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PUBLICATION INFORMATION

TITLE OF PUBLICATION

ENGLISH FOR CHEMISTRY: FILM BANK

NAME OF AUTHOR(S)

Małgorzata Świątek

NAME OF PUBLISHER

International Confererence ICT for language Learning - conference proceedings

YEAR OF PUBLICATION

2011

LANGUAGE OF PUBLICATION

English

PUBLICATION TYPOLOGY

Conference Article

TARGET GROUP OF PUBLICATION

School Directors, Young People, Researchers, Teachers

SIZE OF THE PUBLICATION

3 – 10 pages

DESCRIPTION OF CONTENTS

English for Chemistry is a non-profit project, aiming to provide materials for teaching English for
Specific Purposes at B2 level in accordance with the Common European Framework of Reference
(CEFR) to the students of the Faculty of Chemistry at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. The
project was conducted in the academic year 2010/11 by third year students of this faculty under the
supervision and leadership of Dorota Klimek, a teacher of English at the Jagiellonian Language
Centre. The project leader was inspired by another teacher of English at the Language Centre, Monika
Stawicka, who was a supervisor of a pilot initiative taken by the Jagiellonian University Language
Centre - English ++’project, awarded the European Language Label in 2008. European Language Label (ELL) is a quality label for innovative initiatives in language learning and teaching present since 1998 in all countries participating in the Lifelong Learning Programme. The English++ pilot project was awarded the ELL in one of the three distinct categories as a winner of the competition for institutions of tertiary education in Poland. The new project English for Chemistry: Film Bank will participate in the next 2011/12 edition of the ELL competition in Poland. English for Chemistry: Film Bank includes a set of listening comprehension exercises based
on filmsconcerning a variety of chemistry subjects, carefully selected from the multitude of materials available on the Internet. The films are accompanied by a follow-up section, consisting of
complementary reading and vocabulary exercises. The materials can be used in the classroom and for self-study purposes alike. Project participants and beneficiaries have developed a bank of Chemistry materials including specialist glossary, which helps improving the knowledge of professional jargon
(ESP). The files are also available as printable pdfs at the Jagiellonian University Language Centre
web site: www.jcj.uj.edu.pl
1.Introduction
1.1. The English for Chemistry project origin
The project started its career at the Jagiellonian University Language Centre at the beginning of the
academic year 2010/11 and followed the ideas of the pilot programme which began
a series of innovative language courses, such as English++, Extreme English, Deutsch Presentations.
The project was carried out by two groups of third year students from the Institute of Chemistry at the
Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland. The students were inspired by their teacher of English,
Dorota Klimek, M.A., from the Centre, who transformed the way the English classes had been
conducted before. The result of the project is a complementary English course film bank for Chemistry
sciences students and their teachers. The e-version of the bank may be used for self-study or in the classroom at the B2 level or B2+.
One of the project main objectives was to improve the quality of specialist vocabulary teaching and
learning thanks to the development of the film bank available in an electronic format, which features
authentic chemistry materials, including video films to be used during any language course staged at
the higher education and attended by Chemistry students at B2 or B2+ levels, referring to CEFR.
The film bank includes original videos and reading, listening and vocabulary exercises as well as
additional materials prepared by the students and their teacher.
“Video is a valuable and possibly underused tool. There is always the temptation to simply put a video
on at the end of term and let our students watch a film without even challenging them to be actively
involved. Video as a listening tool can enhance the listening experience for our students. We very
rarely hear a disembodied voice in real life but as teachers we constantly ask our students to work
with recorded conversations of people they never see. This is often necessary in the limited confines
of the language school and sometimes justifiable, for example, when we give students telephone
practice. However, we can add a whole new dimension to aural practice in the classroom by using
video. The setting, action, emotions, gestures, etc, that our students can observe in a video clip,
provide an important visual stimulus for language production and practice.”[1]
The video materials (films) were carefully selected by project participants. Films are up to nine minutes
long, majority in British English, including chemistry experiments and tests.
The project participants were stressing good practice during their activity, e.g. respecting copyright and followed a model of English ++ project.The students were also supervised by the researchers at the Institute of Chemistry at the Jagiellonian University.

