richard west moscow november 2014. what is engineering vocabulary? who should teach it? how do...
TRANSCRIPT
VOCABULARY IN ENGINEERING
PROJECTSRichard West
Moscow November 2014
WHAT is engineering vocabulary? WHO should teach it? HOW do learners learn/teachers teach it? WITH WHAT? What resources are available?
VOCABULARY IN ENGINEERING PROJECTS - outline
Technical/specialist
Sub-technical/semi-technical
General/common-core
WHAT? What is engineering vocabulary?
The terms of one field/a group of closely-related fields
Unfamiliar to the layman (pendlandite) Includes confusing terms that look familiar
but are not (pillar, plug, pond) Not included in a general ELT dictionary Small vocabulary (mining = 400 terms)
WHAT? Technical/specialist vocabulary
Non-specialist Some common specialist terms Included in a general ELT dictionary Known to the advanced learner 25,000-35,000 words
WHAT?General/common-core vocabulary
There is, of course, a vast vocabulary of technical words, but the problem is not so frightening as it looks. .... Much more difficult are the semi-scientific or semi-technical words, which have a whole range of meanings and are frequently used idiomatically ... words such as work and plant and load and feed and force. Words like these look harmless, but they can cause a lot of trouble for the student. (Herbert 1965: v)
WHAT?Sub-/semi- technical vocabulary
Items which express notions general to all or several specialised disciplines, e.g. factor, method and function.
WHAT?Sub-/semi- technical vocabulary
Items that have a specialised meaning in one or more disciplines, in addition to a different meaning in general language. Bug in computer science, for instance, is different from bug as we know it in everyday use. Solution has different specialised meanings in mathematics and chemistry, in addition to its general language meaning.
WHAT?Sub-/semi- technical vocabulary
Items which are not used in general language but which have different meanings in several specialised disciplines. Morphological, for instance, means different things to linguists and botanists.
WHAT?Sub-/semi- technical vocabulary
Items which are traditionally viewed as general language vocabulary but which have restricted meanings in certain specialised disciplines. In botany, effective simply means “take effect”; it carries no evaluative meaning. In the same discipline, genes which are expressed have observable effects, i.e. are more apparent physically, as opposed to being masked. Expressed in botany is therefore not associated with emotional or verbal behaviour as is the case in general language.
WHAT?Sub-/semi- technical vocabulary
General language items which are used, in preference to other semantically equivalent items, to describe or comment on technical processes or functions. For example, a recent examination of a corpus of biology textbooks revealed that photosynthesis, and other processes such as digestion, do not, apparently, ever happen’; they overwhelmingly take place and occasionally occur. Take place and occur can therefore be regarded as sub-technical vocabulary.
WHAT?Sub-/semi- technical vocabulary
Items which are used in specialised texts to perform specific rhetorical functions. These are items which signal the writer’s intentions or his evaluation of the material presented. Johns and Dudley-Evans (1980) give the following examples of expressions used in Plant Biology lectures: “One explanation is ...”, “Others have said ...” and “It has been pointed out by ...”
(Baker 1988: 92)
WHAT?Sub-/semi- technical vocabulary
Technical/SpecialistSpecialist?
Sub-technical/semi-technicalESP teacher?
General/common-core
General-English teacher
WHO?Who teaches what?
ESP teacher Can assume that general/common-core
vocabulary has been taught Can be expected to know/teach sub-/semi-
technical vocabulary Should not be expected to teach technical/
specialist vocabulary Can be expected to teach technical
vocabulary recognition and learning strategies
WHO?ESP teacher
Technical vocabulary or specialist terminology has a low frequency in most academic or professional texts – a figure of under five per cent is often given.
WHO?ESP teacher – technical vocabulary
Specialist terminology varies not only from discipline to discipline, but also between different areas within the same discipline. Therefore, the terminology in a paper in one area may be very different from that in another area within the same discipline.
WHO?ESP teacher
New specialist terminology is always being invented, so there is no way that it can all be learnt by an ESP student, let alone an ESP teacher.
WHO?ESP teacher
The ESP teacher can get the terminology wrong, giving his/her students the wrong definitions and getting into trouble.
(Dudley-Evans & St John 1998: 81)
WHO?ESP teacher
rank
strategy use usefulness
1 Bilingual dictionary 85% 95%
2 Guess from textual content 74% 73%
3 Ask classmates for meaning
73% 65%
4 Analyse any available pictures or gestures
47% 84%
5 Ask teacher for an L1 translation
45% 61%
HOW?General vocabulary strategies
rank
strategy use usefulness
6 Ask teacher for paraphrase or synonym
85% 95%
7 Monolingual dictionary 35% 77%
8 Discover new meaning through group work activity
35% 65%
9 Analyse part of speech 32% 75%(Schmitt 1997)
HOW?General vocabulary strategies
Recognise definitions or glosses Recognise paraphrases, synonyms,
examples Efficient use of bilingual dictionary or
translation Efficient use of monolingual dictionary Efficient guessing from context Analyse pictures, diagrams, etc Analyse word function and structure
HOW?Technical vocabulary strategies
ELT dictionaries Online ELT dictionaries Native-speakers’ dictionaries British Council’s Word Family Framework
WITH WHAT?Common-core vocabulary
Possible Anglo-Russian project Specialist glossaries e.g. Mining (mining/metallurgy/geology,
management) Mining – ESP teachers, mining engineer &
mining journal Electronic version only Customisable
WITH WHAT?Technical vocabulary
Electronic glossary Cooperation between
- ESP teacher- professional mining engineer - professional journal Northern Miner- Russian specialist?
Legal/copyright granted & acknowledged Available online through central host Customisable – users can personalise
WITH WHAT?Technical vocabulary - mining
Proposed sub-technical dictionary project: Words with semi-technical meanings Different meanings Examples Related parts of speech/word-family
members UK & US varieties Customisable – users can personalise Approximately 4000 items
WITH WHAT?Sub-/semi- technical vocabulary
