S3 S4 English Course - MP - IUT de Bordeaux
Welcome to the S3 & S4 English Course !
Applied Physics and Measurement Engineering Dept
MP IUT de Bordeaux
Your teachers are Ms Mathilde Arino & Mr Thierry Villard
Professional communication
Applying for any kind of job, or communicating in a professional environment, implies working on the following aspects ! Click on each title to reach a page of guidelines and resources.
CV Cover Letter Education context Telephoning Emailing Oralizing tools - Les outils web et mobiles pour vous informer, valider votre projet professionnel à l’international et sécuriser votre retour en France. https://www.emploi-store.fr/portail/centredinteret/international
Job Interviews
Job Ads: purpose, structure, vocab
Job Interview Common Questions
Job Interview Session : instructions, peer evaluation and grid
You're about to play your scenario as a team. Make sure you understand the instructions and the expectations for this session. The success of this performance depends on you!
Common interview questions ... no obvious answers!
The more specific your answers are, the more personalized and targeted your interview is.
Watch this five part series for preparing an interview. Take notes and practice out loud.
Part 1 Small Talk, handshake, and most common questions (1): tell me about yourself (education background & work history)Part 2 Most common questions (2): how did you hear about this position? what attracted you to our company? what is your greatest strength?Part 3 Setback, weaknessesPart 4 Wrapping up the interviewPart 5 Body language (handshake), humor, expressionThen study the 10 most common questions on the document given in class. Provide a contextualized, detailed and articulated answer to questions 3-7. Give priority to questions 3 & 4: choose a couple of examples to illustrate your answers.
Most interviews, no matter what the industry, are designed to assess a few key areas:
- professionalism- interest in the job being offered
- fit for the job, including applicable skills and personality
Key behaviour: dress appropriately; give a firm but not a bone-crushing handshake (tips given to perform it correctly); make eye-contact and smile; be prepared for small talk before answering questionsKey answers: don't give a life story but a concise summary of your career and/or educational background], abilities (skills) and goals.
Tricks to avoid: assess your weaknesses in terms of areas you could improve upon and in a professional context. Avoid giving any personality flaws.
Learn more with Jade's video from Learn English :
10 key verbs/phrases to talk about your job in English with Emma: zoom on vocabulary, meaning, grammar and pronunciation/spelling
Work Values
Working conditions, work values.... what is the difference anyway?!
What working conditions do I seek?
The best companies to work forWork values: why define my own values? how do I define them?
Some further resource about work values from a company values manager to CEOs: https://hbr.org/2002/07/make-your-values-mean-something (management consultancy specializing in executive team development, located in Emeryville, California).
Have a look at Glassdoor ranking in the US or UK, etc for 2020 (previous years are also available - select year, and country)Vocabulary about the workplaceWatch this video too from GreatPlacetoWork: Asian countries at the full front of a new hopeful era of better places throughout the globe
Organization chart: what are the main differences in position?
Monetary symbols: wrongly-positioned monetary symbols/units http://anglais-pratique.fr/index.php/rubriques/erreursfrequentes/262-symboles-monetaires-mal-places
Internship Report: structuring my thoughts
Structuring my report, structuring my thoughts
From the abstract, the introduction and conclusion, how to work on the table of contents, the backbone of the report.
Dealing with references in English
- How to quote, how to quote a quote
How to insert a reference to a figure
How to list your references in a bibliography
Internship Report: writing techniques
Writing techniques of the abstract (in the project and work placement report)
Using adequate and powerful verbs and words
Action verbs to use
Avoid the usual tricks of Faux-amis!
Improving my oral & writing style, improving my efficiency:
- introduction on emphasis and syntax when debating (5 strategies)
- solutions for brevity when writing
- application exercises to improve your style and efficiency.
- introduction on emphasis and syntax when debating (5 strategies)
Daily reporting:
- such as a personal log, weekly reports with the 3 following columns TO DO (à faire) / DOING (en cours)/ DONE (terminé)
- and tools such as Trello, Tom’s planner (see Moodle course of tutored projects)
Working in a team: the benefits of the groupwork
S3 Assessments
Emailing & Telephoning
Mark 1, coef 1
- Writing emails: write 4 emails according
to context provided (2 formal + 2 informal style) and submit your work as a a hard copy on Wed. Oct 12 - Week 41
- Leaving a message over the phone: record an oral message
to be left on a recruiter’s answering machine (1' maximum). Save your audio file over Moodle Wednesday, Oct 12 23h55 - Week 41 - Moodle
- Writing emails: write 4 emails according
to context provided (2 formal + 2 informal style) and submit your work as a a hard copy on Wed. Oct 12 - Week 41
Job interview session: peer and teacher evaluation
See assessment grid in job interview section
Mark 2, coef 2
Week 45 (4h)
Written Test
Writing skills, Abstract techniques
Mark 3, coef 1
Week 1 - 2023
Specific English: resources to go further
Resources on the internet about:
- chemistry guide (Cambridge): http://chemguide.co.uk/
- chemistry on Chemistry World: you can find different themes (SUSTAINABILITY, MATTER, ENERGY, EARTH, LIFE, CULTURE) and watch webinars offered by labs and companies (example on the Karl Fisher titration); on TylerDeWitt channelEx of the mass spectrometer operation http://chemguide.co.uk/analysis/masspec/howitworks.html#top
- particle physics over here! online magazine about particle physics: https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/rewiring-stem-education
- spectroscopy on spectroscopyNOW!: for each type of spectroscopy, you can find news, videos, educational information and so on (Atomic, IR, MRI, MS, NMR, Raman, UV, X-Ray, Chemometrics & Informatics, Proteomics)
- metrology: some reminder about accuracy & precision by Tyler DeWitt Part 1 here
& Part 2 over thereSignificant figures (sig fig) by Tyler DeWitt again.Also consider a dartboard to understand the difference between precision and accuracy
on Mr Michael Farabaugh's channel. Some aspects on sig fig explained too. More about precision & accuracyfrom Mid Sweden University (specifying accuracy and precision for a series of measurement values)- on physical phenomena from Veritasium channel on Youtube
Resources from the library:
Minimum competence in scientific English, Blattès, Susan 1955-.... Contributeur : Jans, Véronique (Auteur) Upjohn, Jonathan (Auteur) Date de publication : DL 2014
Wiki of shared resources!
Enrich the wiki below with your own sources. You must mention what kind of source it is and the topic, copy and paste the weblink of your source, say what is relevant about it and how much reliable it is. Finally type your name. Don't delete your colleagues' posts...
Pronunciation tips, Oralizing work, Sounds of English
From your text to its "speech", its pronunciation:
First type a clear, effective and mistake-free text by using Grammarly !https://www.grammarly.com/.
Then listen to the sound of your words with howjsay and sentences with acapela text to speech or ATT text to speech.
Advanced TH pronunciation and connected speech:
Watch this lesson
and the full channel too!The sounds of English from BBC learning English + Tim's pronunciation workshop here
Check out the pronunciation of -ED endings: it's actually easy to remember!
Go to
to train on the ED pronunciation.Same question of voiced or voiceless sounds to pronounce the -S endings!
From Woodward English too
Have a look at this section https://www.anglaisfacile.com/exercices/exercice-anglais-2/exercice-anglais-95275.php and do the quizzes on
to get trained!The Sounds of English in a phonemic chart
The sounds of English, classified into vowels and consonants
Now, look the phonemic chart and check its animated version below.
