English for Engineers
Sandy Tippett and Anders Ulstein
English for Engineers Pilot Edition
Universitetsforlaget
© Universitetsforlaget 2022 isbn 978-82-15-06319-5 Materialet i denne publikasjonen er omfattet av åndsverklovens bestemmelser. Uten særskilt avtale med rettighetshaverne er enhver eksemplarfremstilling og tilgjengeliggjøring bare tillatt i den utstrekning det er hjemlet i lov eller tillatt gjennom avtale med Kopinor, interesseorgan for rettighetshavere til åndsverk. Utnyttelse i strid med lov eller avtale kan medføre erstatningsansvar og inndragning og kan straffes med bøter eller fengsel. Henvendelser om denne utgivelsen kan rettes til: Universitetsforlaget AS Postboks 508 Sentrum 0105 Oslo www.universitetsforlaget.no Omslag: Universitetsforlaget Sats v/forfatterne Trykk og innbinding: 07 Media – 07.no Boken er satt med: Calibri Papir: 100 g Amber Graphic 1,25
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English for Engineers Part of the Access Programme (forkurset) to qualify for Engineering Studies
Table of Contents Foreword ……………………………………………………………………………………. page 2 Chapter 1: Speaking and translation ……………………………………..…. page 5 Stress, intonation, pronunciation, and translation Reading texts on robotics and Petroleum Engineering
Chapter 2: Basic Grammar …………………………………………………………...……….. page 29 Verb conjugations, subject-verb agreement, continuous aspect, parallelism, gerunds, adverbs, adjectives, pronouns, prepositions, ambiguous and vague reference, typical errors Reading texts on Civil Engineering
Chapter 3: Sentences & Paragraphs ……………………………………….…. page 61 Sentence types, compositions, and combinations; fragments, clauses, and phrases; modifiers, appositions and linking words; connectors and conjunctions; paragraph structure and topic sentence Reading texts on Computer Science and Computer Engineering
Chapter 4: Vocabulary & Style …………………………………………………... page 87 Informal and informal language, academic and domain -specific vocabulary, passive voice modal verbs, hedging and language when referring to sources Reading texts on Maritime Engineering and Navigation
Chapter 5: The Essay ……………………………………………………………….... page 118 Structure and composition; critical thinking and the importance of the Introduction. Sample essays
Chapter 6: Writing in the Workplace ……………………………………….. page 130 Formal letters and emails, manuals and instructions, summaries and reports, presentations, and popularization Reading texts on Mechanical Engineerin g
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Foreword As the subtitle indicates, the book is primarily written for students who have not met standard university admission requirements. More precisely, the book is designed to be used on the Access Programme for admission to Bachelor of Engineering Studies degree (BE). (In Norwegian: Forkurs for ingeniør- og sivilingeniørutdanningen. Den kan også brukes på Y-veien). The book has a three-pronged purpose. It helps students demonstrate English language proficiency required for admission to a Bachelor’s in Engineering. The book will therefore recap key learning objectives from secondary education. Secondly, the book puts a great deal of emphasis on academic skills that are very useful for a student of engineering. Additionally, it prepares them for a professional career in engineering. The book will probably do more to prepare students for the bachelor studies than the later career as an engineer. Much of the curriculum and domain specific terminology during a bachelor programme will be in English. A vast amount of available material on the internet is in English too. It is therefore likely that proficiency in English will improve a student’s grades. Finally, no one starts studying engineering because they are very interested in languages. Understandably, the readers are less motivated to study a foreign language than microcontrollers, road construction or fundamental mechanics. Taking that into account, the book puts utility first. Virtually every example and exercise are somehow related to engineering. As you will see, there are no chapters on English literature or American history. In this respect it differs significantly from the curriculum at secondary education level. Instead, much more importance and attention are given to topics such as communication and academic writing. This emphasis on academic writing will not only prepare a student for admittance to a bachelor programme, but it may also give them a head start. Hardly any of the other bachelor students will have worked so thoroughly with topics in academic writing as students who have undertaken this course.
