Includes word lists and transcripts.

"English for Electrical Engineering is a skills-based course designed specifically for students of electrical engineering who are about the enter English-medium tertiary level studies. It provides carefully graded practice and progression in the key academic skills that all students need, such as listening to lectures and speaking in seminars. It also equips students with the specialist language they need to participate successfully within an electrical engineering department. Extensive listening exercises come from electrical engineering lectures, and all reading texts are taken from the same field of study. There is also a focus throughout on the key electrical engineering vocabulary that students will need.

Listening: how to understand and take effective notes on extended lectures, including how to follow the argument and identify the speaker's point of view.

Speaking: how to participate effectively in a variety of realistic situations, from seminars to presentations, including how to develop an argument and use stance markers.

Reading: how to understand a wide range of texts, from academic textbooks to Internet articles, including how to analyze complex sentences and identify such things as the writer's stance.

Writing: how to produce coherent and well-structured assignments, including such skills as paraphrasing and the use of the appropriate academic phrases.

Vocabulary: a wide range of activities to develop students' knowledge and use of key vocabulary, both in the field of electrical engineering and of academic study in general.

Vocabulary and Skills banks: a reference source to provide students with revision of the key words and phrases and skills presented in each unit.

Full transcripts of all listening exercises." (Book Cover)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Unit 1: WHAT IS ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING? (Listening + Speaking) Topics: What is included in the subject of Electrical Engineering - Different branches of electrical engineering: computing and electric power - Different aspects of electrical engineering, e.g. definitions of some basic electrical terms, measuring devices
Vocabulary Focus: Words from general English with a special meaning in electrical engineering - Prefixes and suffixes
SKILLS FOCUS
Listening: Preparing for a lecture - Predicting lecture content from the introduction - Understanding lecture organization - Choosing an appropriate form of notes - Making lecture notes
Speaking: Speaking from notes

Unit 2: THE HISTORY OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING (Reading + Writing)
Topics: The history of electrical engineering from the 19th century to modern days - Key figures in the discipline: their main achievements and inventions - The more recent history of electronic engineering: solid-state electronics
Vocabulary Focus: English-English dictionaries: headwords, definition, parts of speech, phonemes, stress markers, countable/uncountable, transitive/intransitive
SKILLS FOCUS
Reading: Using research questions to focus on relevant information in a text - Using topic sentences to get an overview of the text
Writing: Writing topic sentences - Summarizing a text

Unit 3: ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC CIRCUITS (Listening + Speaking)
Topics: Ohm's law - The applications of Ohm's law to simple electric circuits - The limitations of Ohm's law for circuit elements that do not have a constant - Resistance - How Ohm's law can be applied to magnetic circuits
Vocabulary Focus: Stress patterns in multi-syllable words - Prefixes
SKILLS FOCUS
Listening: Preparing for a lecture - Predicting lecture content - Making lecture notes - Using different information sources
Speaking: Reporting research findings - Formulating questions

Unit 4: THE COMPUTER (Reading + Writing)
Topics: The development of the computer - The invention of the integrated circuit, or microchip: its advantages and its impact on society - The use of computers in education - A guide to a more efficient use of the Internet and computers in research
Vocabulary Focus: Computer jargon - Abbreviations and acronyms - Discourse and stance markers - Verb and noun suffixes
SKILLS FOCUS
Reading: Identifying topic development within a paragraph - Using the Internet effectively - Evaluating Internet search results
Writing: Reporting research findings

Unit 5: THE TELEVISION - FROM CRT TO LCD TO 3D (Listening + Speaking)
Topics: Small electrical items: the technology behind different types of television set and screen - Some examples of television technology and devices - 3D televisions: two types of lens used in 3D technology: passive and active
Vocabulary Focus: Word sets: synonyms, antonyms, etc. - The language of trends - Common lecture language
SKILLS FOCUS
Listening: Understanding "signpost language" in lectures - Using symbols and abbreviations in note-taking
Speaking: Making effective contributions to a seminar

