Meaning-making and Lexicogrammatical Accuracy Relationships on Multilingual Engineering Teams

Abstract

The present reliance on lexicogrammaticalaccuracy seems to be an impoverished construct on whichto assess students’ understanding and students’ ability toproductively interact and use engineering concepts inteam settings. I propose supplementing accuracy with theconcepts of agility and efficacy because meaning-makingseems to be more critical to a student’s ability tosuccessfully engage in the complex process ofcommunication than accuracy alone. However, beforethese can be assessed it is necessary to determine whatmeaning-making, agility and efficacy look like in practice.This study examines emergent meaning-making practicesof video-recorded team meetings in two first-yearengineering design courses. Analysis revealed thatlexicogrammatical accuracy did not reflect a team’s orindividual’s ability to communicate-to make meaning.