Introduction

Information Technology has been playing an important role in our life. Teaching and learning English for Information Technology in National Economics University have received great attention. English for Information Technology is important because of two connected reasons, Globalization and the Internet. Globalization recognizes that we now operate at a global level, not a local, national or even international level. Our economies, health systems, and languages and cultures are becoming more and more integrated. For example, a political decision made in Beijing involving Britain, America, Japan and China affects the political situation in Myanmar, which then affects the economy of Thailand (in this case more trade with Myanmar and fewer migrant workers). What makes this possible is Information and Communications Technology (ICT) – and the language of IT, is English.

English for IT is different from the general English in three main aspects.

The first aspect is the vocabulary. The vocabulary used on an English for IT course is specific for IT.  We use words that are useful in your job.  Lexis is the understanding that words change meaning when put together with other words.  So, do you ‘surf the web’, or ‘play on the Internet’? It is common in English to form words from other words, or to use a noun as a verb or the other way around.   For example: “Google it!” – Google is of course a proper noun, a name, but we are using it as a verb in an imperative statement, we are saying “use Google to search for what you want.”

Or consider these words ‘stock’, ‘market’, ‘crash’ – individually these words have quite distinct meanings, but together they have a meaning all of their own e.g. “The company is afraid of a stock market crash”.  We also have slag and jargon to consider.  Imagine an engineer reports “the uplink is flapping, can you get someone to bounce the box?” You will not understand the meaning of ‘flapping’, ‘box’ and ‘uplink’ simply by using a dictionary – you will need to explore the language within a specialist context.

The second aspect is the grammar. There are certain grammatical terms that are more common in ICT than in other areas of English use.   We tend to use imperatives when giving or writing instructions or providing documentation, we tend to use the passive form a lot (we remove the subject, e.g. the passive is used a lot), we also use the simple present and present continuous frequently.  It is therefore sensible for the student to focus on areas that are more specific to his or her daily needs, than to try to learn ‘everything’.

The third aspect is the functional language and language skills. Here we are concerned with using the right language for the right situation.  Some of this is very business orientated, dealing with contracts, CVs, and SLAs, and some of it is more concerned with relationships at work, with clients, customers and suppliers, and some of it is more focused on mediums of communication: conference calls, collaborative problem solving, presentations, interviews, negotiations and documentation.  It’s about developing the right language skills for the right job.  Students need to be able to learn and practice these skills within a supportive and safe environment, using the language that they need.

This document presents thirteen topics about four main areas in Information Technology: Computer Hardware, Computer Software, Networking and IT Careers. The content of each topic focuses on three distinguished aspect of English for IT as stated above. Besides that, each topic is structured with vocabulary, reading, grammars, listening and speaking sections. This structure ensures the development of listening, reading, writing and speaking skills for students.At the end of each topic, we include a short summary and further exercises for practicing at home.