English for Special Purposes. Business, Information Technology and Telecommunications - Adriana-Elena Stoican

The present book addresses students of English who need to improve their usage of English in specific professional contexts: business communication, engineering sciences and applied modern languages. In writing this manual, I have relied on my academic interactions with students from IT, telecommunications, business administration and more recently, applied modern languages. As I was trying to collect a set of teaching materials, I realized that the Romanian book market offers little studies on English for IT and Telecommunications, dating back from the -70’s and -90’s. This fact has triggered my desire to come up with a new perspective on the study of English applied in a field that has been registering considerable progress. Since my teaching activities have implied an intersection between English for IT, Telecommunications and Business Communication, I realized that I could blend business communication and information technologies, since actual business practices involve high reliance on IT. Therefore, the project of writing a book of English for IT, Telecommunications and Business Communication is designed as an original attempt to cover the link between the fields of engineering sciences and the business world.

The book can be used for students of an intermediate level and it contains 14 units. Each unit starts with a speaking section that requires the students to practice their oral expression about a specific topic (IT or business related). Another layer of each unit is represented by the Reading Comprehension section that introduces a fragment extracted from specialized literature (of business studies and engineering sciences). The Reading Comprehension exercises check the students’ understanding by having them answer questions about specific details, detect true/false sentences and solve multiple choice exercises.

The vocabulary sections contain exercises that involve the use of specific terms through the practice of antonyms, word–formation mechanisms, synonyms, phrasal verbs and prepositions.

The novelty of this book is provided by its emphasis on grammatical notions that most manuals tend to present as brief entries, rather than detailed accounts. However, my experience has taught me that most students have problems in using grammar, irrespective of the semantic area involved. Therefore, a clear explanation of grammatical notions is meant to consolidate their correct English expression as required by their specific domains.

Thus, the grammar sections present detailed theoretical notions about the category of number, countable and uncountable nouns, types of determiners, the comparison of adjectives, the Genitive case, Wh- questions, present and past tenses and ways of expressing future. Another novelty of the present book is its focus on certain grammatical aspects that

are seldom approached in manuals for faculties other than foreign languages/applied modern languages (e.g. foreign plurals, definite/indefinite articles, quantifier phrases, phrasal verbs, etc.)The thorough grammatical explanations are followed by a practical section of exercises that combines specific vocabulary with the solving of grammatical tasks.

Therefore, the students get the chance to practice both the grammatical items and the vocabulary notions from the respective lesson. Most of the units also contain a translation section in which the students have to translate a specialized text from Romanian into English in order to employ newly acquired terms and practice their ability to use English grammar correctly.

The Writing Section placed at the end of each unit asks students to construct sound arguments on a topic related to the content of the respective unit. This type of task involves the practice of grammar, vocabulary along with specific strategies of formulating a coherent argument. Given the link it offers between the world of technology and the business universe, the present book can be a useful instrument for students of Business Communication, IT, Telecommunications and Applied Modern languages. While using it, students will improve their specialized vocabulary and their knowledge of English grammar.

”Good luck!” to everyone!

Lecturer, Adriana Elena STOICAN

Lumina-The University of South-East Europe