The course aims to a) familiarise students with the language and format of various text types related to their discipline, including textbook extracts, popularised articles and scientific articles, b) help students develop a number of language and cognitive skills (most of which are transferable) necessary for participating in the academic discourse community, c) motivate and encourage students to keep reading and learning in English and develop further their language skills using the technology available in addition to classroom training. In other words they are prepared for autonomous learning.
The skills to be developed during the course include: reading including scanning, skimming and critical reading, b) listening and speaking and c) writing comprehensive summaries. At the end of the course students have the opportunity, if they wish so, to develop further all skills and micro-skills by making a power-point presentation based on a topic of their choice. This will in addition equip them with the academic project preparation and presentation skills and confidence required to make presentations in English in their postgraduate studies and in Erasmus courses abroad. Instructions as to how to prepare and present the project following the necessary academic conventions can be found on eclass and are explained further during class time.
The syllabus includes the following topics:
- Introduction to Materials Science
- Types of materials
- Properties of materials
- Polymers
- Metals-alloys
- Steel
- Semi-conductors
- Ceramics
- Nanotechnology and Materials science
- Two research articles
Assessment is based on:
- Final exam + class participation or
- Powerpoint presentation + class participation
