How British is your Technical English?

How British is your Technical English?

Listen to your teacher define engineering vocabulary and write one word or expression for each thing that you hear explained in the spaces below. If you aren’t sure of the meaning or how to say it in English, just guess or leave a blank. All the definitions have more than one answer, but only write one each time (not different options). If you think of more than one option, only write the thing that you would usually say when speaking English. If there are numbers, write them out in full as words (“seventy seven”, not “77”).

1. _______________________________________________________________
2. _______________________________________________________________
3. _______________________________________________________________
4. ________________________________________________________________
5. _______________________________________________________________
6. ________________________________________________________________
7. ________________________________________________________________
8. ________________________________________________________________
9. ________________________________________________________________
10. ________________________________________________________________
11. ________________________________________________________________
12. ________________________________________________________________
13. ________________________________________________________________
14. ________________________________________________________________
15. ________________________________________________________________

Listen again while your teacher says the same definitions plus options for things to have written above. Make sure that you wrote one of those options in each space above, and if not write the one that you would be most likely to use when speaking English. You still shouldn’t write more than one thing, so cross off any old answers that you want to change.

Compare the words that you wrote with a partner and guess who wrote more British words and who wrote more American ones. Then check which are British and see if you are right.  

Your teacher will give you eight words for you to define for your partner in the same way as your teacher did, with your own definitions. When your partner defines their words in the same way, write one option for what they are defining in each space here:

1. ________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________________
4. ________________________________________________________________
5. ________________________________________________________________
6. ________________________________________________________________
7. ________________________________________________________________
8. ________________________________________________________________

Try to guess if your choices are more British or more American, then check with your partner’s sheet. 

 

Teacher’s script/ Suggested answers

Read out just the definitions below (without the options), checking students only write one answer for each or leave blanks. Don’t correct any wrong answers at this stage. 

1. It’s the covering of the engine of your car – bonnet/ hood
2. It’s the part which protects your car during a crash – bumper/ fender
3. It’s the thing that you press with your foot to make a car speed up – accelerator/ accelerator pedal/ gas pedal
4. It’s the window at the front of a car – windscreen/ windshield
5. It’s the pipe where the smoke comes out of the back of the car – exhaust pipe/ tailpipe
6. The place where water comes from, sometimes with one for hot and one for cold – faucet/ tap
7. The part of a radio or TV which receives signals – aerial/ antenna
8. The abbreviation for mathematics – math/ maths
9. The opposite of clockwise – anti-clockwise/ counter-clockwise
10. Another way to say “a half” – nought point oh five/ zero point zero five
11. Two times seventy five – a hundred and thirty/ a hundred thirty
12. A machine which copies documents – copy machine/ photocopier
13. People who fix equipment such as air conditioners – service engineer/ service technician
14. A large metal box where you put lots of rubbish to be taken away by a truck, for example when demolishing a house – Dumpster/ skip
15. The fuel for a camping stove – kerosene/ paraffin

Read the definitions again, this time with the options. Make sure students have written just one option, and that they are only changing it if they didn’t write one option or are sure that they would actually be more likely to say that other thing when speaking English.

Tell them which option is British, then give out the words below for them to define for each other in the same way.

---------------------------------------fold, cover or cut-------------------------------------

Student A

cell phone/ mobile phone

gas station/ petrol station

automatic gearbox/ automatic transmission

lorry/ truck

handbrake/ parking brake

flashlight/ torch

muffler/ silencer

electricity pylon/ pylon/ transmission mast/ transmission tower

--------------------------------------fold, cover or cut------------------------------------

Student B

elevator/ lift

bin/ garbage can/ trashcan

bump cap/ hard hat

one thousand two hundred and ten/ one thousand two hundred and ten

fire engine/ fire truck

electrical outlet/ outlet/ socket

spanner/ wrench

dustcart/ garbage truck