Dear Professional Tandem participant,
a part of your time in your Professional Tandem you will probably use
texts, diagrams, and other written documents related to your profession.
Therefore we offer you this short `course', which you can work through
step by step in both languages in your Tandem sessions. To be prepared for
this course, you need a basic knowledge of the language (equaling an
approximate 300 hours of class). Having worked through this little crash
course, you will be capable of reading technical texts in the foreign
language. In case your knowledge of the language is already more advanced,
or if you have experience with comprehension of written texts, you can go
directly to the  synopsis (list No. 18) and pass on from there to the
particular topics useful to you.
If you combine this course with the techniques for acquisition of
vocabulary which we offer you in a separate brochure, the course will
result to be even more effective.

The first and basic rule when trying to understand written texts: Don't
panic ! Don't panic when confronted with  a mass of unknown words. You do
not have to understand each and every word in order to comprehend the
text's essential content.
> You can test this yourself: Take a text in your mother tongue and cross
out about one third of all words without reading the text. Then try to
restore the text. You will find that a 30 to 50 % of the missing can be
predicted or deduced from the context.
> Try the same with your Tandem partner: give the text to her/him rendered
partly illegible, let her/him reconstruct the text reading it out loud,
and compare with the original text.
> Since you are working with texts related to your profession, things
become even easier. You already know the content to a large extent, only
lacking a certain knowledge of the language. Therefore you can predict
what might be written there.

From here on we suggest to you particular steps, which you should pass
through with your Tandem partner in the given order, since each step is
based on the preceding one. It is suitable to spend about 15 minutes of
each Tandem meeting training your comprehension of written texts (treating
the two languages separately)

Two more tips:
> Don't waste your time reading out loud the texts of this brochure. Also
there is no need to be able to use actively the whole vocabulary you find
in this brochure - learning it would mean an unnecessary loss of time.
> As mentioned above, the amount of unknown words is of very little
importance. With 1000 words we are able to master an 80 % of our daily
conversation, with 2000 already an 88%.
All European languages operate with a lot of universally understood terms.
These are very helpful for understanding unknown texts, particularly
scientific and other technical texts.
* Underline everything you understand in the technical text you selected
for practicing.
3. If you can't make out a word's meaning right from the start, youdispose of two strategies:
> Pay attention to orthographic similarities to other languages.
> read out loud the unknown word and see whether the word  sounds
familiar, although the word is not familiar to you in writing.
* Try this with a technical text.



4. Sometimes all tricks will not solve your problem, so you will have to
consult a dictionary.
Before doing so, though, you should make sure whether
> you really have to understand the word - as you know, one can understand
the statement(s) of a text without understanding every word completely.
> you cannot derive the word's meaning through the context
* Now, please open a dictionary, one specialized on your profession, if
you have one:

Dictionaries usually inform you about irregular plural forms of nouns.
If a word noun only exists as plural, this is also indicated..

Almost always the dictionary lists several meanings of one particular
word. Decide which fits best into the given context.
> If you cannot find a word, remember that its form you find in the text
may be different from the basic form appearing in the dictionary.
* The basic form you will have to `discover'. Look for examples of
features which might distract you when reading:


nouns
- plural:             ending -s                   factor/factors,
                                                  house /houses
                      ending -es                  loss/  losses
                      singular ending -y,
                        plural ending -ies        party/ parties
                      irregular plural forms      woman/ women

verbs
- endings:            ending -s                   say/   says
                      ending -es                  go/    goes
                      ending -d                   derive/derived
                      ending -ed                  play/  played
                      ending -t                   bring/ brought
                      ending -n                   show/  shown
                      double consonant            step/  stepped
                      k becomes ck                traffic/ trafficking

irregular verbs, furthermore:
- change of vowel                                 know/ knew
  ...plus change of consonants                    bring/brought
- different word stems:                           am, are, is, was, been
                                                  go, went, gone

adjectives:

- degree of comparison

5. It may occur that you meet with a mass of unknown words, and you don'tfeel like looking them up one by one. You will have to rationalize.
For this you should be aware of the fact that

> in technical texts the most important information is usually expressed
by a noun.
* Strike out all verbs in a technical text, and give this text to your
Tandem partner.
 Find out whether she/he can reproduce the text's content.
* Now take a similar text, strike out all nouns, and try the same.