A pilot edition This book is a pilot edition. Lay-out and graphics have been executed solely by the authors and without much sophistication. The manuscript is still in pilot and review stage too. Despite consultations with peers, errors and omissions may occur. We are therefore very grateful for any feedback from both students and teachers on specific details or on the book’s overall outline, scope and approach (send to anders.ulstein@ntnu.no). A revised and final print version will be made available from autumn 2023.
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How to use the book The book may be used in different ways. One obvious way would be to progress chronologically through the chapters. In particular, chapters three to five are closely connected and suitable for use as a continuous module. Another way could be to use the book more freely. For instance, one could start with a basic fiveparagraph essay assignment and use that assignment to introduce and rehearse essential topics from chapter two through five such as subject-verb agreement, sentence fragments, topic sentences, formal style, and essay structure. Starting with how to write an essay might be more motivating for students than spending months on grammar and sentence construction first. Later assignments could introduce new and more advanced aspects from the same chapters in a similar fashion. It seems sensible to teach some of the topics in tandem with the Norwegian course of the Access Programme. Naturally, the two courses overlap to a large degree and will support each other regardless of when they are taught. In fact, teaching similar topics across both courses but at different times may improve learning. Comparing and contrasting is always a useful tool to employ in any programme and can help to cement learning. In any case, it is important that teachers synchronise terminology and theory used in the two courses.
The text boxes While researching for the book, we came across a vast array of online English learning resources and decided to include a selection of them in the “blue” boxes. These are suitable for self-study and for students with particular needs and interests, and at different proficiency levels. There are different categories of resources: quizzes and tests, guides, instructions, examples, glossaries and more, and many of them are aimed at different levels. For teachers, it is hoped that the boxes may provide ideas and material for exercises and tests. The digital edition of this book will greatly facilitate the use of the Internet links provided. Below is a select list of providers with a relatively broad range of resources and instructional material, some of which is used more specifically in the book. They are, of course, neither exhaustive nor comprehensive.
How we worked Sandy has brought her knowledge of English language learning and teaching to this publication. Her collaboration with Anders has focused on her skills as a native speaker and teacher of the English language to non-native English speakers, mainly redacting articles and passages, together with editing and proofing. Anders has been responsible for the composition and first drafts including templates, samples and exercises. Having taught both Norwegian and English at forkurset for many years he has first-hand knowledge of the student group and the course objectives. He developed the pedagogical design of the book, such as its approach and emphasis.
Ålesund, 1 July 2022 Sandy Tippett
Anders Ulstein
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Resources University resources / writing centres • • • • • • • • • • •
George Mason University (US): https://writingcenter.gmu.edu/writing-resources/writing-center-quickguides Academic writing: University of Hull: https://canvas.hull.ac.uk/courses/213 Swarthmore University, Philadelphia, US: www.swarthmore.edu/writing/student-resources Northern Illinois University (US): www.niu.edu/writingtutorial/index.shtml University of Manchester: www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/ Griffith University (AUS): www.griffith.edu.au/international/englishhelp (Scroll down). University of Toronto (CA): https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/ English Language Centre at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University: www2.elc.polyu.edu.hk/cill/default4.htm English resources, at NTNU: www.ntnu.edu/english-matters Writing Centre at SUNY Ulster University (US): https://libguides.sunyulster.edu/c.php?g=762716&p=6179946 Cambridge University Press: www.cambridgeenglish.org/learning-english/
Public institutions • •
The British Council, https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/ The British Council is “The United Kingdom's international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities”. Another useful site is provided by the BBC: www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/basic-grammar.
