Problems in Teaching
Specialized English
Kompanetz Natalia, Kyiv
Nowadays
the course of specialized English is essential in engineering programs studies
worldwide in high school. Specialized English is a course that gaining
specialized information by reading specialized English documents. It mainly
adopts English to carry out the knowledge teaching, and the related documents
are mostly the knowledge that the students have already known and grasped. This
kind of course aims at training the students' ability of utilizing specialized
English and combining specialized knowledge and the language English.
Therefore, specialized English is neither like the Basic English teaching nor
like normal specialized courses [1].
It should
be pointed out that today’s social productive forces has developed highly,
economy integration has been to be the general trend, which has brought forward
higher requirement to new century talented people. Specialized English teaching
is one kind of means adopted by education to adapt to time’s needs.
The
capstone achievement in obtaining a Bachelor's degree in Engineering is the
senior project. The senior design experience is intended to be a culminating
experience in college education as an engineer. Senior project plays a very
important role, which is the combination of learned knowledge and practical
problems. Writing a Bachelor thesis is the opportunity for students to utilize
their knowledge to solve real problem, a practical training before working. In
planning, designing, and executing design project, student will be expected to
bring together disparate pieces of knowledge that he/she has gained throughout
studies in university. It is critical to student to improve their ability in
problem identification, planning, problem solving, which can acclimate him/her
to the real working area rapidly. It is also a test for the ability of
teaching, creativity cultivation of teachers [2].
With the
development of modern science and technology, international cooperation is
getting more and more closely. Good command of specialized English is getting
more and more essential, especially in academic area. Therefore, not only good
command of academic knowledge, but also hands-on ability and good command of
specialized English are also necessary for college students to adapt to the
social condition rapidly after graduation. Based on the relationship of
specialized English and senior project, his paper is proposed to find a good cooperation
of specialized English and senior project, to promote the teaching effect of
specialized English.
The
purpose for the specialized English course is lingual teaching, based on
different majors. For automotive industry students, the purpose is to gain the
ability of reading English academic literature to obtain update information and
technology in auto industry, and improve the ability for academic
communication.
Specialized
English teaching should be determined by industry demand. The course content,
textbook, arrangement of teaching activity should be industry oriented on auto
industry. Therefore, course content should include both the basic theory and
latest technology development in IT and engineering, thus to provide update
information for students.
Students
who want to study English as their main major know how to study English and
learn the prerequisites. Therefore, the university entrance exam is not too
difficult for them, and they do not have many problems studying in the
university. But this is exactly the opposite for students of non-English
courses. They face lots of problems regarding learning and understanding
English during their classes. Thus, they become disappointed with their
progress and their English achievement. Another problem that should be
mentioned is inadequacy of general and specialized English in universities in
terms of quantity.
When the
goal for each course of education is clear enough, then providing textbooks
must be in line with those goals considering both contents and methods of
compiling. One of the important factors which should be taken into account
prior to providing textbooks is students’ background knowledge of English.
Most of
specialized English textbooks are appropriate for those who have already
achieved the basic goals and definitely inappropriate for beginner students who
are not acquainted with reading and understanding methods and this is a
challenging problem which needs scrutiny. In other words, language skills and
knowledge which is supposed to be achieved at the end of the book is only
achievable for those who have previously learned them and then attended the
classes.
Another
problem related professional English is students’ different knowledge of
English. This refers to studies before university. Students' different level of
English Language literacy becomes a major problem at this spot so that the
materials arc sometimes beyond their understanding. That is to say, they never
achieve the desired goals. Therefore, students must spend a lot of time studying
other educational resources that help them learn or at least understand English
a little better. This advice might be efficient for students who have a lower
level of English language literacy. A question may be issued here that how
students can have extensive reading beside the classes when they have a lower
or no English literacy. It is worth mentioning that in addition to educational
aid in today's world, there are a number of ways in which students can get
help. Besides, they can start from easier and comprehensible texts to more
advanced and complicated ones.
Moreover,
one of the important things that help students spend more time on learning
English, which probably takes days and weeks, is assigning case studies by
professors during which students may learn a lot.
1.
Hyland, K.:
Specificity Revisited: How Far Should We Go Now. (2002) English for Specific
Purposes 21, 385–395
2.
Heng, Z., Wen, B.C.,
Bo, J.J., et al.: Exploration of Reformation and Innovation of Graduation
Project. (2005) Journal of Huaiyin Institute of Technology 14(2), 71–72
3.
Xiu, W.: How to
Improve the College English Teaching Effect. (2007) Huaiyin Normal College
Education Science BBS, 74–75