INTRODUCTION OF ENGLISH AS TEACHING LANGUAGE IN THE SUBJECT “LABORATORY IN CHEMISTRY IV (ANALYTICAL PART)"

Chemical Laboratory I is a fundamental subject for advanced training in Analytical and Physical Chemistry for students in their 4th year of the Degree in Chemistry. As regards Analytical Chemistry, the subject essentially involves the application of instrumental techniques to solve real analytical problems.

The methodology implemented in this subject differs from the classical methodology since lecturers will not provide students with laboratory guides containing recipes on how to carry out different practices, and instead the student will need to search in the literature for the most appropriate method and take it into the laboratory to solve real problems, always under the supervision of the lecturer.

One of the most important aspects that may be considered in the implantation of the new Grades is the mandatory setting of the teaching in English. In this sense, the proposal and performing of projects with reduced groups of students, in which methodologies for teaching in English are introduced, are extremely interesting.

The present work describes a pilot study dealing with the progressive introduction of scientific terms in English as teaching language of the subject “Laboratory in Chemistry I (Analytical Part)”. A group of fourth-course students will reinforce their knowledge in English, by means of reading and writing activities. The students will use spoken English in the laboratory, elaborate the laboratory guides (for this task they will do a literature search of manuscripts in English) and the final reports in English, following the methods proposed by the professors. The comprehension of written and spoken scientific English will be evaluated.