Enhancing English as a foreign language communicative competence among engineering undergraduates through English medium instruction

Abstract

Introduction. The actuality of this research paper is determined by new approaches to the content and organization of professional training for bachelor students in view of UNESCO requirements to sustainable development of modern engineering education. The practical experience gained in the course of teaching in a technical university revealed the fact that English medium instruction contributes to the development of both professional and communicative competences of a global engineer. The current study aims to design a professionally-oriented module-based English medium course targeted at the formation of English as a foreign language competence of non-native bachelors and prove its efficiency in training practice. Materials and methods. The methodological basis for this study was a competence-based and module-based approaches to teaching academic subjects through English for Russian-speaking bachelor students majoring in nuclear physics and technologies. There were 113 undergraduate students of the 3d and 4th years of study who took part in the experimental study carried out on the basis of National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University (Russian Federation). Results. In the course of the research, a module-based English medium course (EMC) was developed and introduced in a four-year bachelor training, which offered trainees deep and rich language practice on a variety of topics referred to their vocational domain and regular assessment of the target competence development throughout the implementation of the target training course. The obtained results indicated that trainees’ target competence significantly enhanced, in particular, their vocabulary and oral communicative skills. The most striking results were demonstrated by trainees whose levels of the target competence increased significantly and reached advanced level (63.2%). Conclusion. The EMC course designed in compliance with the main principals of competence-based and modulebased approaches had a positive effect on future engineers’ EFL communicative competence development, thus, contributing a lot to their successful career progression as highly professional engineers on the global arena.