English for understanding IT problems and instructions
B2 Upper-Intermediate | Course 1
Build English for understanding technical problems, following instructions and finding key information in IT workplaces. Explore user experiences, networking responsibilities, software engineering, customer support and security through grammar, vocabulary, reading and listening activities.
English for IT B2 Upper-Intermediate | Course 1 is the first course in a two-part sequence for learners who already have B1-level English and want to work towards B2 in IT contexts. Together, Course 1 and Course 2 help learners prepare for the English for IT B2 certification exam.
Channel: Edube
Sponsor: OpenEDG
Mode: Online self-study or instructor-led
Level: Upper-Intermediate
Cost: USD 35
Study time: 50 hours (Recommended: 7h/week)
Understanding problems and responding effectively
Course 1 prepares learners for the world of work through situations involving product management, network engineering, software engineering, customer support and security. Its six modules connect English language skills with identifying problems, understanding instructions, analysing facts and participating in professional discussions.
Reading activities explore user experiences, supplier evaluation, compilers and interpreters, and information security policies. Listening activities include a manager speaking to a junior network engineer, customer support conversations and a security engineer discussing fraudulent calls.
Grammar and vocabulary support practical communication: recognising how processes are described, making suggestions, asking polite questions and discussing responsibilities. Topics include the passive voice, relative pronouns, modal verbs for advice, idioms and the future perfect.
Course 1 is designed for non-native English speakers preparing for international IT workplaces, including:
- late-stage K12 and Higher Education students and IT professionals early in their careers;
- software developers, network engineers, security engineers, product managers and IT support who want to work in an international, multicultural environment;
- IT specialists who want to start working in multinational or English-speaking companies;
- non-IT employees working in the IT sector.
Language skills you will develop in Course 1
- Identify a problem, explore its cause and understand possible solutions
- Interpret instructions and develop the language needed to put them into practice
- Analyse factual information and compare technical benefits and drawbacks
- Recognise key information in customer conversations and use language for polite requests
- Understand how security goals, objectives and policies guide work
- Follow professional discussions and develop language for exchanging information
Course One Syllabus
Learn about the passive voice, relative pronouns, the past simple, user experiences and supplier evaluation modules.
Learn about the emphatic “do” and dependent prepositions, and listen to a conversation between a manager and a junior network engineer. Read about networking job roles and responsibilities.
Understand how to start a sentence with a conjunction, how to use inversion and how to use modal verbs to make suggestions and give advice. Listen to a software engineer talk about the benefits of experience, and read about the benefits and drawbacks of compilers and interpreters.
Learn how to use adverbs to make polite requests and some of the most important idioms in English. Listen to customer support agents using idioms and read about how to ask customers questions.
Learn about the imperative instruction, and adverbs of possibility and probability, listen to a security engineer discussing fraudulent calls, and read about the necessity of an information security policy.
Understand the future perfect tense and how to use the phrase "was/were on the point of". Listen to an interview with a security officer discussing his roles and responsibilities, and read about a software virus called “Pegasus”.