f o r Sc i e n c e
a n d te c h n o L o g y St u d e n t S
12
A L A I N S O U I L L A R D A N D A N T H O N Y K E R R
Institut National des Sciences Appliquees • Rouen, France
weshAre wIth severAl Authors (hutchInson And Waters 1987) the conviction that teaching English to science and technology students can be at the same time professionally oriented, per sonally satisfying for the learners, and fun for the instructor. The notion of macrotasks helps to design material in order to reach these objectives. Macro tasks can be defined as peda gogical and language activities that are simulations of real socioprofessional activities designed to develop the qualities required by the professions and to improve performance in English. Mar shall (1988) describes the engineering profession in terms that can be easily understood by a language instructor: “A professional engineer is not merely someone with a certain amount and kind of knowledge. To be truly ‘professional,’ an engineer requires many other qualities—amongst them, personal motivation, professional commit ment, flexibility and creativity in prob lem solving, interper sonal and com munication skills.” The macroactivi ties in which scientists and technicians can be involved are numerous, but the most common ones requiring the use of English as a foreign language can be easily listed (Souillard Forthcoming): reading publications, writing reports and publications, attending confer ences, giving presentations (Souillard and Kerr 1987), telephoning, writing letters, taking part in technical meetings, show ing colleagues round a plant, socializing, and travelling. Problemsolving activities can be considered as such macrotasks, since they are very much akin to technical meetings. Science and technology are by nature con cerned with solving problems, so an English course aiming at helping students acquire and prac tise the lan guage of their profession should definitely include such activities. I usually start with a simple brain storming session about the methods of measuring liquid levels in
tanks. If the group agrees on the basic rule of a brain storming session, which is to give full freedom to the powers of imagina tion, the participants will invariably come up with about 15 solutions. Not all the solutions need be highly techni cal, and some of them can be absolute ly eccentric. That is the rule of the game.
In fact, problemsolving is an intel lectual game that combines creativity with technical or scientific knowl edge. As such, it has an important place in a humanistic approach to language teaching. It can also be closely connect ed with specialist subjects, since the students will try to apply their techni cal knowledge and there fore will need the appropriate language, be it the spe cialized vocabulary, the notions, or the functions of sci entific discourse. More over, a problemsolving session is a communicative activity, since the participants will have to share ideas, explain their solutions, discuss the fea sibility of their invention, evaluate the various pro posals, and discuss the pos sible implementation of the selected project. Language and discourse will then become tools for intellectual and social tasks.
It is obviously not possible to launch into this sort of macrotask without previous preparation or acqui sition of the necessary linguistic elements. The instruc tor should make sure that the students are familiar with such minitasks as how to describe a setup, how to comment on visuals (Souillard 1989), how to instruct, how to suggest, how to explain, how to evaluate, how to criticize, how to define, how to classify, how to agree or disagree, etc. Some knowledge of the basic scientific and technical vocabulary is also a prerequisite. This is the reason why this kind of macrotask can be intro duced only from the intermedi ate up to the advanced levels. Basic vocabulary, notions, and functions can be practised beforehand with simpler activities, such as
asking students to present different visuals (Souillard 1989) or minitexts and insisting on the communica tive aspects of the informa tion exchange (Souillard and Kerr 1987). The cartoon strips contained in various DoItYourself (D.I.Y.) manuals or leaflets can be of assistance in that case.
A typology of problem posing
The ways of presenting problems are varied, and I would like to attempt some sort of typology to help teachers develop or adapt their own material for a better adequacy to the level and specialisation of their students.
1. General questions can be asked, such as how to save energy in a house or building, how to protect a house from theft, how to build a practical mailbox, how to measure liquids in tanks, etc. It is also possible to provide various texts containing the necessary but partial information (either in English or in the stu dents’ native lan guage) and distribute them to various groups who then convene to exchange ideas or solu tions. General questions like those are usually open ended and produce a wide range of possible solu tions.
2. The problem can also be present ed in the form of a story. In this case, the problem is no longer general but more particular or even personal. This is akin to the casestudy technique that has been used with success with Busi ness English students. Here are two examples:
“I have a problem with my car. Whenever I slow down and stand still at a traffic light or a stop sign it invariably stalls. What might be wrong?”
