DEVELOPING THE ENGINEERING STUDENTS' ONLINE PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE IN ENGLISH THROUGH E-LEARNING RESOURCES AND ACTIVITIES FOR SPECIFIC JOB-RELATED CONTEXTS

Abstract

Understanding the importance of embracing digital life, teleworking and online education as commonplace, normal aspects of the 21st century technological society, we emphasize the necessity to develop the engineering students' online professional communication competence in the English language seminars in a technical university with a view to preparing them for successful future jobs which they can do online. This paper argues that for a future career in an international company, whose activities can take place online and whose language of communication is English, the engineering students need professional communication skills in English at an advanced level and an appropriate, respectful, politically correct attitude and behaviour, which are part of what we call the online professional communication competence and which ensure their success in an online job interview, in a company meeting, in a business or technical presentation in a videoconference or in an online international scientific conference, enabling them to act successfully in various job-related contexts. This paper shows that by focusing on the communicative method and the direct method of teaching language in context, using e-learning resources and encouraging the students to take part in various e-learning activities, we can develop the students' knowledge of academic English and their online professional communication competence for successful work purposes. This paper is divided into three parts: 1) the importance of developing the engineering students' online professional communication competence through e-learning resources and activities for specific job-related contexts; 2) e-learning activities and methods for developing the engineering students' online professional communication competence; 3) the students' perspective on the importance of developing their online professional communication competence in English for successful online interaction in specific job-related contexts. Focusing on e-learning resources and online seminar activities in order to teach the engineering students how to professionally interact online in various work-related situations in the English language seminars will help us meet the students' educational needs for a successful career in a company.