Alina Gălbează (Buzarna-Tihenea) is Lecturer with the Department of Modern Languages for Specific Purposes within the Faculty of Letters, “Ovidius” University of Constanta. Aside from her teaching activity, she also carries out research in linguistics, literary studies and teaching methodology, with a focus on English for specific purposes (ESP).
Chemistry English in Context. Course Book II is part of her research in the field of ESP. It is the second volume of a course material designed for first- and second-year chemistry students who have an intermediate or upper-intermediate level of knowledge of English. The book comes as the logical sequel of the first volume, adding more topics and more grammatical complexity. It can also be used independently, by professionals in the chemical field who use English in their research and work.
The course book was conceived as a tool to acquire, develop and test the learner’s knowledge of some of the more common terms and grammatical structures encountered by students and specialists in the chemical field. It combines authentic materials with a wide array of exercises, in view of stimulating the creativity, fluency, grammar and lexical precision of the learners.
Chemistry English in Context. Course Book II consists of eight units. The first seven deal with different aspects of chemistry, while the eighth is a revision unit. Within the units, the exercises are increasingly specific, starting with the introduction of the topic, through brainstorming, then developing the terminology and grammar, fixing this knowledge and then challenging the learners to use it in the form of structured discussions and essays.
The typology of the exercises is diverse, adapted to the degree of richness of the topic and to the type of grammar taught. The exercises start with a high degree of abstraction, dealing with the theoretical side of the topic, after which they become more specific, dealing with the concrete, applied aspect of the topic. Each unit is followed by a Grammar Snapshot, consisting in a synthesis of the grammatical aspects encountered in that unit.
The course book is a practical guide to the world of chemistry, which it explores in a learner-friendly way.
Assistant Professor Lavinia Istratie-Macarov