Project Based Learning in Teaching Communication Skills in English as a Foreign Language to Engineering Students

Yulia Yurievna Kovalyova,Alexandra Vladimirovna Soboleva,Argen Kerimkulov

doi:10.3991/ijet.v11i04.5416

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to consider project based learning as one of the most efficient and productive methods used in teaching English as a foreign language to engineering students of Russian technical universities. Special emphasis is put on communication skills to be mastered by future engineers through project based learning. It is of great importance to note that highly developed oral and written communication skills are valuable for engineering students wishing to become successful and competitive in the international arena. Hence, engineering students must be trained well to develop their communication skills in English in the field of professional activity, mainly in the science research area. An inter-disciplinary project designed on the basis of project based learning for the second year students of Tomsk Polytechnic University is reviewed in this work. The authors come to the conclusion that project based learning is an ideal teaching method since it allows engineering students to improve significantly their oral and written communication skills as well as apply the content knowledge in the field of their professional activity within the English language course.

Highlights

Engineering graduates require an ever-increasing range of skills to maintain relevance with the global environment of the new millennium [1]
Foreign language communication of a future engineer is realized in a number of spheres of professional activity, such as science research, research and development, engineering and manufacturing, and organizationalmanagement [2]
project based learning (PBL) as a way of ensuring genuinely communicative uses of spoken and written English [7] was introduced in the English curriculum for undergraduate engineering students studying in TPU whose level of English as a foreign language (EFL) competence was stated as !1 in accordance with [8]

Summary

Introduction

Engineering graduates require an ever-increasing range of skills to maintain relevance with the global environment of the new millennium [1]. Higher educational institutions of the Russian Federation make a lot of efforts to train engineering students to perform their future professional activity in the above mentioned spheres in compliance with the global engineering standards. They strive persistently to put undergraduates into authentic (academic exchange programmes, apprenticeships, double-degree programmes in a partner-university, etc.) or simulated contexts (EFL classes, extra-curricular activities, electronic learning courses, conferences and contests, etc.) which require them to use English as a foreign language (EFL) to pursue educational, research, and professional interests

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Conclusion