CC BY
20yflK 378.145.3
O.V. Sumtsova,
National research Tomsk polytechnic university
Professional English in Engineering Education
National research Tomsk polytechnic university
INTRODUCTION
Modern specialists in the field of science, engineering and technology should possess absolutely new features and competences at the present time. They include analytical and organization skills in research and production areas at the level of international contacts. That is why perspective young engineers should have knowledge of at least one foreign language. The English language has certainly the highest priority because it is the language of international communication in all respects.
Without doubt, mastering a professionally oriented foreign language communicative
competence has recently become an integral part of engineering education in Russia. And it is not surprising because our country is involved in international activities and for further collaboration it needs competent specialists possessing foreign languages. Moreover, contemporary engineers do not only possess foreign languages:
they are also able to apply obtained knowledge in their professional activity. The main purpose of this paper is to consider the prospects of the foreign language education at engineering universities, which could provide positive results in acquiring foreign languages in the future.
BACKGROUND
The level of international activity and international cooperation for technical universities has changed considerably and at this stage there is a set of complex objectives which deal directly with communication skills, ability to work in team, personal and professional qualities that determine a level of research and teaching activities being realized on the assumption of a high level of foreign language communicative competence in the field of professional communication. As a result, engineering universities have to solve one of the most important tasks related to modern professional education of future specialists in the area of science, engineering and
technology. They should provide a high quality of language education through the complex language training and also satisfy needs of the contemporary society and economic development in the globalization context. Otherwise it is almost impossible to "stay afloat" in modern education environment.
LANGUAGE AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMPONENTS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TRAINING
All-round development of a future engineer's personality is possible only if the following principles of a professional organization and language training are fulfilled at engineering universities. First of all, humanitarian and technical knowledge should be combined to ensure the harmonious development of future engineers by means of integrated professional training programmes and the organization of various events in English or any other foreign languages which are in demand nowadays [4, p. 61]. Secondly, future engineers should
© Sumtsova O.V., 2016
ОЛЬГА ВИТАЛЬЕВНА СУМЦОВА
старший преподаватель кафедры иностранных языков Физико-технического института Национального исследовательского Томского политехнического университета. Сфера научных интересов: смешанное обучение, внедрение электронных курсов в процесс обучения, обучающая платформа МсюсПе, иностранный язык для профессиональных целей, коммуникативная компетенция на иностранном языке. Автор 17 публикаций
Рассматривается организация обучения иностранному языку в технических вузах. Эта проблема является актуальной и в наши дни, потому что владение как минимум одним иностранным языком является неотъемлемым требованием к современным специалистам в области инженерии. Кроме того, знание профессионального иностранного языка играет решающую роль в будущей профессиональной деятельности инженера, так как помогает выпускникам технических вузов участвовать в научных исследованиях на международном уровне, а также принимать активное участие в грантах, конференциях и симпозиумах не только у себя на родине, но и за рубежом. Предлагаются относительно новые подходы к организации обучения иностранному языку, такие как создание двуязычной среды и профессионально ориентированного обучения в технических вузах. Ключевые слова: иностранный язык для профессиональных целей, коммуникативная компетенция на иностранном языке, языковой компонент, организационный компонент, навыки широкого применения.
The article is dedicated to the organization of foreign language teaching at engineering universities. This is a pressing challenge nowadays because knowledge of at least one foreign language is an integral requirement for engineering specialists in a modern society. Besides, knowledge of the foreign language for specific purposes plays the most crucial role in the future professional activity of a specialist. It helps graduates of technical universities participate in scientific research at international scale, take an active part in grants and various projects, conferences and symposiums not only in homeland but also abroad. The author of this work offers to apply relatively new approaches in the organization of foreign language education such as creating a bilingual environment at engineering universities along with professionally oriented foreign language learning.
Key words: foreign language for specific purposes, foreign language communicative competence, language component, organizational component, transferable skills.
be taught to become independent thinkers and creative innovators. They must learn how to manage not only their own educational process but also future professional prospects.
It should also be mentioned that foreign language training at technical universities must include the following components: language and organizational.
Let us consider language components in detail. Engineering students must be taught a number of language systems and methods of interaction between them including communication strategies, knowledge of social and cultural peculiarities of not only their native culture but also culture of the foreign language they study. Secondly, students of technical specialties should learn not only English of everyday communication (it must be taught during the first year of training), but the greatest attention should be paid to English for specific purposes. Future engineers should acquire the language of scientific,
academic, professional and even business communication spheres [2, p. 28]. Actually one of the most significant conditions of successful acquiring foreign languages at engineering universities is, without doubt, an artificial bilingualism. It refers to parallel teaching different disciplines both in the native and foreign languages. Consequently, the foreign language will not be the main purpose for students; it will become an instrument for implementing their future professional activity globally by means of the foreign language.
