Engineering science students can learn the lingo of the field in espanol

Engineering,
science students can learn the lingo of the field in español
…………………………………………………………………

BY ELLEN CHANG
Rice News Staff

Douglas Duncan
will soon test the depth of his ability to speak Spanish
when he begins his summer internship at engineering companies
in Monterrey, Mexico. Duncan, a sophomore majoring in electrical
engineering, is eager to practice his Spanish after spending
the past year concentrating on learning and explaining scientific
terms and processes.

He feels confident
about spending two months in the workplace speaking only
Spanish because he took Rice lecturer Jose Narbona’s
class, which has been developed specifically for engineering
and science majors. The track of courses that Narbona has
developed is designed so that after one year of taking scientific
Spanish classes, students can work at a U.S. company and
then after two years work abroad. This set of classes mirrors
the ones already taught in the French and German departments,
Narbona said.

The new track
includes four courses in the first year, including two three-week
intensive courses in August and May. In the first year,
students learn to describe and label objects and can explain
the basic structure of objects, among other things.

By the second
year, students can engage in basic debates about scientific
theories and ideas and can express their opinions on topics.
At this stage, students delve deeper into scientific terminology
and methods and learn more about cultural issues. Narbona
said he can push the students more and ask them for more
in-depth explanations of processes, to make comparisons
and engage in more complicated debates.

After the second
year of intensive Spanish classes, students are ready to
conduct an internship with a company in a Spanish-speaking
country. Learning scientific Spanish will prepare students
better for the future because they will be ready to travel,
face new problems and adapt to new situations and people,
Narbona said.

“It’s
really essential for us to offer those courses to our students,”
he said. “Spanish is very necessary in this country.”

Narbona said
many companies, such as Texas Instruments and Siemens, want
employees who are well-rounded and can work with people
in different situations and problems.

Duncan said
Narbona has structured the class to be a relaxed atmosphere
with lots of humor and interesting projects, such as designing
a Web site and giving presentations about scientific processes
using Power Point.

“It makes
the whole class much more enjoyable and interesting,”
Duncan said. “He’s motivating.”

Teaching the
class itself is a challenge since scientific Spanish is
a relatively new set of classes and is being taught at only
a few universities. But those classes combine teaching business
and scientific Spanish in one track, Narbona said. Since
Narbona does not have textbooks or materials to guide him,
he resolved the problem by using a science book from Spain
and information from the Internet. He hopes to write a textbook
that can be adapted for the class.

“We are
all kind of pioneers,” Narbona said.

One positive
factor that stands out is the determination of his students,
he commented.
“It’s difficult, but we can do it,” he said
of the courses. “But we have an advantage. The students
really want to do it.”

Every day his
class starts with students discussing current scientific
events that they have read about in a magazine or newspaper.
Narbona asks them questions about the events in a casual
setting, which produces good results, he said. While some
of Narbona’s students initially think that explaining
a simple scientific process will be easy, they soon learn
that explaining the process in Spanish to another student
is not quite so simple.

“One of
the most eye-opening days was when we had to explain the
Pythagorean theorem in Spanish,” said Elisabeth Rareshide,
a junior majoring in mechanical engineering and Spanish.
“It was much more difficult than I thought it would
be since there was so much vocabulary that we had to learn,
but it was a useful lesson.”