VI Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2014

Introduction

Teaching foreign languages for professional purposes is considered to be the priority in updating engineering education in Russia. The ability to communicate in other languages is becoming an integral part of professional competence of any specialist, no difference what field he/she works in. With changing requirements to specialist training there is a need to overhaul the content and approaches to teaching foreign languages, profession focused, to nonlinguistic students.

English globalization and engineering

In the light of global economic integration and correlations between countries all over the world supported by multilateral international cooperation, sound knowledge of the foreign language becomes one of the basic competencies for an engineer for efficient implementation of professional activities in the national and international labor market. Due to the above, the issue of foreign language teaching upgrade becomes highly crucial for students of non-linguistic universities. Upgrade means improvement or renewal of the subject (here teaching foreign languages to engineers), bringing it into compliance with new requirements and norms, technical development of the community and quality levels [1]. Before analyzing foreign language training in universities abroad weaknesses and inconsistencies typical of foreign languages training for engineers in Russia will be reviewed. One of these inconsistencies is the lack of continuity in the foreign language training system of school and university. Secondary education system is not capable to provide students with required foreign language skills. Thus the foreign language program in a non-linguistic university implies that the knowledge of enrollees will be at least at B1 level (CEFR). [2;15]

Detail investigations of training programs and materials in other university were conducted in order to analyze the training content [3]. Firstly, it is worth highlighting the variance in approaches and subjects of courses. Since this research reviews teaching foreign languages for professional purposes the analysis covered courses relevant to students’ specialization or the ones developing special language and communication skills.

Several titles of the courses, offered by the universities are set as examples: English for corporate communication, English for international business communication, English for technical purposes, writing academic research paper, English for environmental engineers, English for technical purposes – industry and energy [6].

On average each university can offer more than 20 training courses. The significant number of courses in economics and business is to be highlighted; the special emphasis is put on business communication [4]. None of the courses has the certain specialization as a condition for students’ enrollment, thus one can conclude that the content of the courses is not orientated at narrow scientific or production field. In order to understand what each training course implies, what teaching goals are set and what tools are used to achieve the goals, the detail description of the content of one training course will be given. This training course was of principal interest for this research. Data are shown in the table below [5;12]:

Content of foreign language teaching

Course title	WRITING SKILLS FOR ENGINEERING
Subjects	1. Resources for academic and professional writing. Using grammar, dictionaries and other online resources to improve writing skills Electronic communication in English. 2. Fundamental aspects of technical writing in academic and professional environments. Problem solving and communicative concept of genre. Audience, purpose and style. Writing as a process. 3. The writing process (I): Planning a technical document. The road planning. Selection of information. Issues of plagiarism. 4. The writing process (II): The draft of a technical document. Paragraph structure and coherence. Patterns for organizing information. Text structure and design of a text. 5. The writing process (III): Review and editing a technical document. Review of the content and organization of information. Review of uses of language, based on the correctness and appropriateness. Review of style. 6. Types of documents for academic and professional communication. Writing Online: «label» and email. The technical reports, correspondence and CV for academic and professional purposes
Teaching goals and tasks	Understand and apply the principles of academic communication in the field of engineering; – Recognize genres in academic and professional English; – Read, understand and interpret written information in English for computer engineering; – Plan and organize English texts in accordance with a defined communicative goal, using a sheet of planning and implementing the correct strategy; – Manage information in an appropriate way to write a script for a document in English; – Draft a document using writing techniques to build a text paragraphs and structure; – Write academic and professional texts in English related to computer engineering: technical report, academic essay, technical documentation; – Review a draft in English both individually and in a group; – Communicate properly and adequately in written English in different genres; – Manage and continue learning, using resources and strategies that have been acquired during the year (to develop a portfolio, use resources).
Methods	Situational-contextual, communicative, activity

Сonclusion

After analyzing components and contents of the training courses in the above universities these courses can be classified as follows:

1) Disciplines aimed to develop general linguistic skills (pronunciation, vocabulary, basic grammar etc.);

2) Disciplines aimed to increase competency of students in certain fields (robotics technology, mathematics, architecture, economics etc.);

3) Disciplines aimed to develop communication and academic skill (making presentations, negotiating, writing articles etc);

4) Disciplines enhancing general language skills;

5) Country studying and cultural disciplines;

6) Disciplines aimed to train for passing certification tests [6].

However, special emphasis on productive speech activity is to be highlighted: 70% of analyzed disciplines are aimed to develop speaking and writing skills

List of references

1. Academic Ranking of World Universities. URL: http://www.shanghairanking.com/ (accessed 12.10.2012).

1. Bonk, C. J. & Graham, C. R. (2005). Handbook of blended learning: Global Perspectives, local

2. Designs, Pfeiffer Publishing.

3. Bombardó, C., Aguilar, M. and Barahona, C, Technical Writing. A Guide for Effective Communication , Edicions UPC , 2007

4. Stephen, B. , Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students , London, New York: Routledge , 2006

5. National Taiwan University. Foreign Language Teaching and Resource

6. Center. URL: http://homepage.ntu.edu.tw/~ntufltc/ (accessed 01.10.2012).

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