In order to make the case more pre cise, you can invite the students to ask you questions for more details.
The case story can be accompanied by a figure, as in this presentation of a filter problem:
A F I LT E R P R O B L E M
This plant needs to filter solid particles from the liquid flowing in the pipes leading to the boiler. Because of the amount of solid particles, the filter has to be removed and cleaned every day. But this operation causes problems:
1. It is a waste of time. 2. There is a liquid leak.
3. Some solid particles are admitted into the system to the boiler during this time. What solution do you envisage? A selfcleaning filter would be the ideal solution.
This type of technical story can also be gathered from the technical or scien tific lecturers in the school or from professional journals. They are not usually as complicated as they may seem at first. An extra advan tage to this pre sentation format is that the students have to gather the facts and analyse the various facets of the problem. This new dimension requires some preliminary discussion about the case itself to deter mine which elements are relevant. Here is an example of a story based on real facts:
“At the Xano Oil Refinery, the vari ous petrochemical products resulting from the refining operation are stored in various tanks. Dispatch and trans port of the finished products is mainly done by rail or road. The transfer oper- ation is very simple. A hose is hooked to an outlet at the bottom of the selected tank and connected to the railcar or
the truck. The valve at the bottom of the tank is open, and the petrochemical product is pumped into the container on rail or wheels. This operation takes place at any time of day or night. One night one truck driver left with the hose still attached to the tank outlet. He realized his mistake after about one minute and a half. But by the time he stopped his truck and walked back to the tank to close the valve, about six minutes had elapsed and several cubic meters of the inflammable and polluting chemical had been spilt.”
This case brings out a wide variety of solutions, which can be either social, environmental, or technical, but which are relevant to our science or technical stu dents. Some solutions, for instance, involve having an extra attendant for each tank, installing warning lights inside the truck, designing a selfclos ing valve, etc.
3. Instead of reporting the problem in the form of a written story, it is pos sible to use cartoons or comic strips. The best examples are those contained in the series entitled Wordless Workshop in Popular Science, an American magazine. The example reproduced here presents the problem one couple has with protecting their motor launch from the rain and snow in winter. In general, D.I.Y. books resort to cartoons either to present the problem or to give the solution, and so can be used as a source of language material. Here again,
there is an added advantage to this kind of presenta tion, since the stu dents will be asked to describe the case and discuss it, starting with pictures only.
4. The problem could also be pre sented in the form of an audio or video recording on tape. The technique we use is very simple. A lot of recordings are aimed at the general public, and the explanations contained are usually unsatisfactory. The problem consists in finding the missing links. One example is the recording on Auroras contained in Science Vistas, published by the U.S. Information Agency. It mentions that charged particles coming from the sun react with the atoms of oxygen and nitrogen to provide coloured flashes that are focused on the sky. I usually take the opportunity of this oralcomprehension material to ask the stu dents to provide the missing links in the explanation,
i.e., what is the nature of the reaction and why do we have dif ferent colours? The problem is the instructor’s, and the students are eager to teach him or her the basis of quan tum mechanics in this particular instance. One case study like the one about the Xano Oil Refinery can also be recorded by a native speaker, thus adding the dimension of oral compre hension.
5. For the instructor who is fortu nate enough to have a computer, it is possible to acquire a variety of comput er games involving decisiontaking on the market. Instead of having one student in front of one monitor, the whole class can engage in a discussion before taking the decision. Those computer simulation games are available from various publishers in general interest subjects like an adventure trip in Lon don or in specialized subjects like run ning a chemistry plant. If your stu dents are specialists in computer sci ence, they may be able to design and program a simulation game as part of their scientific projects. We had one student who designed a problemsolv ing and decisiontaking simulation of how to set up a company.