REVIEWER’S COMMENTS ON THE PUBLICATION

The Chemistry English bank film project improves a motivation theory that expresses a basic premise
about the role of motivation which leads to possibilities for fostering the development of students’
potential or life chances. Most of the project participants acquired skills and knowledge essential to
start their professional career The leader of the project, a teacher of English, had a primary
responsibility in education to help students cultivate personal qualities of motivation that could give
them resources for developing aspiration, independent learning, achieving goals, and fostering
resiliency in the face of setbacks. Perhaps this responsibility was even more important in the context of the motivational problems and challenges faced by the teacher than any other aspects, including individual and group benefits.

WHERE TO FIND IT

http://conference.pixel-online.net/ICT4LL2011/common/download/Paper_pdf/LBV06-287-FP-Swiatek-ICT4LL2011.pdf

NAME OF THE REVIEWING ORGANISATION

WSINF

Comments about this Publication

Your comments are welcome

Date: 2014.10.12

Posted by J.A. Martín-Lagos (Spain)

Message: The publication describes activities to provide materials for specific English teaching aimed at the formation of language skills. Used are 20 educational film chemical topics. One of the project main objectives was to improve the quality of specialist vocabulary teaching and learning through the use of a film bank available in an electronic format, which features authentic chemistry materials, including video films to be used during any language course staged at the higher education. While learning chemical concepts, students are trained to understand oral English an example of interaction between Chemistry and English courses. This paper is relevant for our teaching training because it contains an useful project to apply in our schools. This paper is a useful source of inspiration about how to work with chemistry language at various levels. From my point of view, this article is interesting and relevant and it has enriched my view of the teaching of Sciences.

Date: 2014.05.12

Posted by Adriana Tafrova - Grigorova (Bulgaria)

Message: The author describes in details the design, development and outcomes of the project “English for chemistry”. A bank of teaching materials: video films accompanied by listening, reading and vocabulary exercises on different chemical topics is created. The use of authentic chemistry materials in English enhances student competences both in chemistry as subject and English as a target language. It is important for Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) classes, that materials are designed in a way to give a visual support and thus to allow students to focus on and learn to use the foreign language as they learn the new subject content.
The publication would be of great use for all teachers in Chemistry CLIL. In Bulgaria at least in 35 schools the Chemistry and Environmental Protection school subject is taught in English to Bulgarian students. The teaching materials described in this paper could be accessed at any time and place, so as they are in particular helpful for independent student work.

Date: 2014.04.07

Posted by Julien Keutgen (Belgium)

Message: This initiative is a great example of interdisciplinarity, as it associates chemistry and English courses. While learning chemical concepts, students are trained to understand oral English; this is always a problem in Belgium as language lessons tend to be more focussed on theory and writing. Moreover, students learn the English scientific terminology, which is particularly important in an increasingly European and international context (Erasmus trips, job placement in foreign organisations, international conferences, European projects...). Knowing the English vocabulary of science is all the more important that with the Internet, many international articles, videos and resources are available to everyone, but these are not always understood. The videos can also be a good motivation tool as they address topics from everyday life and the exercises make it possible to make sure the students have understood the video.

Date: 2014.04.03

Posted by Katarína Javorová (Slovakia)

Message: The publication describes activities that is oriented on Krakow\' s univeristy Chemistry 3rd year students and it\'s purpose was to provide materials for specific English teaching aimed at the formation of language skills. Used are 20 educational film chemical topics. The film presents interesting facts, information and chemical demonstrations. This approach is very motivational, students in general like using multimedia in language teaching. Films are not very long, up to nine minutes, in British English, includes interesting chemistry experiments and tests. I find it inovational, how to focus students on auditory skills. These materials can be used in the class or for self-study purposes. Although this is a resource for the development of language skills and can be used by teachers of chemistry. It is necessary that students have very good language skills or be guided by users to put subtitles in own language. All materials including the videos are available in Bank, so they are available anytime. The objective for this project is to improve the vocabulary, reading, listening and writting skills. It is not specified, how much speaking is done in such a project and if it helps improvement of presentationt skills.