Private educational institutions • • • •
• •
Using English for Academic Purposes for Students in Higher Education (UEfAP) www.uefap.com/index.htm The English Page: www.englishpage.com/index.html www.teachingenglish.org.uk/resources/adults Education First (EF): www.ef.com/wwen/english-resources/ There are also other sites with resources and quizzes that you may find useful, such as www.englishgrammar.org - www.englishclub.com - www.perfect-english-grammar.com www.eapfoundation.com/ - www.eltbase.com/ - www.grammar-quizzes.com/ Grammar, vocabulary and free online practice tests for all levels: www.examenglish.com Tests at all levels: www.englishtag.com/ and more tests here: www.ef.com/wwen/englishresources/english-test/
Video lessons and YouTube channels • • • • •
EngVid: Free video lessons by experienced native speaking teachers on English grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and more: www.engvid.com/english-lessons/ Oxford Online English: www.youtube.com/channel/UCNbeSPp8RYKmHUliYBUDizg Learning English, by Cambridge University Press www.youtube.com/user/cambridgeenglishtv Speak Confident English (US): www.speakconfidentenglish.com Speak Confident (American) English: www.youtube.com/channel/UCEFLuo9AR7268-qJj1FkmSw
Writing in Engineering •
• • •
Why include writing in engineering courses? https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/teacher_and_tutor_resources/writing_in_the_engineering_classroom/index. html Writing as an engineer or a scientist, by the Leonhard Center, Penn State University, with types of writing, videos, and teaching resources, at https://www.craftofscientificwriting.org/ Plenty of resources on writing for engineers, by Dalhousie University, the Dalhousie Library, at https://dal.ca.libguides.com/c.php?g=257176&p=1718038 English for Engineers, by University of Southampton: www.youtube.com/channel/UCS5ME54d_iJ0cOOZun4ikKQ/featured
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Chapter 1: Speaking and translation Stress, intonation, pronunciation, and translation Reading texts on robotics and Petroleum Engineering
Introduction - a question of confidence Let us first agree on the following: You will probably never be able to speak like a native speaker. Accepting that is important to avoid frustration. Set yourself realistic goals. If you compare yourself with a native speaker, you may end up disappointed and discouraged. As a foreign speaker, you will invariably have a foreign accent and regularly stumble over your words. This is completely normal. Progress in speaking a foreign language requires some audacity and even indifference to your shortcomings. Remember, perfection is the enemy of progress. There are however important improvements that are entirely achievable. This chapter will help you understand a few fundamentals of pronunciation, stress and intonation that will make you a much more confident English speaker. In fact, compared to English grammar, English pronunciation is fairly predictable and rule based. There is another important benefit to this, the more fluent you are in speaking, the more fluent you will be in writing. You may benefit from watching the many video resources that exist on the internet. Some good ones are listed below.
Box 1.1 – Online resources for speaking English English language video lessons and YouTube channels • • • •
EngVid: Video lessons by experienced native-speaker teachers on English grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and more: www.engvid.com/english-lessons/ Oxford Online English: www.youtube.com/channel/UCNbeSPp8RYKmHUliYBUDizg Speaking: www.speakconfidentenglish.com/common-english-grammar-mistakes/ Speak Confident (American) English: www.youtube.com/channel/UCEFLuo9AR7268-qJj1FkmSw
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Pronunciation Pronunciation is perhaps not very difficult for someone who has listened to English in films and on the Internet from a very young age. However, most Norwegians will have little experience in speaking English in a professional and academic context. Consequently, this book does not concern itself with your language skills needed when ordering a pizza at a pub in London, but rather to able to explain a technical problem to a colleague and ways to unpack it. Pronouncing words correctly will help you feeling confident in your speaking skills. It will make it easier to engage in conversations both in professional and social contexts. Correct pronunciation will ensure that you sound clear, and that the listener understands you easily. One useful tip is to read English aloud or in a whisper. Repeat words you find difficult. Read the text below and pay particular attention to the correct pronunciation of individual words. A second tip is to slightly exaggerate sounds.
