Mining & Minerals Syllabus
WHO IS THIS SYLLABUS SUITABLE FOR?
This syllabus is suitable for second language learners working in the Mining and Minerals industry, who want to improve their competence in the target language, using meaningful real-world contexts relevant to their professional working lives.
Actual course content and training format will be tailor-made after a process of consultation. The sample outline below gives an idea of what may be covered. The language levels are based on the Common European Framework.
SAMPLE COURSE OUTLINE
Level A1 & A2 (Beginner Level)
1. Communicative/Thematic Content may include:
- Geology and Minerals
- Science, Technology and engineering
- Industrial minerals, coal and metaliferous mining
- Site assessment, exploration and ecological surveys
- Planning, permitting and compliance
- Environmental impact assessment
- Hydrogeology/Geotechnology
- Mine and quarry development, operation, form/structure, energy resources
- Extraction, waste disposal, tailing dams
- Decommissioning, restoration and After-use
- Negotiation advice/support, commercial agreements/transactions
- World energy consumption
A1 Beginner
2. Topics and Vocabulary
- Learning a language – methods and experience
- Personal Identification – talking about yourself
- Making telephone calls
- Useful social language
- Describing your role
- Simple correspondence including emails
- Describing structure and process
- Presenting information clearly
- The language of meetings
- IT – key vocab & issues
- Emergencies
- Describing people and places
- Hotels, restaurants and bars; the business lunch
- Language of opinion
- Small chat
- Telling the time
- Talking about the weather
- Daily routine – schedules, meetings, appointments, deadlines
3. Grammar, Structure, Skills
- Past, Present, Future (tense and aspect)
- Key Modality
- Adjectives and adverbs, frequency
- Articles, Some/Any, Quantities, Demonstratives
- Articles, Possessives
- More complex verb forms – eg; the perfect and the continuous
- Gerunds and infinitives
- Comparative/superlative
- Cultural Insights
- Social and business conventions
- Lots of speaking/active practise
- Lots of listening
- Pronunication – key sounds
- Dialect, Accent
A2/Beginner
4. Topics and Vocabulary
- Describing structure and performance
- Describing trends / current business / research / development climate
- Making presentations
- Basic production and processes
- Meetings: chairing, taking part, negotiation
- Research and Development, science and technology, engineering
- Formal correspondence
- Using situation-appropriate language, small talk – breaking the ice
- Communicating by telephone/email
- Talking about the weather, climate, geography
- Travel, getting around on the bus and the train, taking a taxi, seeing the sights
- Shopping for gifts and toiletries
- Setting priorities
- Talking about the past - anecdotes, reports
- The future – hopes, aspirations, projects
- The language of change
- Key functional expressions, inc. giving advice, making enquiries, making invitations
- The language of disagreement & dissent
- Summarising complex information
- Health and safety, emergencies, at the doctor’s
5. Grammar, Structure, Skills
- Verb systems (e.g. past, present, future, aspects, active, passive, finite, infinite)
- Modals, intentions, plans, predictions, wishes
- Reporting ideas and statements
- Contingency and condition (if, unless …)3
- Quantifiers, articles, etc.
- Multi-clause sentences, relative clauses, multi-verb clauses
- Complex Comparatives & superlatives
- Word-building (prefix and suffix patterns)
- Word families (noun-verb-adjective-adverb)
- Common idioms
- Common linking words
- Common collocations
- Compound words
- Cultural insights
- Social and business conventions, customer/client perceptions
- Lots of speaking/active practice
- Lots of listening
- Pronunciation - focus on problem areas
- Dialect, Accent
6. Cultural content
- Everyday conventions: greetings, time-keeping, making phone calls, meals, etc
- Body language and gestures
- National traditions/customs & culture
- ‘Do’s & Taboos’
- Intercultural Communication
- Business Culture
- Social Life