Industry English
Industry English
Prof. Kent Lee
Fall 2025, Tuesday/Thursday
English Dept., Pukyong National University, Busan, S. Korea
Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 General course description
This is an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course designed to help students from a wide range of academic disciplines—such as computer science, IT, engineering, science fields, business, maritime studies, medicine, health, and social sciences—to develop their ability to understand and use professional, technical, and field-specific English. The course focuses on improving vocabulary, communication skills, and reading and discussion skills relevant to each student’s field of interest. At times we will deal with cross-cultural issues, technical writing, presentation and speaking skills, advanced grammar, pronunciation, and English linguistics.
- Prerequisites / requirements
This course is for advanced undergraduate students (3rd & 4th year students) and graduate students from any field, whose English is at an intermediate or advanced level.
- Theme
Students will engage with authentic materials and current issues from their own fields to learn how English is used in real-world professional and technical contexts.
- Format
This course uses discussion based activities, collaborative projects, and authentic materials. Students will explore key terms, texts, and communication styles from their disciplines while also learning to explain and compare ideas across fields. Class sessions will involve a combination of lecture plus discussion, group discussion, and group tasks. For holidays, make-up lecture videos will be posted in the LMS for make-ups.
- Course outline & components
Weekly class sessions and units may include the following.
- Understanding your field
- Technical descriptions
- Technical writing
- Problem solving scenarios
- Oral communication
- Professional writing
- User guides & manuals
- Presentation skills
- Presenting research & data
- Customer / client interactions
- Complex noun phrases
- Definite & indefinite noun phrases
- IT and IT security
- Business processes
- Data analytics
- Professional emails
- Readings and materials
The textbook for this course is a short course booklet, which will be made available as a free PDF file posted in the LMS. Other materials will be available in the LMS, and on the course website.
- Textbook / course booklet: A short booklet, to be made available as a free PDF in the LMS
- This website
- An updated PDF version of the syllabus will be posted in the LMS.
- Samples of documents, texts, online articles, and/or videos from your field (you will need to find these yourself and bring them to class at times)
- Grading
You will be graded according to the following framework. See the course booklet for specific grading criteria.
| Component | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Attendance & participation | 10% |
| General assignment / homework | 25% |
| Midterm | 25% |
| Final portfolio | 40% |
2 Weekly topics & assignments
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- Week 01 (01 Sept.)
- Course intro; overview of technical English:
- Week 02 (08 Sept.) -- Your field / industry
- Vocabulary
- Business processes
- Trade journals, research journals
- Research methods
- Week 03 (15 Sept.) -- Industry communication genres
- Hedging, emphasis
- Lay audience communication
- Professional email
- Week 04 (22 Sept.) -- Problem solving scenarios
- IT, IT security
- Tech disruption, AI
- Week 05 (29 Sept.) -- Professional interactions
- Customer / client service interactions
- End user / customer interactions & materials, e.g., websites
- Week 06 (06 Oct.) -- Chuseok
- Make-up assignments, videos or video critiques
- Week 07 (13 Oct.) -- Presenting research & data
- Pronunciation patterns: vowel rhythm, i-stems, abbreviations, compounds
- Presentation software
- Data analytics
- Web basics, UX/UI
- Types of graphs, visual displays, media
- Week 08 (20 Oct.) -- Midterm
- Midterm video due
- Week 09 (27 Oct.) -- Case studies
- Week 10 (03 Nov.) -- Case studies
- Week 11 (10 Nov.) -- Technical descriptions
- Delimiters, complex noun phrases
- Style, grammar
- Week 12 (17 Nov.) -- Professional & technical writing
- reports, memos
- journals
- editing
- SOPs
- Week 13 (24 Nov.) -- User guides & manuals
- Week 14 (01 Dec.) -- Careers, jobs, job searches
- Types of careers
- Core knowledge
- Hard skills, soft skills, transferrable skills, technical skills
- Week 15 (08 Dec.) -- *Make-up period*
- Week 16 (15 Dec.) -- *Finals week*
- Final portfolio due
3 Major assignments
3.1 Short video assignment
This counts as a 100-point regular assignment or homework assignment.
Instructional video
3.2 Midterm video assignment
Case study
3.3 Final portfolio
Written materials to be submitted via the LMS or an online repository such as GitHub.
