Analysis of the foreign languages and cultures training and its importance in French engineering education

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the strategy adopted by French engineering schools facing the internationalization of knowledge and technological production, knowing that the foreign languages and cultures training participate to make students able to work in an international context. For this purpose the Council of Deans of French Engineering Schools and Universities of Technology (CDEFI) did an inquiry among 173 French graduated engineering schools. Even if the French accreditation board for engineering education (CTI) asks to the engineering schools to teach at least one mandatory language: English, the study has shown that the majority of the schools (62%) impose students to study a second compulsory language. A wide variety of foreign languages, mandatory or not, is offered by the schools. In total, 16 different foreign languages are offered. In addition to English which is mandatory in all schools, 92% of the schools offer Spanish classes, 92% offer German classes, 71% offer Chinese classes and 53% offer Japanese classes. A large majority of engineering schools includes at least one permanent foreign languages teacher position : teachers of English (91%), German (63%) and Spanish (62%).The study showed that 97% of the schools work to integrate more than one foreign language in the curriculum of engineering students. Half of them would add a new language in addition to its current offering. The language more frequently cited in this case was Portuguese (37%). In almost all cases (92%), the management team and the staff consider that the foreign languages' learning is very important for engineering students. Their primary motivation in the choice of a foreign language would be the project to go abroad. The study established a link between languages taught in the school and academic and research international partnerships. The most cited countries regarding students exchanges were Spain, or other Spanish-speaking countries, Germany, China and the United Kingdom, which correspond to the four most widely taught languages in engineering schools. However, for future partnerships, we clearly noticed that French engineering schools want to collaborate with Brazil and China. The schools interested in partnerships with those countries are making significant efforts to integrate Chinese and Portuguese courses in the curriculum. The paper draws up a complete panorama of the diversity of their implementation.