ENGLISH IN CHEMISTRY

This book has been specifically designed for students of Chemistry who require a good basic knowledge of the linguistic structures and reading skills in English to enable them to follow their chosen course of studies and to work in the field of Chemistry. The book is divided into three sections: The first section consists of essential grammar units to be used for the revision and consolidation of the basic grammar points necessary for the comprehension of the texts in the following sections. These units are suitable for use in basic English courses and pre-courses, as well as being a source of reference for more advanced students. The second section consists of specific texts dealing with various aspects of Chemistry, plus a wide variety of exercises for the comprehension of the text and the consolidation of the linguistic structures in context. The third section contains useful appendices regarding mathematical symbols and formulae, names of laboratory equipment, technical tables, the periodic table and a glossary of words and terrminology found in the specific texts. Each lesson in section 2 consists of a text with a series of exercises, which assist the student in both a global and detailed understanding of its contents. The skills practised within the exercises are those of skimming (reading for general meaning of the text) and scanning (reading for specific infomation), which the student has undoubtedly already acquired in his/her mother tongue. The student is thus encouraged to draw on the many parallels between Italian and English which are found in the base word, in word formation (typical suffixes, prefixes etc), and also in certain grammatical forms. There are also indications of "false friends" - words which appear to the Italian reader to have a certain meaning which in fact the have not. Pronunciation is reinforced by the reading of the texts in class and the final translation is facilitated by the exercises.