Technical Translation

B1 · Intermediate1 hr 14 minStartup EnglishLesson 4 of 8 · Outline

Aims

Goal: explain your product's technology to a non-technical listener — one analogy carried through, outcomes with numbers, one defined term, zero buzzwords.

The lesson, stage by stage

  1. Warm up5 min

    Warm-up: Speak human

    2 warm-up questions

  1. Reading10 min

    Reading: Technical Translation

    Read a 241-word text about Technical Translation

  2. Vocabulary8 min

    Vocabulary: Technical Translation Vocabulary

    8 items

  3. Reading10 min

    Reading: A model answer: 'So how does it actually work?'

    Read a 304-word text about A model answer: 'So how does it actually work?'

  4. Practice7 min

    Practice: Practice: Making Technical Language Accessible

    Error-correction exercise, 4 items

  5. Practice7 min

    Practice: Practice: plain-language tools

    Gap-fill exercise, 6 items

  6. Practice7 min

    Practice: Match the jargon to the human version

    Matching exercise, 6 items

  7. Dialogue10 min

    Dialogue: Role Play: Explaining Tech to a Non-Technical Investor

    Role-play: You're in a meeting with a non-technical investor who likes your market opportunity but needs to understand what your product actually does under the hood, explained in simple terms. (4 lines)

  8. Discussion10 min

    Discussion: Your mission: translate your own tech

    3 discussion questions

Open the full lesson

The remaining 8 stages of this lesson, with the procedure, the examples and the exercises, are included with Starter, along with the interactive version you can teach from. Lesson 1 of this course is free: the full plan is on this site, and a free account opens it in the interactive player.

Target vocabulary

In a Tuton account these words become your student's vocabulary deck, so they come back in practice between lessons.

jargonanalogymental modelimplementation detailsaccessibleacronymon the same pagebuzzword

This plan comes from the Product Demos course in the Tuton library. Browse all free lesson plans.