Fundamentals of Reading in English

The course Fundamentals of Reading in English (Instrumental English Applied to Occupational Safety) is designed to develop the technician’s reading competence, enabling them to extract accurate information from manuals, standards, and software in English without relying on literal translation. The focus is on quickly understanding communicative intentions, allowing technicians to interpret instructions, warnings, and technical descriptions that are essential to workplace safety.

The course covers grammatical fundamentals, such as the use of there to be and verb tenses, including Simple Past, Present Continuous, and Simple Future, as well as mastery of modal verbs such as shall, must, should, may, and can, and the identification of false cognates that may compromise the correct interpretation of risks. Learning also includes reading strategies such as skimming, comparison, and contextual inference to recognize jargon and critical information, such as those found in Safety Data Sheets (FISPQ/SDS).

In practice, instrumental English allows technicians to quickly access relevant sections of international documents, such as the 16 standardized sections of the SDS, ensuring prompt responses in emergency situations. The course emphasizes that the combination of technical vocabulary, understanding of structures, and reading strategies functions as a “master key,” essential for the safe and efficient execution of professional activities in environments that require precision and international compliance.