Typology of subjects
Problemsolving is an activity that concerns nearly every minute of one’s life, so the variety of subjects is infinite and need not be hightech. We will present a list of subjects that are closer to the interests and needs of science and technology students and will eliminate those that are more psychologi cal, social, or cultural. We do not mean that science and technology students would not like those, but those subjects are more read ily accessible in a variety of already published manuals (Ur 1981). Asking students to find possible solutions to the personal problems exposed in “Dear Ann” let ters or to find possible interpretations of works of art constitutes activities that are lin guistically very pro ductive. Our pur pose here, however, is to prepare stu dents for more technical meetings which also have to take the personal, social, and environmental context into account. As Marshall (1988) explains, “Much of the skill of a truly profession al engineer resides in his or her ability to define the problem, and this defini tion must incorporate not only the technical aspects but the relevant human, community and environmental factors.” Here is an attempt at classifi cation:
Adventure: How to survive in the jungle, on a desert
island, at the North Pole, in the desert; how to make a
fire; how to open a tin with a few tools; how to lift a car to change a wheel when you don’t have a jack; how to build a raft to drift down a river; how to stop a car or a train whose brakes have suddenly failed.
Professional: How to obtain a train ing period
abroad; how to organise a trip to the States or to London for the class; how to find sponsors for partici pating in a sailing race; how to proceed to find a job, to apply for a job, to write an effective CV; how to buy a secondhand car without being tricked; how to find a name, logo, or slogan for a school, company, or prod uct; the lay out of an ideal residence.
D.I.Y.: How to make a practical mailbox, or a cage
for the transport of animals; how to build a patio or a deck; how to unclog blocked pipes; how to cut a tall tree near a house.
Industrial: How to build a self cleaning filter; how
to produce one chemical; how to get rid of one particu lar effluent; how to clean water; how to avoid corrosion in ships; how to con trol fog.
Commercial: Sticking on price tags is too timecon
suming; checking out in supermarkets is also too time and labourconsuming (how can we do without cashiers?); how to improve security and prevent shoplifting.
Maths: Any sort of simple maths exercise. Each stu
dent could be given one exercise to prepare before present ing a possible solution to the rest of the class. This is a good exercise for prac tice in reasoning in English. The maga zine Discover has a section on Mind Benders and Brain Bogglers that is a good source of material requiring com mon sense or basic mathematics.
Physics: The same can be done in the field of
physics or chemistry. Exer cises could be taken from highschool books or gathered from the science instructors.
How to make: A laser or a battery; how to produce a
chemical compound.
How to measure: The liquid levels in a tank, a flow
rate, the concentration of particles or a particular gas in air.
How to improve: Safety in labs, in the residence hall,
in chemistry practi cal sessions, in airports; how to improve the checkout stations in supermarkets; how to improve credit card security; how to prevent rust and corrosion on ship hulls.
How to choose: The best alarm sys tem, the best
word processor.
High-tech problems: All the case studies taken from
professional jour nals, e.g., the problem below pub lished in the specialist magazine Power.
Another example of a hightech problem related to the field of chemistry concerns toxicology research.
“A pharmaceutical company has applied for FDA approval of one of its new products before launching it on the market. The FDA discovered traces of an uniden- tified element in the drug. How would you proceed to identify that compound and satisfy the FDA?”
Theory: How can we prove the exis tence of electro
magnetism; what are photons; how does a microwave oven work; why do molecules fluoresce when hit by a laser beam; how are auroras produced?
Typology of class activities
It is clear that during the search for a solution to the problem, language will become a tool. The variety of lan guage used in this sort of activity is wide. There is a need for definition, description of parts and processes,
pre sentation of a procedure, asking for clarification, describing visuals, giving instructions, discussing, voic ing opinions, etc. The best way to proceed for maxi mum efficiency and use of lan guage when conducting a problemsolving session can be described as fol lows:
1. First, the problem is presented in any of the forms listed in the problem posing typology above. Then it is ana lysed for the sake of clarification. In the case of a cartoon or comic strip, the problem will have to be formulated. In the case of a recording, it will have to be reformulated. In some instances, the prob lems will not be explicitly presented, but the situation will have to be analysed in order to bring out the real problems. A brainstorming session followed by a dis cussion can serve that purpose well. In real engineer ing situa tions, the problem is rarely clearly presented. Most of the time, the engineer will have to identify the problem through an exhaustive investigation of the facts and possible causes. If a firm receives complaints from its cus tomers about the bad quality of the objects produced by injection moulding, the production department will have to carry out an investigation of