Date: 2014.03.30

Posted by Ilka Boyanova (Bulgaria)

Message: The post presents the English for Chemistry project the main objective of which is to develop resources for teaching Chemistry in English. Film Bank includes a wide selection of listening comprehension exercises focused on various topics, carefully chosen among the abundance of resources available on the Internet. The resources can be use either in the classroom or for the purposes of self-study.
The participants in the project have developed a body of didactic materials including a thematic glossary to enhance the awareness of chemistry terminologies. The post is extremely topical and can be applied in classes of intensive language courses. It deals with one of the pressing problems in teaching Chemistry in English and suggests effective approaches to mastering the knowledge by improving the command of English.
The project helps teachers stay in touch with the latest methods of teaching: using multimedia, practical drills, interesting experiments and tests. The selected videos; reading, listening and lexical exercises increase students’ motivation not only to master chemical knowledge but also to improve their linguistic competence.
I find the post extremely interesting and useful especially when teaching in classes with intensive English language courses.

Date: 2014.03.25

Posted by Maria Sheehan (Ireland)

Message: English for Chemistry aims to provide materials for teaching English for specific purposes. The film bank includes a set of listening comprehension, complementary reading and vocabulary exercises based on a variety of chemistry subjects. One of the main objectives of the project was to improve the quality of specialist vocabulary by using authentic chemistry materials. The paper gives a sample of this material relating to the chemistry of Chlorine. Activities appear to be closed tests where pupils substitute in the correct work in a passage of text. The bank of materials is particularly useful as they can be accessed at any time by pupils. The findings of the initiative report improvement in motivation levels. It also reports that participants acquired skills and knowledge essential to start their professional careers. Although these skills are not listed. It would have been helpful if they were. A lot of work has been put into the development of these resources and they have potential to engage pupils and as a result help with the subject specific vocabulary.

Date: 2014.02.24

Posted by Krasimira Tomeva (Bulgaria)

Message: The publication describes the activities of the „English for Chemists \", aimed at the formation of language skills. An important objective is the creation of a variety of materials for English language training. Used are 20 educational film chemical topics. The film presents interesting facts, information and chemical demonstrations. The short length makes them particularly suitable for viewing and discussion in the lessons. Are suggested discussion questions and texts tasks for each of the movies? This motivates and focuses viewing. Are applicable for students of English, but the nature of the films makes them suitable for lessons in chemistry. Resource development team has planned and created PDF files for printing. Of interest to students and teachers involved in English. One solution to the problem of securing resources. Available materials exercise for listening, reading, vocabulary dictionary. We can feel the visual contact no matter it is in the film, we can observe the gestures of the speaker (unlike most commonly used audio contact with the audio recordings in language lessons). No matter that it was in a movie, we can observe the gestures of the speaker (unlike most commonly used audio recording lessons in foreign languages lessons).
This publication does not address issues related to the teaching of chemistry, but offers a very felicitous resource for work in school, at home, a team or autonomously. Although this is a resource for the development of language skills, it can be used by teachers of chemistry. It is necessary students have very good language skills or be guided by a competent mentor or users to put subtitles in own language.
Guidance and convenience to use the resources of the project there is a description of the different sections: Film Bank, materials, and information on individual resources. Skills, which can be formed, are: presentation skills, language skills, scientific literacy.
For me, as a teacher of biology and chemistry and a person with good language skills, this trove is useful and applicable in the job.
Congratulations on the creators and participants in this project!

Date: 2013.12.17

Posted by Kristyna Junova (Czech republic)

Message: It is a non-profit project, that is oriented on Krakow\' s univeristy Chemistry 3rd year students and it\'s purpose was to provide materials for specific English teaching. It is very interesting, that eventhough it is mentioned for Chemistry students, the idea is to based it on films concerning chemistry topics. In my opinion it might be very motivational, students in general like using multimedia in language teaching. After seeing the film, the students receive follow-up materials with complementary reading and vocabulary ecercise. Films are not very long, up to nine minutes, in British English, includes interesting chemistry experiments and tests. I find it inovational, how to focus students on auditory skills. These materials can be used in the class or for self-study purposes.
All these materials including the videos are available at so called Bank, so they are available anytime. The objective for this project is to improve the vocabulary, reading, listening and writting skills. It is not specified, how much speaking is done in such a project and if it helps improvement of presentationt skills.
I find this paper as a useful source of inspiration how to work with chemistry language at various levels.

National Reports on successful experiences to promote lifelong learning for chemistry The national reports on chemistry successful experiences to promote lifelong learning for chemistry are now available on the related section of the project portal. The reports presents examples of successful experiences in the partner countries and the results of testing of ICT resources with science teachers.