National Technical
University of Ukraine,
“Kyiv Polytechnic
Institute”
Faculty of
Linguistics
Information
and Communication Technologies
in Teaching Professional English to Aircraft and Space Systems Students
at the Technical University in Kiev, Ukraine
The National
Technical University of Ukraine “Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” (NTUU KPI) is the oldest
and biggest technical university in Ukraine. Established 1898 as the Kyiv
Polytechnic Institute, it has been reformed 1991 into a modern higher
educational and research institution which trains a quarter of all engineering
graduates in the country. A huge number of famous scientists, researches and
inventors have been teaching, studying or researching here. For example, among
the most famous graduates in the field of Aircraft and Space are Igor Sikorsky
(1889-1972), a Russian-American pioneer of aviation in both helicopters and
fixed-wing aircraft, and Sergey Koroliov (1907-1966), the father of practical
astronautics.
About 5,000 of academic
staff including 2,000 university teachers, out of which over 1,200 are highly
qualified professors and doctors of science are teaching and supervising 42,000
students specializing in 39 Bachelor, 92 Master and 82 Ph.D. Programs at the NTUU
KPI. The University campus covers an area of 1,600,000 square meters and
consists of over 30 academic buildings, 22 student hostels and many other
constructions. The University cooperates with 91 partner universities in 34
countries. There are 1,700 foreign students from 43 countries studying at the NTUU
KPI and their number tends to grow from year to year.
Established 1993, the
Department of Aircraft and Space Systems is one of the youngest among 28
institutes and departments. There currently are 473 students enrolled in Bachelor
Programs, 250 students in Master Programs, and 15 students in Ph.D. Programs.
This makes up to over 700 students. For the study of foreign languages they are
organized in relatively small groups of 12-15 students. There are approximately
40 foreign language academic groups at this department. Bachelor students are
studying technical English for 7 semesters, Master and Ph.D. students - for one
additional semester. The usual teaching load consists of 2 contact hours per
week for Bachelor and Master, but 6 hours per week for Ph.D. students. This totals
354 contact hours. There are 5 university teachers responsible for English
classes at this department. However, besides contact hours in the classes, each
student should additionally spend approximately the same amount of time for
self-studies, supervised by the same teachers. This falls under the Bologna Process
which the NTUU KPI officially joined in 2004 by signing the “Magna Charta
Universitatum”.
Therefore, we were
challenged to achieve the maximum of effectiveness of the self- study component
by providing a creative study environment for the students. The most promising
way to arrange this is to use information and communication technologies for
management and support of self-studies. The study course is divided into
semester units, 36 hours each. This self-study network of supervised units
should reasonably contribute to the training provided in regular classes [1]. The
objective of this liaison is to provide students with a curriculum to lead
postgraduates to the level of proficient speakers. In case certification under
the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages is implemented at the
University, this level should be the C1 Effective Operational Proficiency which
will allow graduates to continue education abroad or work for international
global enterprises.
The analysis of
available tools for achievement of the above-mentioned objective concentrated on
two directions: universal e-learning platforms and specialized language
learning systems. The system MOODLE (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning
Environment http://moodle.org/) has been chosen
as a comprehensive E-learning platform. Over 800,000 users and more than 40,000
active MOODLE Web-sites have been registered only on its main portal. The
system has 78 localizations distributed in more than 200 countries. The MOODLE
statistics show a worldwide distribution and promise a very positive effect.
The main advantages
of MOODLE include 24/7 access, up to date teaching materials, an individual
educational area, student-to-teacher and student-to-student communications,
self assessment, tests, and others, as well as those connected to it being an
open source system. The openness means a possibility to develop own components
and to integrate specialized plug-ins into the system. For example Hot Potatoes
plug-ins available under http://hotpot.uvic.ca
established a reputation as advanced free lesson construction software for the
study of foreign languages. The self-study units for the course of Technical
English for
Aircraft and Space Systems Students which are currently under development at the
NTUU KPI are MOODLE-based courses with Hot Potatoes plug-ins for different kind
of exercises, e.g. quizzes, crosswords, jumbled-word/sentence, gap-fill
matching, and ordering exercises.
A parallel
direction in course design deals with the development of special
subject-oriented content for specialized language E-learning systems. The use
of such a system e-Xplore Technical English [2] developed at Hochschule
für Technik, Wirtschaft und Kultur HTWK Leipzig (Leipzig University of
Applied Sciences) available under http://webcourse.de
is highly recommended. Currently the system has served 4,753 learners who have taken
the WebCourse since 2004. Some of the WebCourse main features overlap with
MOODLE, others are Linguistics-specific. The WebCourse is used for searching
information, vocabulary and terminology implementation, grammar implementation,
practice in text reconstruction, multiple-choice tasks, matching tasks,
dictation practice, pronunciation practice, and text analysis assignments.
The WebCourse is
accompanied by a very well designed terminology trainer. It is a multimedia training
tool which supports methodological diversity and game-based help to learn terms
in a foreign language. The terminology trainer has specialized subject-oriented
terminology databases for different subject areas. Aircraft and space system
terminology is currently under development at the NTUU KPI [3]. The typical
scenario in using the terminology trainer starts with a study of a number of
terms within a specialized area selected by the trainee. The terms should be
read with their definition and authentic example sentences. Then this
information is practiced with native speakers: learners should carefully listen
to their pronunciation and intonation while they are reading the texts and
should imitate them at one’s best. Suitable illustrations help learners to recognize
many terms. At the end of the introductory presentation process, the term
should be correctly typed. As soon as a learner has accomplished this, these
terms are then marked as “learned” and are not asked about again. In the
meantime, a learner will be presented with more terms, which one will, in turn,
have to apply correctly in five different exercises, gradually raising the
level of requirements to the terminology work [2].
The usage of
information and communication technology will allow students to advance at the
student’s own speed with the highest effectiveness for each of them. Other course-accompanying
tools allow teachers to assess the students’ progress on a regular basis
(weekly, monthly, semester). This approach simplifies the introduction of a credit-rating
system and allows regular feed-back. Additional accessories to the course which
have been stored on the course portal (samples of job applications; CVs; cover
letters; business presentations; project applications; e-mail correspondence;
minutes of business meetings) will help students to get better prepared to
their professional activities.
References
1. Nataliia Drozdovych,
Svitlana Vadaska, Building of active professional vocabulary for technical
university students, Interuniversity Conference “Problems of Foreign Language
Study at Technical Universities”, Kiev, January 15 2009, pp. 178-179.
2.
Uwe Bellmann, Nachhaltiger Einsatz von eLearning in der Hochschullehre.
Erfahrungen mit dem WebCourse e-Xplore Technical English!®, 10.Workshop
„Multimedia in Bildung und Wirtschaft“, TU Ilmenau, 14./15.09.06, pp. 5-8.
3. Nataliia Drozdovych
et al. Development of electronic professional glossary for technical university
students in distance education, II International Conference “Actual problems of
Philology and American studies”, Kiev, April 22-24 2009, pp.247-248.