Download English language practice

Improving English Speaking
For
CCUT Students of CS and ECE
Using Technology Definitions
Herbert G. Mayer, PSU & CCUT
Status 5/11/2015
For use at Changchun University of Technology CCUT
CS 163 Spring 2015
Mark Each Definition used!
1
Syllabus
 Assumptions
 Goal
 Methods and Allies
 Definitions . . . Many More to Come
 Conclusion
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Overall Process
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Assumption
 Chinese students at CCUT have learned to read,
write, and speak English for some number of years
 Generally the ability to read and write is well
developed
 But the ability to speak extemporaneously is a
challenge for many students, even for those who
have learned English for a good number of years
 English speaking, particularly in public in a class
room with other students, poses problems
 Despite the fact that the same student would be able
to write down their conversation piece on paper,
completely and correctly
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Goal

English reading and writing skills are well developed for many
Chinese students of CS and ECE, particularly in a situation
without stress

Goal of this extra English language effort is to improve the
ability for students to speak publicly, more freely, with greater
fluency

The overall reading, writing, and speaking aptitudes in English
should all be comparable in quality

At the moment, of the 3 skills the speaking aptitude is lowest
for many Chinese CCUT students, hence my goal is to help
raise that skill

Goal is to raise the speaking aptitude, that is free speaking, in a
public forum
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Methods and Allies
 Chinese students should practice English
speaking in public
 The proposal here is a low-investment method to
accomplish this
 Referring to CCUT students who take some
instruction in English at CCUT’s foreign language
department
 It would be a great help, to have the English
teachers invest ~15 minutes per week, in one of
the English language courses, to have students
articulate the below definitions
 A student should practice the method outlined
below for about 1-2 minutes for each term to be
defined
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Allies
 The weekly practice of articulating of terms takes
time; estimated 10-15 minutes per week
 These are minutes of English class time per week,
otherwise reserved for other English language
instruction
 If CCUT cannot “recruit” the English language
department for sacrificing the time, the respective
technical department (ECE or CS) should invest
this language practice from their own time
 So once a week in CS we invest a few minutes of
English speaking practice
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Method
The following method is practiced for each listed
term, for a few minutes per week, a few students per
week, will be asked to do:
1.Student stands up
2.Loudly announces own name
3.Explains, which specific term will be defined
verbally right there in public; term is displayed first
4.Defines in a few phrases the meaning of that term
5.After defining, asks the audience, whether the
explanation of the term was clear, whether there are
disagreements, or omissions
6.After absorbing all input, if any, student will
summarize the changes and re-articulates the
definition of the term
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Method
 This short public speech should be constrained to
a few minutes for each definition, about 1-2
minutes
 That way, during a 5-10 minute period, about 5+
students can go through the steps of the method,
speaking in public, each explaining a different term
 Until the allotted time has been invested
 In the course of a month, about 20-30 candidates
will have had a chance to improve speaking in
public
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List of Definitions
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Definition of Ampère
 Ampère is the unit for current, one of the base units
of the SI –usually written Ampere in English
 Named after André Marie Ampère, French physicist
1775 - 1836
 When about 6.241 * 1018 electrons stream though a
conductor in a second, the amount of charge moved
was 1 C and the current was 1 A; AKA “amp”.
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Definition of Bit
 Bit is an acronym for binary digit
 Bit is the smallest unit of information in a computer
memory
 A bit holds one of two possible values, either 0 or 1
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Definition of Circuit
 A circuit is a combination of electrical components
to create defined electrical signals, such as specific
currents or voltages of frequencies
 Components can be resistors, transistors, energy
sources, diodes etc.
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Definition of Computer
 Computer is an electronic device that can
manipulate bits, read bits from the outside by a
process named input, and generate bits for the
outside, named output
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Definition of Computer Memory
 Memory is a component of an electronic computer
that can store, change, and hold information
 That information is arranged in bits
 These bits are often grouped in units of bytes, each
of which is addressable
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Definition of Constant Current Source
 A Constant Current Source is a hypothetical electric
device that produces a constant current
independent of the actual load connected to its 2
terminals
 Such a source is able to generate any voltage
necessary to sustain the defined, constant current
 It is not possible in practice to build such a device
for all loads; for example, in case of an open load,
the voltage needed to produce a real current for
infinite resistance would also be infinite
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Definition of Constant Voltage Source
 A Constant Voltage Source is a hypothetical electric
device that produces a constant voltage
independent of the actual load connected to its 2
terminals
 Such a source is able to generate any current
necessary to sustain the defined, constant voltage
 It is not possible in practice to build such a device
for all loads; for example, in case of short-circuit, the
current needed to produce the defined voltage for a
zero resistance would be infinite