Now it is necessary to analyze the organizational component of teaching foreign languages. To begin with, it is not enough to organize only traditional English classes at engineering universities at present. Various extra-curricular activities and events in English must be added to the educational programme of the discipline "Foreign language" such as seminars, educational projects on the pressing topics concerning the students' future professional activity, colloquiums, business games, role
plays and etc. Also it is necessary to invite native speakers to take part in the educational process, for instance lecturers from foreign engineering universities [5, p. 38]. And various students' exchange programmes deserve a great attention: students from the Russian Federation are immersed into the English speaking environment. And, on the contrary, English speaking students share their language experience with their Russian peers and vise versa. Such regular contacts and interactions ensure only positive results in the foreign language acquisition.
A formation of the language environment at engineering universities is an internal strategic objective of the complex language training organization, which provides an effective interaction between all participants of the learning process at all levels. The language environment must determine a development of professionally oriented foreign language communicative competence, which allows not only students but also lecturers to organize a creative team of researchers with the international participation, then, after summarizing the results of their studies, take an active part in international grants, seminars and science conferences. And, consequently, such technical universities will receive recognition on a worldwide basis.
In general, a teaching staff and students of modern engineering universities must improve their language proficiency in various ways to achieve the above mentioned aims and objectives. For instance, practise oral and written communication in English: learn how to work with business correspondence, to conduct negotiations and research, to write business documents. And, undoubtedly, the university teaching staff, along with their students, should participate in different international activities: collaborate with foreign colleagues and use English in academic and scientific research activities, etc.
These vital problems can be solved with the help of a system of language proficiency which is referred to the following ways of implementation:
- The foreign language is the means of professionally-oriented foreign language communicative competence of engineering students.
- The foreign language is the instrument of professionally-oriented foreign language communicative competence of teachers.
BASIC PRINCIPLES OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING
It should be noted that there are some basic principles of foreign language teaching students of engineering universities. The first principle is a principle of mediation: the foreign language is not the end in itself for engineering students, but it is the instrument of another aim implementation being concerned with such future professional activities as team work, scientific research or academic paper writing. Moreover, according to the principle of mediation, the foreign language is considered as a verbalization means of taking decisions, establishing a hypothesis, participating in discussions and presenting results of the research work.
The second principle is a principle of intensification of the learning process. It means that the content of the discipline "Foreign language" involves a format of the full multicultural and linguistic immersion.
By means of the above mentioned approaches to foreign language teaching the following educational tasks related to the implementation of linguistic component, which
ensures the development of speaking skills and abilities to communicate can be solved. In that context two main educational tasks should be mentioned:
1. To form the verbal skills as the basis of professionally-oriented foreign language communicative competence.
2. To develop the abilities of oral and written communication in academic, scientific, business and professional spheres.
The problems of obtaining the skills crucial for a professional career in any branch of industry are related to the so called transferable skills. These skills are developed with support of different project works, problem-oriented tasks, simulation exercises and case-studies, which are performed in the reference system of the foreign language. The basic principle for organizing such types of work is the development of student's critical thinking, abilities to make non-standard creative decisions, formation of problem solving skills.
In order to obtain positive results in foreign language teaching it is important to share the learning process into at least three stages: initial, middle and final. Thus, in the initial stage of foreign language teaching at engineering universities, the discipline "Foreign language" allows a student to realize his/her potential as a young researcher, an engineer and even an expert who is ready to innovate through the implementation of problem tasks, popular science projects and presentations.
The middle stage of learning the discipline "Foreign language"
is concerned with developing a professional outlook on the professionally oriented subject matter. Furthermore, the discipline helps students to master work forms, which are in demand in the lessons dedicated to the major technical disciplines on their speciality (for example, to work with a production cycle, to describe some inventive projects, to draw up an appropriate documentation relating to their future professional activity and etc.).
As for the final stage of foreign language learning, it is included in the professional and academic activities of undergraduates and graduate students as the instrument of self-realization, self-education and improving qualification skills because students of senior courses often carry out various joint projects with foreign participants in research work.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion it is necessary to remind that the main objective of the foreign language training system at modern technical universities is to promote the strategic objectives of universities, in particular - the entry into the world education environment. The solution of this global problem is possible only in the presence of a highly qualified teaching staff at universities: students and teachers should have an appropriate level of professional competences, including the field of foreign languages, which allows them to navigate successfully in the global information flow as well as to promote their own developments internationally.
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