Unit 6: CONTROL SYSTEMS (Reading + Writing)
Topics: Control system design - A common feedback look controller: PID - Examples of control systems: setting the temperature of a domestic oven, cruise control for cars
Vocabulary Focus: Synonyms, replacement subjects, etc., for sentence-level paraphrasing
SKILLS FOCUS
Reading: Locating key information in complex sentences
Writing: Reporting findings from other sources: paraphrasing - Writing complex sentences

Unit 7: ELECTRIC POWER GENERATION, TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION (Listening + Speaking)
Topics: How electric power is generated in various kinds of power stations, such as wind turbines - How it is transmitted across long distances - How it is delivered to customers - Issues involved in the power transmission process: energy loss, voltage choices, transformers
Vocabulary Focus: Compound nouns - Fixed phrases from electrical engineering - Fixed phrases from academic English - Common lecture language
SKILLS FOCUS
Listening: Understanding speaker emphasis
Speaking: Asking for clarification - Responding to queries and requests for clarification

Unit 8: TELECOMMUNICATIONS (Reading + Writing)
Topics: The history of telecommunication: the main inventions and developments - The processes involved in telecommunication: key stages, elements and related devices - Examples of the main applications of telecommunication: radio broadcasting, the mobile phone - The influence that telecommunication has had on the world
Vocabulary Focus: Synonyms - Nouns from verbs - Definitions - Common "direction" verbs in essay titles (discuss, analyze, evaluate, etc.)
SKILLS FOCUS
Reading: Understanding dependent clauses with passives
Writing: Paraphrasing - Expanding notes into complex sentences - Recognizing different essay types/structures: descriptive - analytical - comparison/evaluation - argument - Writing essay plans and writing essays

Unit 9: SIGNAL PROCESSING (Listening + Speaking)
Topics: Analogue and digital signal processing - Different types of signal and how and why they are processed - Filters and processors for both analogue and digital signals - Applications of signal processing: active noise control and speech recognition technologies
Vocabulary Focus: Fixed phrases from electrical engineering - Fixed phrases from academic English
SKILLS FOCUS
Listening: Using the Cornell note-taking system - Recognizing digressions in lectures
Speaking: Making effective contributions to a seminar - Referring to other people's ideas in a seminar

Unit 10: ELECTRIC CARS (Reading + Writing)
Topics: The reasons why electric cars have become popular, their advantages and disadvantages - The problem that electric cars pose for electrical engineers: the need to balance issues of efficiency, weight and environmental concerns
Vocabulary Focus: "Neutral" and "marked" words - Fixed phrases from electrical engineering - Fixed phrases from academic English
SKILLS FOCUS
Reading: Recognizing the writer's stance and level of confidence or tentativeness - Inferring implicit ideas
Writing: Writing situation-problem-solution-evaluation essays/writing assignments - Using direct quotations - Compiling a bibliographic/reference list

Unit 11: MICROELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEMS (Listening + Speaking)
Topics: MEMS and NEMS (micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems): how they are manufactured - Applications: examples of devices using MEMS and NEMS - Potential future developments
Vocabulary Focus: Words/phrases used to link ideas (moreover, as a result, etc.) - Stress patterns in noun phrases and compounds - Fixed phrases from academic English - Words/phrases related to research
SKILLS FOCUS
Listening: Recognizing the speaker's stance - Writing up notes in full
Speaking: Building an argument in a seminar - Agreeing/disagreeing

Unit 12: LIGHTING ENGINEERING (Reading + Writing)
Topics: The main lighting devices: incandescent light bulbs, fluorescent lamps and LEDs - How these devices work, their applications, and their advantages and disadvantages - Technical report writing in the field of simple circuits with LEDs
Vocabulary Focus: Verbs used to introduce ideas from other sources (X contends/suggests/asserts that...) - Linking words/phrases conveying contrast (whereas), result (consequently), reasons (due to), etc. - Words for quantities (a significant minority)
Reading: Understanding how ideas in a text are linked
Writing: Deciding whether to use direct quotations or paraphrase - Incorporating quotations - Writing research reports - Writing effective introductions/conclusions

Upper intermediate to proficiency ; IELTS 5.0 - 7.5+ ; CEF B2 - C2.