“Педагогические науки”

Shalova N.S.

National Technical University of Ukraine ‘Kyiv Polytechnic Institute’, Ukraine

Communication strategies in teaching English

In order to develop effective activities of engineers at the labour market they must have good communication skills. Globalization is a phenomenon that has caused a new definition and revision of priorities in the industrial world. Standardization of business products and services, existence and gaining dominance of multinational companies, the current practice of frequent relocations and outsourcing led to a dramatic view of the importance of oral communication as a tool that works well in an increasingly competitive industrial market. This globalization phenomenon disappears soon. Thus, the need for experienced professionals with the skills to communicate in English is important.

Among the situations which require the possession of communication skills in the profession of engineering the most important are discussions, oral presentation, participation in meetings, during negotiations, instructions, talking on the phone, and other similar means of communication.

It should be noted that despite the existence of certain scientific research on the topic the problem of communication strategies in teaching English at a technical university is not fully resolved. There is no single approach to understanding the concept of "communication strategy" in terms of its interpretation in the technical field. However, the value of this concept to teach English for special purposes is not sufficiently investigated and explicitly formulated.

Regardless of the level of English, students need to practice spoken language. The challenge is to use methods of learning English for professional purposes to achieve communication goals. Traditionally, ESP provides a stiffness influenced by the introduction of technical vocabulary, difficulties in translation from \ into English due to the use of a specific industry terminology and practice some typical structures and types of exercises that do not provide the ability to communicative activities in full.

We believe that the use of communication strategies during learning foreign languages can help students during training. Future engineers can apply their skills of spoken language in different situations. Among the most important are: oral comments during seminars, courses and laboratory work, oral project presentations, participation in student conferences, oral reporting, practice, oral examinations, colloquiums, defending diploma. In addition, one of the most important situations where they need to demonstrate possession of communication skills are interviewing for a job.

Kakepoto identifies other names under which oral skills are known and referred to the labor market: soft skills, general skills or job skills. They are used interchangeably to refer to the current state of a successful engineer. Persons whose professional competence double communication skills are likely to be well in the job will establish and maintain good relations with employers, subordinates, customers and help strengthen the company's image and thus make the entire contribution to profitability.

Following Dannels we highlight five important features associated with the branch of engineering. These include:

1. Simplicity. Engineering language should be simple without of stylistic devices and stylistic use of words in a figurative meaning. It should provide a clear factual and practical information. But it should not be too formal and out of date.

2. Persuasiveness. Good technical speaker must attract and convince her audience. He / she should bring arguments / counterarguments provided with proper evidence to support a particular idea or principle.

3. Result-oriented. Formation of any communicative act in the engineering is directly related to a specific result. For the performance to be successful you need to take into account the audience and communicative purpose to evaluate the expected result. The result depends on the specific situation of the speech act, for example:

· following the instructions;

· successful negotiations (negotiations);

· accurate exchange of information (conversation, discussion);

· accurate technical information (report);

· improve a position in the company (negotiations);

· finding easy work (interview for employment);

· proof of professional qualifications (conference materials);

· confirmation of proper academic training (graduation).

4. Overloads of numbers. Engineering science is an area traditionally digital. The speaker who intends to make a good impression to inspire confidence and in accordance with his / her goals will support your ideas, thoughts, descriptions of processes, etc. with the corresponding figures.

5. Visually complicated. The reason that technical communication called "technical" is not only the areas belonging to the engineering sciences. In most cases specific communication technology actively uses diverse range of visual aids such as posters, presentations, spreadsheets, charts, diagrams, etc.

References

1. Dannels, D. P. (2002). Communication across the curriculum and in the disciplines. Speaking in engineering.Communication Education, 51(3), 254-268.

2. Doughty C. Focus on form in classroom second language acquisition / C. Doughty, J. Williams (Eds.). – Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1998. – 270 p.

3. Kakepoto, I. (2012). Perspectives on Oral Communication Skills for Engineers in Engineering Profession in Pakistan, http://www.ijalel.org/pdf/129.pdf. Accessed October 20.

4. Jordan W. (2008). A qualitative study of the early work experiences of recent graduates in engineering, in Proceedings of ASEE annual conference.

5. Tilly, S., Trevelyan, J.P. (2008). Longitudinal Study of Australian Engineering Graduates. Paper presented at the American Society of Engineering Education Annual Conference, Pittsburgh.