2 English for Information Technology A2-B1 Vocational English Teacher’s Book

 

Preparing for the next unit  

In preparation for Unit 8, ask students to think of a 

story from their own experience about a problem 

with IT equipment. Where possible, it should be 

relevant to their study or work life outside English 

classes but, if necessary, an item of consumer 

equipment would be acceptable. They should be 

prepared to tell their story at the beginning of the 

next lesson. 

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8 

IT solutions 

 

Briefing 

 This final unit of the book is less technical than most 

of the previous units. Topics have been chosen for 

their potential for review and recycling of language 

from earlier in the book. The language focus is on 

problems and solutions: present perfect vs. past 

simple; modals of speculation and deduction; 

proposing solutions. The final section focuses on 

applying for jobs, something that many users of this 

book will be doing at the end of their course.  

 

Investigations 

This section introduces students to the vocabulary of 

faults that occur with software and hardware. A 

distinction is made between a hang (in which a 

computer or program appears to come to a halt, 

stops accepting input but does not close or switch 

off) and a crash (in which the program or computer 

shuts down). Another word that is often used for 

hang is freeze. Often when a program hangs, its 

windows become grey and the title bar may say ‘not 

responding’ or something similar.  

 

Diagnosis 

While the diagnosis of problems occurs in many 

situations in IT-related workplaces, this section 

focuses on a call centre/help desk situation. Call 

centres and help desks may take calls from the 

general public (if the company sells products to the 

general public) or workers inside a company. In 

such an environment, calls are often answered by 

workers with relatively little knowledge of IT. This 

is called tier 1, level 1 or first line support. The 

purpose is to deal with the problems that occur most 

frequently, and the majority of problems will be 

successfully solved at this level. The operator 

usually follows a script. If by following the 

suggestions in the script the problem is not solved, it 

can be escalated to tier 2 support. Operators at this 

level have a higher level of technical knowledge. If 

they are unsuccessful, the problem can be escalated 

further to tier 3 and sometimes even tier 4, where 

that exists. 

A particular kind of software, known as an issue