6. Another peculiarity of technical texts in any language are combinations
of several words, above all nouns. These combinations can be found in the
dictionary, but this is only so if they haven`t been made up by the
writer.

In the latter case, finding a combination's meaning requires looking at
each single element. With nouns as elements, English shows the following
combinations:
> either several nouns following each other :
phone book, telephone directory, telephone number
> or an adjective followed by a noun:
wireless message, remote control
> or nouns following each other, at the same time combined with
adjectives:
local exchange area, long-distance call,
direct current, direct-current operation.
> Verbs or derivations from verbs can also precede a noun:
viewing tube, alternating current, alternating-current generator

The primary word is the last element of these combinations:
The local exchange area is not an exchange, it's an area.

So:
> find out the meaning of all elements (consulting a dictionary only if
necessary)
> combine the words' meanings.
> take into account the context in order to correct possible
misinterpretations

> Elements can also form one word:
airplane,
correlation, interrelation, interplay.
interpretation,
The first element here does not necesarily exist as an independant word,
the second often does. The meaning of an element as for example inter may
be known to you from other compound words.

* Now `attack' some monster word conglomerations.

The vocabulary appearing in technical texts  is usually standardized. Here
you shouldn't make up your own combinations.


7. Try to find out the meanings of the following elements - the meaning of
each stays the same in most (not all) combinations:
co-
inter-
dis-

with adjectives in particular:
in-
un-
-able
-less
Some elements, as  in-  , are usually followed by a second element of
latin origin, known in many other languages as well .

* Go through a text and look for the elements  mentioned above.

8. There is one more source of information: the surroundings of the text,
like are photos, drawings, diagrams, graphs, statistics.
* Open a book on a technical subject at any page containing photos,
graphs, etc., and try to interpret these without consulting the text. Read
afterwords.

9. Up to now we dealt with the interpretation of single words or
combinations of a few words. Since you have considerable experience with
this now, let's now jump to the understanding of entire texts.
> First rule: If confronted with an unknown word, don't waste your time on
it, don't look up its meaning.
> Before paying close attention to details, try to grasp the texts content
by
                      = reading the text fast
                      = underlining dates, places and proper names
                      = marking off words that appear repeatedly
                      = marking words related to the text's title

This all facilitates global understanding. Best start out using a pencil,
until your routine suffices for working with a text marker.
* Now try these steps on a technical text.

10. Let's start out from another situation now: You don't just want to
understand more or less what the text says, on the contrary, you need some
particular information in detail. Furthermore you don't dispose of the
time to read `mile long' articles, and thus want to sort out from the
start everything of no use for answering your particular question/s.
Selective understanding while reading serves you for finding what you need
as fast as possible.
* Take a book on a technical subject, define a specific topic and a
specific question related to it, and time how long it will take you to
find the passage giving you the adequate answer, starting out from opening
the table of contents.
Keep training this until it takes you less than 20 seconds.
11. The highest level of understanding when reading is total
understanding. You will not reach this level right from the start, but you
can get closer and closer. Here, as a matter of fact, you don't need the
dictionary either. You dispose of two strategies:

> Deduction by analogy: understanding of parts helps you to come to
conclusions about the rest, if there are inner parallelities as:
                      Cars need gasolin, airplanes kerosine.
> Deduction from the context: this works out best if the text deals with
something you are acquainted with through your job, so that the foreign
language forms the only obstacle to understanding.

You proceed as follows, if you want/need to reach total understanding:
> Guess what the text is about starting out from title, names and dates
> Underline everything you understand due to similarities with your
 own language.
> Underline everything you understand due to similarities with other
foreign languages.
> Then read again.
> View the results of these steps and gather from them what had still not
been clear before.

With more experience, you can do without underlining. Then it will be
sufficient to mark off things you don't understand, if they seem to be of
basic importance.
* Try all steps together on a text now.

12. Sometimes you will come across sentences really hard to `decipher'. a
appropriate remedy is applying always the same scheme of questions:
> What is being done ?
> Who does it
> Who else is affected ?
> where ?
> when ?
* Take an intricate passage and go through it step by step in this way.

