English for Building and Construction Engineering

English for Building and Construction Engineering Unit Seven (1) Workplace Conversation International School of Technical Education

Part One Section A Workplace Conversation Learning Objectives • Improve listening ability; • Improve speaking ability; • get knowledge of laying floor tiles; • write a site report according to the workplace conversation.

Part One Section A Workplace Conversation • I. Listen to the conversation and fill the blanks with what you hear. • II. Keys to the listening • 1) works best • 2) separating layer • 3) cracking • 4) level your tiles • 5) take time • 6) grout • 7) dry out • 8) stick to the semi-dry method

Part One Section A Workplace Conversation • III. Analyze the professional words and phrases 1) tile 瓷砖，面砖；瓦 c.f. floor tile 地面砖， roof tile 屋面瓦 2) screed 砂浆层 3 ) level 找平（make flat) e.g. leveling course 找平层 leveling concrete 混凝土整平（找平） c.f. level 水平，标高；水准仪 leveling peg 水平桩 leveling staff 水平标尺

Part One Section A Workplace Conversation • III. Analyze the professional words and phrases 4) grout n. type of cement used to fill the joints in floor tiles 灌缝材料，水泥浆 v. 灌浆 grouted concrete 灌浆混凝土 grouted frame 灌浆填充门框 grout joint 灌浆接缝 grouting floor toles grouter 灌浆机

Part One Section A Workplace Conversation • 5) bed 铺砖（bedding floor tiles, placing floor tiles in position) • e.g. bedding course 铺底层 • c.f. bed 垫层，基层； • bed joint （U. 6)水平缝 • 6) semi-dry method: 半干法（way of laying floor tiles） • 7) separating layer 分离（隔）层（sheet of plastic used in laying clay floor tiles)

Part One Section A Workplace Conversation 8) polythene sheeting 聚乙烯薄膜 polythene building sheet 聚乙烯建筑板材 polythene underlay roll 聚乙烯薄膜卷铺垫衬 9) differential movement : movement of different materials at different rates caused by heat or moisture (不均匀移动）

Part One Section A Workplace Conversation c.f. differential settlement (Unit 3) 10) Stick to: continue using

Part One Section A Workplace Conversation IV. Explain the difficult sentences in the conversation: You do it that way. I do it this way. (open translation) • There are more ways than one of doing some jobs, and each tradesman choose to use the method which he has found to be the quickest and the best. (有些工作可以有多种方法来做，每一个工匠都选择使用他认为最快最好的方法。） tradesman: 技工，工匠

Part One Section A Workplace Conversation 2) On my job we used a separating layer – you know, we laid the tiles on to polythene sheeting over a screed. 我铺砖使用分隔层，在砂浆底层上铺一层聚乙烯薄膜，然后再铺上地砖。（1）（2） lay (laid) 铺设，铺筑（道路） laying bricks 砌砖

Part One Section A Workplace Conversation 3) We never got any cracking because of differential movement that way. 用那种方法，我们从来没有出现过由于不均匀移动引起的裂缝。 4）First, you’ve got to level screed accurately, … 首先你要将砂浆层找平，然后你要精确地把地砖铺平，对吧？两个步骤都要花时间。 level screed 找平砂浆层（找平是一道地面施工工艺。顾名思义就是用某种器材，比如水平仪，经纬仪等一起，使砌体或者施工物体的表面，侧面等看起来平整，没有坡度。）

Part One Section A Workplace Conversation V. Reading Comprehension: • George – foreman tiler; Dave – tiler • George: semi-dry method two stages: make semi-dry mix ready and get it laid; mixing grout to bed the tiles on and fill and grout the joints after words. Dave: separating layer method two stages: level the screed accurately; level tiles accurately.

Part One Section A Workplace Conversation VI. Questions to the conversation: • What method does George always use to lay tiles? Why does he prefer this method? • What method does Dave usually use? • What can cause cracking with some methods of laying tiles? • What are the two stages of laying tiles in Dave’s way? • What are the two mixes used in George’s method? • What method will they stick to?

Part One Section A Workplace Conversation V. Assignments • Listen to the conversation. • Read the conversation. • Write a site report according to the conversation (by the name of George).

Part One Section A Workplace Conversation • Reference answer for the site report. • This morning, Dave told me that he didn’t often use semi-dry method to lay the tiles. Instead, he used a separating-layer method in his last job and found it work well. I told him that that method took longer time as it consisted of two steps. He argued that the semi-dry method had two parts too. Finally I convinced him of the advantage of semi-dry method in terms of saving time as one had to wait for the screed to dry anyway.

English for Building and Construction Engineering