Tech Talk: Explanation

Tech Talk

• Details

Name of Item	Tech Talk
Activity Type	Vocabulary / Discussion
Student Level	Lower Intermediate - Intermediate
Time Allowance	10 - 20 minutes
Preparation Required	Nothing special
Other Items Needed	(possibly a computer to demonstrate unfamiliar concepts)
Vocabulary	operating system / application / version / menu / dialog box screen saver / virus / back-up copy
Grammar	Nothing special

• Instructions

This sheet is designed to introduce fairly basic computer vocabulary and discuss it in simple terms. It is really aimed at people who alredy have some experience of using a computer but not of talking about it in English. It may be especially useful where words in the students language for these things are similar but not quite the same as the English words (e.g. "dialog" instead of "dialog box").

Give out the work-sheet, read through the list of words to give an idea of pronunciation and then instruct students to match the words with the examples on the right and write the corresponding numbers in the right-most column. When everybody has completed this and the whole class have the same answers, ask them to place one of the phrases into each space in the sentences below. Probable correct answers are as follows:

application
operating system
virus
dialog box
back-up copy
screen saver
version
menu

Once they have completed this and everybody has the same answers, instruct them individually to decide whether they agree or disagree with the sentences. If there appears to be a few sentences that might provoke discussion, divide the class into groups / pairs (preferably containing people who don't agree) and tell them to compare and debate their answers for a few minutes.