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Definition of Coulomb
 A coulomb is a fundamental unit of electrical charge,
and is the SI derived unit of electric charge; the
symbol Coulomb is C; the symbol for charge
flowing, creating a current, is: Q or q
 A coulomb is equal to a charge of approximately
6.241×1018 electrons
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Definition of CPU
 CPU is a component of an electronic computer that
can perform computations
 These computations can use integer, floating point
or logical operands
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Definition of Electric Power
 Electrical power, like its mechanical equivalent, is
the ability to do work
 It is measured in Watt, unit dimension shown as W,
in equations denoted by letter p
 It is the ability to do work of a 1 Coulomb charge
every second, when passing through a field of one
Volt
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Definition of Electrical Resistance
 Electrical resistance? A material’s opposition to the
free flow of electrons
 In an insulator, such as vacuum or porcelain,
resistivity is very large, typically >> 1 MΩ (Mega
Ohm)
R ~ ki * length / Area
A
I
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Definition of Electron
 An electron is a subatomic particle with electric
charge; we call that charge negative; it is part of
lepton family
 Called an elementary particle, since it seems to have
no sub-particles
 Has mass of approximately 1/1836 of a proton
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Definition of Floating Point Number
 A floating point number is a type of number that
expresses an amount of some unit
 Floating point numbers can have an integer portion
and a fraction, i.e. a part of an integer
 For example, when you purchase a pound of sugar,
it is possible that you end with a little too much, so
you have a pound plus a smaller fraction
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Definition of Integer
 Integer is a type of number that expresses a count of
some unit
 For example, we can count that many people have 2
eyes
 Integers lack a so called fractional part
 For example, when you purchase a pound of sugar,
it is possible that you end with a little to much, so
you have a pound plus a smaller fraction
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Definition of Kirchhoff’s law
 There are two Kirchhoff’s Laws, the Kirchhoff
Current Law (KCL) and the Kirchhoff Voltage Law
(KVL)
 The KCL states that the sum of all currents
converging on any one node in a circuit is 0
 The KVL states that the sum of al voltages along al
branches of a mesh in a circuit is 0
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Definition of Machine Instruction
 Instruction is a computer’s elementary unit to
perform some work.
 Such an instruction may be an integer computation,
such as adding 1 to a number, or it may be the
selection of an address
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Definition of Mol
 A mol is the amount of substance of a system which
contains as many elementary entities as there are
atoms in 0.012 kilogram of carbon 12; entities can be
atoms, molecules, electrons
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Definition of Op Amp
 An operational amplifier (AKA Op Amp) is a DCcoupled high-gain electronic voltage amplifier with a
differential input and a single-ended voltage output
 Built already with tubes in ww2
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Definition of Op Amp, Ideal
 An ideal or idealized Op Amp is a simplified,
idealized version of a real operations amplified.
 Input resistance at both input is assumed to be
(simplified for computations to be) infinite
 Hence the current sat the input pins are in = ip = ∞ A
 Also, the voltages at the input pins vp and vn are
equal
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Definition of Prime Number
 Given a positive, integer number n, n is prime, if it is
only divisible by the integer n itself and by 1
 Otherwise n is not a prime number
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Definition of Programming Language
 A programming language is generally a high-level
language that allows us to interface with a computer
 Machines or people write source programs
 These are compiled by a system software tool called
a compiler
 The output is an equivalent object program that can
be executed
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Definition of Program
 A program is a sequence of instructions,
understandable by a computer
 And these instructions are executed by that
computer
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Definition of Program, High Level
 A high-level program is a program written in a
language that is intuitive for humans, and not
understandable by a computer
 Therefore the high level program must be
transformed first, before the computer can
understand and then execute it
 This tool is a piece of system software, called a
compiler
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Definition of Program, Low Level
 A low-level program is a program written in
assembly language that is hard to read (and write)
for humans, but akin to machine instructions of a
computer on which it is expected to run
 Even such a low-level assembly language program
must be translated first, before the computer can
understand and then execute it
 This tool is a piece of system software, called an
assembler
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Definition of SI
 SI is an international organization, head-quartered in
Paris France
 This organization defines and publishes elementary
physical units, such as the units for weight, length,
and electric current
 One of the goals is to have a few independent
physical units as possible as a base to express all
units
 Another goal is to express all units in a way that it
would be possible in labs all over the world to verify
the definition, especially the numeric value of each
unit
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Definition of Source Program
 A Source Program is a string of printable characters
which combine to so-called tokens
 Each token has a meaning for the computer to eitehr
define data or to execute
 It is necessary for system software to translate that
sequence of tokens into a binary code
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Conclusion
 T.b.d.
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