COMMENTING ON COURSE DESIGNING PRINCIPLES:

OXFORD ENGLISH FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Course designing process:
Theoretical issues: language structures (e.g. Past simple/present perfect; present
passive etc.)
Practical problems:
- audience needs - vocabulary (e.g. definitions, collocations, semantic groups,
prefixes etc.)
- the four skills reading texts/diagrams/tables, note-taking),
listening, speaking, writing
- specific contents computer users, computer architecture and
applications, operating systems, multimedia, the Internet etc.
- audience level people already working in the IT sector, university and technical
school students, adults intermediate to advanced level

Elements of the course design process:

Objectives: to improve and extend the students language skills in the context
of IT the course objectives are provided in the Teachers Guide
Syllabus content: a wide range of current IT topics
- resources: authentic texts and visual material taken from textbooks,
newspapers, computing magazines, Internet newsgroups, webpages, manuals
and advertisements; cassette or CD with authentic interviews with IT
professionals;
- work on a mix of language skills; special focus on developing listening (every
fifth unit) and reading skills (at the end of each unit) for more advanced
students
- evaluation: there are no separate sections focusing on that, but each unit
provides formative evaluation exercises based on all the four skills
Language teaching strategies presented at the beginning of the course book in
the table of contents:
Synthetic language teaching strategies:
- the different parts of the language are introduced gradually within each unit
Analytical language teaching strategies:
- the contents are organized according to the principle of cyclicity as to ensure
communicative competence both in oral and in written form
Macro and micro-skills:
- the exercises involving the four major skills usually appear in the same order,
with a writing task as a follow-up activity
- there are exercises focusing on micro-skills such as scanning, reading for
specific information, note-taking etc

Course programme:
- an orientation section at the beginning of each unit
- exercises for individual work usually concerning language structure
- group activities for speaking
- assignments usually written
Final remarks:
- The course is appropriate for intermediate to advanced and adult students. It
contains both essential language problems and relevant technical content.
- The activities are organized gradually to ensure the acquisition of the
necessary theoretical and practical competences.