Exercise 1.1 – Test your pronunciation Use an online dictionary to improve pronunciation . If you look up the word characterise in a dictionary such as the www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com, you will find the word phonetically transcribed, like this: /ˈkærəktəraɪz/. You have probably not learnt the symbols of phonetic transcription, but much of it is intuitive and easily learnt. You will find a helpful guide to phonetic transcription in a block below. One useful feature of phonetic transcription is the little apostrophe. In characterise, it indicates that stress is on the first syllable. Perhaps even more useful is the audio pronunciation in both British and American English that you will find in most online dictionaries. (In general, we recommend following British spelling and pronunciation). Go through some of the words in the text above and compare your own pronunciation with the audio pronunciation. For this and other exercises in speaking, it is useful to bring your own earphones when you attend class.
Stress Correctly stressed words are key to excellent English pronunciation. Stress means the emphasis given to a particular word or a part of a word. Spoken English should not sound flat and monotone. In fact, if you pronounce every word in a sentence with equal pitch and volume, others will find it difficult to understand you. Stress then, helps create a rhythm when speaking. Importantly, stress also conveys meaning.
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Word stress This is about the distribution of stress within a word. One word cannot have two equally strong stresses. If you hear two equal stresses, you have heard two words. The stress in /’pistol/ is on the first syllable, as indicated by the apostrophe. The apostrophe is positioned in front of the stressed syllable. The word pistol has two syllables, but the second is not stressed. However, in some words with more than three syllables, one can have a secondary stress. This is the second most prominent syllable in the word. It is pronounced with a lower pitch and less loudly. Pronounce the word fortification. This word has five syllables. The stress is distributed like this /,fortifi’cation/, with the primary stress on the fifth syllable and secondary stress on the first. In full phonetic transcription: /ˌfɔːtɪfɪˈkeɪʃn/. Only one syllable in each word is given primary stress, but different syllables of the same word may receive the primary stress. The word then changes its meaning. The change of word stress is thus what distinguishes between a verb and a noun such as in present: /’present/ or /pre’sent/. The same goes for words such as export, import, contract and object. However, not all similar words follow that pattern, such as report and design.
Figure 1.1: The phonetic alphabet Pay attention to the schwa /ə/ – the most common vowel sound in English. Another important feature is the division between the 'voiced’ and 'unvoiced’ consonants, such as the two different ways of pronouncing th, the 'voiced’ /ð/ and 'unvoiced’ /θ/. ‘Voiced’ means the vocal cords vibrate. Words in connected speech are commonly pronounced differently from words spoken in isolation.
In longer words with several syllables, there is a similar change of meaning according to the distribution of stress, as in /‘photograph/, /pho’tographer/ and /photo’graphic/.
Exercise 1.2 – finding stress in complex words Look up the following words and indicate the primary stress with an apostrophe: Perpendicular, alteration, volunteer, buttr ess, abbreviation, equality, armchair, computation, suitcase, dishwasher, proficient, carelessness, poisonous, refugee, comfortable, advantageous, first -rate, controversy, superstructure. Use www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com or www.dictionary.cambridge.org.
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Exercise 1.3 – Word stress, identify some general rules Use www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com or www.dictionary.cambridge.org. Identify word stress in the following word family: Neutral, neutrality, neutralise, neutralisation. The same pattern applies to similar word families, such as central, brutal, etc. Another pattern of word stress is related to the suffix – meaning the end of a word. For example: in education the suffix is -ion. Consider -ion words such as information, relation, compartmentalisation, and explanation. What is the stress pattern for these words? The same stress pattern applies for words ending with -ual (bilingual), -ious (furious), -ial (artificial), -ior (inferior), -ic (claustrophobic) and more. Words with suffixes such as -ment and -ism follow a different stress pattern, as in parliament and parliamentary, government and governmental, and department and departmental. For most two syllable verbs with a prefix, the stress almost invariably comes second, such as in become, propose, and improve. For two syllable nouns and adjectives, however, there is no general rule. Some, like expert and finite, begins with a stressed syllable, whereas in words like report and concise, stress comes second.
