Introduction

Welcome to the course Anglès tècnic. We hope that the present material is useful for you. As it is designed as a distance learning course, it includes tips and suggestions to help you learn the language on your own, as well as the syntactical and lexical contents that you will need to use English in your job and in your daily life. Nowadays English is very important. A good knowledge of the language may have a positive influence on your personal success, your career training, your chances of promotion and possibly on a successful job search.

This course has been designed for students and professionals in the field of Electronics who need to improve their English skills to use them professionally and at home. Students need to have at least a lower-intermediate level of the language to do this course appropriately. However, low-level students, or even students with absolutely no level of the language, will have a number of resources in the website to help them understand the contents of the course.

The present material will give you the theoretical knowledge (grammar and vocabulary) that you need to communicate in English effectively. The texts at the beginning of each section will offer a good opportunity to check and practise your reading comprehension and pick up some technical words referring to your professional field. On the other hand, you will also get some advice on the appropriate techniques that you can use in your study of the language. The other language skills, like writing, listening and speaking, are practised through a variety of activities available for you in the school website and in the web material.

The contents are divided into three units, and each unit is divided into three sections, which together cover the different aspects of the English language. Each section begins with a text about the corresponding topic. Next, you will find information about several linguistic aspects as, for example, grammar, vocabulary, language functions and phonetics. You will also find advice and ideas on how to develop the different skills implied in the learning of a language, like writing, translating and summarizing a text as well as some study techniques which you can use in your autonomous study of English.

The unit called ‘Learning English’ is about learning a language and especially about the attitude that you should take in order to make your study more useful. It is also about some aspects which are not often considered in an English course, but which are very important when using the language, especially at work. We are going to learn that not all the communication is carried out through the use of the oral language, but also through an important type of communication which does not use words to transmit a message. An example of this type of communication is the body language, which is important because it helps us interpret an oral message or to conceal messages which we do not want to transmit. You will also learn about the differences between Anglo-Saxon and Latin countries in relation to such aspects as behaviour or the use of language. This knowledge will allow you to deal with foreign people more effectively.

The unit called ‘Home electronics’, as you can see in the title, deals with different applications of electronics in the house. The text includes information and terminology that might be useful in your current studies. You will read about the enormous change that the digital technology has brought to our daily lives and about the most basic applications of electricity in a house. Finally, in this unit you will also find a very specific example of the use of home electronics.

The unit called ‘Domestic robotics’ will introduce you into the world of what is also called domotics or home automation. This refers to the systems that allow different utilities of a house to work automatically. This is the reason why sometimes we also speak of smart homes. In this unit, you will read about an example of domestic robotics which contributes to the protection of the house and of the people that live in it. We also deal with another example of domestic robotics. ‘HVAC’ stands for ‘Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning’ and refers to the different systems that contribute to the comfort of people at home.

When you start the study of a unit in the course, the first thing that you should do is to look at the contents page of the corresponding unit in the textbook to get an idea of what you will have to study in that unit. The book is not actually designed as a study book, but rather as a manual where you can check only what you need to solve a specific activity. You won’t probably need to read the majority of the sections to complete the course, but they are available for you in case you need them for anything. Use a dictionary or an automatic translator if you have problems with the language, but make the effort of understanding the text even if you do not know all the words. To check if you understand the topics, you can do the web activities and exercises. When you do your activities, go back to the book frequently to look up the information that you need. In case of doubts with the contents of this course, check the complementary resources that you will find in the class website or ask your teacher or your classmates.

We hope that you find this textbook useful in the study of module ‘Anglès tècnic’ and that it can help you in your learning of the English language.