (25% of NF): Writing, Grammar and Vocabulary, Listening. May be retaken.
• Test 3 (10% of NF): Speaking.

Component 2. Practicals

• Speaking (15% of NF): Presentation, Discussion, Debate
• International Project - Introduction video, meeting video and final presentation (15% of NF).
• Class participation (5% of NF)

Component 3. Reports and Exercises

• Reading Comprehension (10% of NF)

* Absence from classwork results in the following: 25% penalisation of group mark for justified absence and 50% for unjustified absence.

The final course mark will be obtained from summing the average scores of the different assessed activities.

Other criteria

• Attendance to practicals is compulsory.
• Unjustified absence from three or more practical activities will lead to a Fail grade.
• Justified absence from more than 50% of practicals will result in a mark of zero for the Practicals component.
• In general, assessment is in person.
• Students may retake activities, if applicable, in the reassessment period.

Methodology

Participants have approximately 60 contact hours in class, 4h a week and 90 hours of autonomous work. Class sessions require participation in English, group and individual work.

Attendance is compulsory during the Engineering Communication sessions.

Bibliography

Bibliography

• Mann, Malcolm & Taylore-Knowles, Steve (2008). Destination B2: Grammar and Vocabulary with Answer Key. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/40792840/Destination_B2_Grammar_and_Vocabulary_with_Answer_key

Reading

Teachers will provide complementary bibliography and compulsory reading throughout the course via the Virtual Campus.