Stress in sentences Content words First of all, you need to understand which words we generally stress and which we do not. Basically, we give stress to certain words because they carry more meaning and are more central to the statement than the other words. These are so-called content words. Non-stressed words are considered function words. Consider the following phrase: Your keys are on the floor. The important two words are keys and floor. If you were extremely exhausted and only able to mutter two words, these are the two words you would probably select. Since content words are given stress, they take more time and effort to pronounce. Compare the following two sentences: The apartment near the old town of Ulm was his precious hideaway for the remaining years of his life. The apocalyptic danger is both intimidating and malignant to the core.
9 Even though the first sentence is almost 50% longer than the first, both sentences take about 4 to 5 seconds to speak. This is because there are five stressed words in each sentence. Here is another example. Each sentence only has two stressed words. Alfred met Jon. My friend Alfred met Jon. My friend Alfred wanted to meet Jon. My good friend Alfred was thinking of meeting Jon again. A good piece of advice when speaking, is to concentrate on the correct pronunciation of the stressed content words. These words are to be pronounced clearly and fully, whereas function words can be passed by quickly. In this regard, English and Norwegian are similar. Both are typically so-called stressed-timed languages. Unstressed syllables are shortened while stressed words are pronounced fully. Combined, the stressed and unstressed syllables together, creates a particular rhythm when spoken. These stressed-timed languages are different compared to most Latin languages such as Italian, where each syllable takes about the same time. Sentence stress refers to the most prominent syllable in a spoken phrase. Let us consider some typical ways in which sentence stress is used. The final syllable in a statement is often stressed more than the preceding one (sentence stress shown in capital letters): • • •
He’s SINGing. He’s singing in the BATHroom. He’s singing in the bathroom with his GIRLfriend.
Generally, in most phrases, the final syllable is stressed the most. Another type of sentence stress is emphatic stress. This calls attention to what you want to emphasize. Note how it may change the meaning of the statement in the following example: • • • •
PETer came to the party yesterday. (It was him, not someone else.) Peter CAME to the party yesterday. (He actually showed up.) Peter came to the PARty yesterday. (It was a party not a meeting or something else.) Peter came to the party YESterday. (It was yesterday not two weeks ago.)
Exercise 1.4 – Emphatic Stress Use stress to change the meaning of the following sentence s: • “Jack will drive to the concert tonight” • “I love to sing” • “I love to drive around town with you” • “You are responsible for the first phase” • “I think you are having an affair with Roger”
10 Another type is extreme stress. These are adverbs such as: Extremely, terribly, and completely … • •
I completely agree with you in this matter. Going out that night was a terrible mistake.
Contrastive stress: •
I think he likes this book the most.
•
I cannot decide between this or that pair of trousers.
New Information Stress: •
Where are you from? – I come from Ålesund, in Norway.
•
What is your favourite hobby? – My hobby is skiing.
•
When do you want to leave for town? – I’d like to take the bus at eight o’clock.
Can/can’t is often given stress, in particular in the negative phrase. Consider how the verb is given different emphasis in the following examples. • •
They can come on Friday. They can't come on Friday.
In the first example, “can” is part of a positive and confirmative phrase. In this case it can be quickly glided over. In fact, it is hardly pronounced at all. On the other hand, when we use the negative form "can't" or “cannot”, it is given stress.
Exercise 1.5 – Identify stressed words and their role Listen and identify stressed words in spoken English. Look up a news broadcast from either www.gbnews.uk/watchlive, www.bbc.com/news/world_radio_and_tv, or https://news.sky.com/. Listen and identify which words are stressed and which are not. Pause the video after each spoken phrase and identify the stressed content words, and notice and discuss their importance both in terms of how they contribute to what is conveyed, but also in terms of creating a rhythm of speech. Put on your ear-phones and try emulating the speech.
