Understanding Technical English, Book 1

This four stage,  graded  reading course  is  intended for students of English  as  a  foreign language  who wish  to  relate  their reading  in English  to  topics  relevant  to  their  future  careers  as  craftsmen  or technicians. The course contains the following features:
1  . The  reading passages
Each passage  is complete  in itself. The  length of the passages varies  from  about  250 words  in  Book  One. The topics  are  of general  interest  to all  technical
students and  require  little specialised  technical know  ledge on the part of either  the student or  the teacher. All technical terms can  be  understood  from  the  context  or  from  accompanying illustrations. The course can, therefore, be used with confidence by  general English teachers who  have  little  technical knowledge.
2.  The vocabulary
No attempt has been made to  teach  a highly specialised  techical vocabulary. The emphasis throughout  is on presenting a general  technical vocabulary  common  to all crafts and  technologies. The vocabulary  has  been selected  from  a  careful analysis  of  the words most frequently  used  in basic texts  on woodwork,  metalwork, technical drawing,  mechanics  and fundamentals of electrical technology. Full details of this  technical lexis and of the core general English lexis are given in the teacher's  handbook to the series.
3.  Structural control
All the material  is structurally graded. A  basic assumption has been  made concerning  the  students'  knowledge  at  point  of entry,  and details of what  the students are  expected  to know, if only  passively,  are  given  in the  teacher's  manual. All  other structures are  introduced gradually,  in a  predetermined order, and are fully dealt with in  the exercises. The complete structure list  is provided  in  the  teacher's  manual. This list differs  from other  widely  used  lists  in  that  it  takes  into  account  those sentence patterns most commonly used in technical writing.
4.  The exercises
These  are  designed  to  'exercise'  and  to  test  the  students' knowledge. All the exercises require the students to use those words and structures that they have encountered in  the reading passages.  An  important  feature  of  the  exercises  is  that  they continually revise the vocabulary  introduced in earlier passages. There is, therefore,  a carefully built-in  revision factor throughout the  book. For this reason there are no separate  revision units.
5.  Objectives
This  course  is not intended  to be a  basic English course,  and should be used  in conjunction with any good general English course.  Its purpose is to provide supplementary material with a technical  bias to the usual English  programme.