Automatic generation of methodological materials in the study of technical and engineering texts in a foreign language

Abstract

Masters, postgraduate students, engineers and scientists in Russia should study new areas of knowledge in a foreign language, for example, in English. But they have a double task arises: 1) learning English for a specific professional field; 2) studying the professional field using the acquired knowledge of the English language. The main requirement here is the minimum time for training. The purpose of the training process under consideration is to develop knowledge and skills for reading texts in a specific area of knowledge. At this stage the problem of active English language proficiency, i. e. writing your own articles or speaking is not considered. The student does not have the similar material in Russian. The material studied contains new concepts that are not known to the student. In standard university textbooks simple material is used that is already known to the student in Russian. Therefore, the student can understand the meaning of the content which significantly simplifies the learning process. But in this case the situation is different. Automation of training material’ design within the framework of the situation is carried out in two stages: the analysis of the studied materials and the synthesis of training materials. At this stage the existing software such as Microsoft Word and Excel together with Visual Basic for Application (VBA) can be used. The corresponding algorithms are applied for each operation. The automated development of training materials’ proposed technology for mastering a foreign language in a narrowly specialized field of knowledge enables to increase the effectiveness of subsequent training in a foreign language.