Sound changes in connected speech Finally, a few words on linking sounds and assimilation. In many cases, a native speaker will make adjacent sounds more like each other. If words are joined effectively, one sound more fluent, and one is able to speak more quickly too. In some instances, one word may be divided in two different sound chunks. Very often it is the sound at the end of a word and the initial sound of the next that
11 are affected. For example, the statement: Such a nice afternoon, is pronounced like this: “Su cha ni cafternoon”. Or consider the phrase “Nice to meet you”. Pronounced together it sounds very different from when pronounced word by word. For instance, when a word ends with a t, and the next word starts with a y, the two sounds merge and becomes a “tsj” /nais to mi: tsju/. This is an example of assimilation. Another example is “Can I get you a beer?”. There are many sound changes of this kind in spoken English, in particular in colloquial English. Often it is the less important function words that are transformed, such as in the keys are on the floor. Say the phrase aloud and listen to how the three function words are on the sounds. Is it more like a:-n-d? To master assimilation is not essential to be understood, but it does make the speaker sound much more fluent, and without it, speaking may sound artificial and strained.
Exercise 1.6 – Exaggerate our speech An exercise in /ɪɡˌzædʒəˈreɪʃn/. Listen and pause after some of the phrases and try repeating. Pay attention to how it seems as though the speakers exaggerate pronunciation and stress. By exaggerating, you will be able to discover and learn a broader range of phonetic sounds in the English language. Look up the following journalists on YouTube videos: • Zainab Badawi (BBC) and her documentaries on African history. • Nana Akua (GB News) and one of her news analyses. And on Ted-talk - www.ted.com - look up these speakers: • Niall Ferguson (Scotland) • Jay Walker (USA) • Julia Dhar (New Zealand)
Exercise 1.7 – Connected speech In spoken everyday English, when words are strung together, many words are seriously transformed. Some words for instance, often have a weak form, such as conjunctions, pronouns, prepositions, auxiliaries, and articles. Such words may more or less disappear in connected speech, or they blend into a neighbouring sound. Try reading the dialogue below while paying attention to content words, weak forms and their assimilation, as well as stress and intonation.
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My Friend Pepper - Hello, my name is Pepper. What’s your name? - I’m Anders. Nice to meet you. I’m in the office next door. - Hi, Anders. I’m glad you stopped by. Would you like to sit down for a minute? - Thanks. You have time for a chat? I mean, you must be busy cultivating your social life. After all, you’re a social robot, right? - Yes sure, you should’ve been here last week. There was a conference or something. It was crazy. - So, Pepper, what do you think about the weather? - The weather is nice and calm. Temperature is 6 degrees Celsius, but there’ll be a chilly breeze this afternoon. - Oh dear! Really? Don’t you just hate that constant wind chill. - Anyway, nice talking to you. It’s late; I must go. See you! - Have a nice day, Anders!
Figure 1: The social robot Pepper at the SimVis lab at IIR/IE/NTNU provides the authors with a weather update (Photo: AU)
Reading text 2: Meet Pepper – The Social Robot1 Vocabulary 2
Pronunciation 2
Commonplace Done very often, or existing in many places, and therefore not unusual Deployment Acceptance 1) The act of accepting a gift, invitation, offer 2) the act of agreeing with
(Photo: NTNU)
There is no doubt that robots are becoming commonplace. Robotic machines of all shapes and sizes are entering our daily lives, and we witness them
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Doubt /daʊt/
Commonplace
Redacted and extensively adapted from A Mass-Produced Sociable Humanoid Robot: Pepper: The First Machine of Its Kind, IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, Volume 25, Issue 3, 11.07.2018 by Amit Kumar Pandey and Rodolphe Gelin; IEEE: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8409927 2
From www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/
13 something and approving of it, 3) acceptance (into something) the process of allowing somebody to join something or be a member of a group, 4) the quality of being willing to accept an unpleasant or difficult situation. Adapt 1) to change your behaviour in order to deal more successfully with a new situation 2) to change something in order to make it suitable for a new use or situation 3) to change something in order to make it suitable for a new use or situation Capable 1) having the ability or qualities necessary for doing something 2) having the ability to do things well
assisting, working, and serving at shopping malls, hospitals, museums, railway stations, elder-care facilities, schools, and homes. With all these potential applications, mass production and deployment of these machines could eventually enrich our lives in manifold ways. Robots capable of exhibiting sociability and achieving widespread societal acceptance are needed more than ever. Such sociable robots’ shape, size, look, behaviour, and intelligence must all be customized and specially designed. This was the idea behind the development of the Pepper robot by SoftBank Robotics. Pepper was initially designed for a particular application of business-to-business (B2B) uses in SoftBank stores, but it became a platform of interest around the world for other application. The Pepper robot is currently deployed in thousands of homes and schools; it is the chosen robotic platform for RoboCup@Home Social Standard Platform League (SSPL) competitions. A Global Overview of Pepper Launched in June 2014, Pepper is an industrially produced humanoid robot first created for B2B, and later adapted for B2C, purposes. The machine is capable of exhibiting body language, perceiving and interacting with its surroundings, and moving around. It can also analyse people’s expressions and voice tones, using the latest advances and proprietary algorithms in voice and emotion recognition to spark interactions. The robot is equipped with features and high-level interfaces for multimodal communication with humans.
