Technical English

Recently I was in conversation about the term “technical English”. As with any term, this means different things to different people. To my mind I would like to point out the small “t” I have given it. This is because it is little different from “English for Specific Purposes”, and even “Business English”.

To the layman, technical English is often the specific vocabulary which people use in a particular industry. Such English is nothing more than a glossary of terms; give people the glossary and that is all their technical English. To my mind, however, this is not enough.

There are the phrases particular to particular technical or work-specific situations. So I may know a vocabulary item, but when do I use it, and is this “synonym” always a synonym? Perhaps the phrases associated with this vocabulary item are idiomatic, or have a separate meaning outside the industry which may confuse or turn clients off.

On top of this there is the grammar aspect. This is the machinery of the language. Which grammar am I more likely to use with this term: present perfect, or present simple? Or it may only appear with particular prepositions or prepositional phrases.

So, technical English is much more than a glossary which we can email to people to keep by their work stations. Technical English for me is knowing the word in all its forms, which phrases and grammar is associated with it, and not just what the word is, but how it is used.