13. As in real life, a teeny-weeny `no' can topple everything: Pay
particular attention to no-s, not-s, etc.
* Go through a paragraph and mark off all negations, be it separate words
or elements of words.

14. Attention with main and subordinate clauses: One important information
may appear in the main clause (which is organized around one verb), the
other in the subordinate clause ( accompanying another verb)- but
understanding correctly the sentence's statement requires taking into
consideration both informations.
> Subordinate clauses start with elements as for example:
that ..., because..., although ...,

elements which usually don't appear in sentences containing only one verb.

> Other elements as
who ..., which..., when

can be the beginning of a (single-verb/one clause) question
Who stole my bicycle ?

or mark the beginning of a subordinate clause:.

This subordinate clause can be either a question:
I would really like to know who stole my bicycle.

or an affirmative clause:
He is the only one in town who steals bicycles.
He is the only one in town who is known to steal bicycles.

> A second information, grammatically centered around a second verb, can
also appear whithout a particular grammatical element introducing it:


A second information, grammatically centered around a second verb, can
also appear whithout a special grammatical element introducing it.

( = A second information, which is grammatically centered around a second
verb, can also appear whithout a special grammatical element that
introduces it.)

He is the only one in town known to steal bicycles.

Verbal endings typical for such clauses are:
-ing
-ed
-n



15. Let us now pay some attention to the text's inner structure, as for
example relations expressing cause and effect.
* try to describe cause and effect in a techniucal text's content
symbolizing the relation with arrows.
* then mark off all words of fundamental importance, note them on the edge
and indicate with arrows the relations between them indicated in the text.


16. For first understanding as well as total understanding it may be
helpful to  devide the text into logically coherent paragraphs and to put
these into an  order (for example a cronological order).
* Show a text's logical structure drawing a graphic.

17. There is one more trick applicable when working with texts:
Try to remenber all vocabulary connected with the topic before
reading the text, and write the words down grouping them around some
central terms:

phone number, zip code,
                               electricity, cable

fax, answer machine      telephone                speak, listen

                                operator,
information, question


This will make it easier for you to understand logical interrelations in
the text.
* Try this strategy on a technical text.

18. Coming to an end with our little crash course, we list all tricks,
indicating the numbers of the respective paragraphs:

a) Read text fast without stopping.
b) Which terms show up rather often in the text? This gives hints
respective to the text's subject. ( >9 )
c) Write down or recall all you already know about the subject.
d) Think about what exactly you are interested in, or find a criterion for
selecting releveant information, test applicability of your criterion.
decide wether reading in detail may be intersting for you. ( >Selective
understanding - > 10)
e) If this is the case, underlien everything you know, as dates, places,
proper names. ( >9 )
f) Note terms of fundamental importance on the edge ( >15 )
g) Pay attention particularly to causal, temporal and logical
relations between sentences. Attention with signal words as demionstrative
pronouns, form sof negation, relative clauses, etc. ( >13)
h) Start out now working your way through the text phrase by phrase (total
understanding), if you really need or want to know everything in detail.
Proceed as follows:
 = Derive the meaning of unknown words on the basis of orthographic
similarities. ( >3 )
 = Read out loud and listen whether anything sounds familiar from your
language or another foreign language you know. Do this before consulting a
dictionary ! (don't read unproblematic parts of the text this way - you
would loose too much time) ( >3 )
 = Parts still missing you can understand by analogy and through the
context ( >11)
 = Analyse the single phrases step by step as follows:
                      - what is happening ?
                      - who ?
                      - who is affected ?
                      - where ?
                      - when ?
                      - how ? ( >12 )
 = If something remains unintelligible to you, find out whether you have
there a compound word, and break it up into its parts. ( >6, 7 )
 = If you have not eliminated all problems by now, in contexts/paragraphs
you have to understand in detail, consult your dictionary.
 = Think first whether endings, changes of vowel or other irregularities
might have altered the word.
 = Give a summary in your own words.
???* In case you want to master these techniques even better and want to
learn more techniques, if for example you want to study at a university /
technical university in a German-speaking country, we would like to
recommend another brochure:
????







Peter, Karlsruhe