Pepper is a 1.2-m-tall, wheeled humanoid robot, with Feature 17 joints to aid body language, three omnidirectional 1) something wheels for smooth movement, approximately 12 h of important, battery life, and the ability to return to the recharging interesting or typical station. It has no sharp edges and soft parts in some of a place or thing joints. The machine is designed for interacting with 2) a part of human beings and is equipped with a tablet (which
/ˈkɒmənpleɪs/
Manifold /ˈmænɪfəʊld/ Societal /səˈsaɪətl/
Launched /lɔːntʃ/ Humanoid /ˈhjuːmənɔɪd/ Exhibiting /ɪɡˈzɪbɪt/
Proprietary /prəˈpraɪətri/
Algorithms /ˈælɡərɪðəm/
Omnidirectional /ˌɒmnɪdaɪˈrekʃənl/
Smooth /smuːð/
14 somebody’s face 3) (in the media) a special article or programme Exhibit 1) to show something in a public place 2) to show clearly that you have or feel a particular quality, ability, feeling or symptom (to exhibit fear). Perceive 1) to understand or think of somebody/ something in a particular way. 2) to notice or become aware of something Appearance 1) the way that somebody/somethi ng looks on the outside; what somebody/somethi ng seems to be 2) the fact of somebody/somethi ng arriving, especially when it is not expected 3) the moment at which something begins to exist or starts to be seen or used 4) an act of appearing in public 5) an act of being
also makes development and debugging convenient). Natural, multimodal interaction with robots has long been seen as a necessity for robots’ successful deployment in human environments. In fact, the emergence of human–robot interaction (HRI) as a research domain was shaped around the need to “understand and shape the interactions between one or more humans and one or more robots” in anticipation of the situations and applications when robots would be all around us and collaborating with us. Studies have shown that a robot’s physical embodiment and tactile communication can make it a more engaging and effective interaction partner than an animated character, and that a physical robot is a better support for human learning gains compared to voice or video. Furthermore, researchers have found that human-like appearance and interaction modalities are some features that the majority of study participants imagine companion robots should have—although people’s predilections vary with their individual personality differences. In addition, as humanoid robots come to display body language and other abilities that embody human-like social signals, they become capable of being highly engaging. It is no surprise, then, that SoftBank Robotics’ baby-sized humanoid robot NAO, with its multimodal interaction capabilities and easy-toprogram interface, rapidly became a widely accepted robotic platform for HRI research. Such studies, along with use-case ideas (for B2B in SoftBank stores and later on for B2C, at least in Japan) and experience with the NAO robot, led to the design of the Pepper robot. Some of the principles behind its design are • • • • •
a pleasant appearance safety affordability interactivity good autonomy.
Collaborate /kəˈlæbəreɪt/
Embodiment /ɪmˈbɒdimənt/
Tactile /ˈtæktaɪl/
Animated /ˈænɪmeɪtɪd/
Character /ˈkærəktə(r)/
Predilections /ˌpriːdɪˈlekʃn/
Appearance /əˈpɪərəns/
Autonomy