Teaching technical communication in english to european engineering students

Résumé

The European student mobility programme has enriched the academic life during the last two decades, contributing to createnetworks where people and institutions share experiences and ideas. Moreover, this programme reflects the present globalisation ofthe labour market, which is strongly present in the engineering field where actual complex projects are usually performed bymultidisciplinary international teams. Despite the increase of mobility students, many times the receiving (host) university justoffers individual tutorial sessions and assessments in English, and in general, little attention is paid on supporting the interactionbetween students from different countries. An opinion survey among engineering students motivates the proposed methodologythat faces two goals: to teach international team-working skills and to improve the technical English of incoming and localstudents. Different teaching strategies have been combined: glossaries, wikis and multimedia material implemented within aLearning Management System, and group activities. The results of a test about engineering concepts in English and a final opinionsurvey point out an increase of technical communication skills and a high level of students’ satisfaction.