“Add an English certificate or degree to your resume; it is a plus and it would make it look fancier.” This has become the mantra spoken in the corridors of large multinational corporations and businesses operating in technical and scientific domains here in Morocco. With a labor market that is growing more competitive by the day—and over 20% unemployment facing ironically the most educated population sector according to the latest statistics—young engineering graduates are required to be at the top of their game, boasting “soft skills,” computer literacy, and foreign language—preferably English—competence.
The teaching of English as a foreign language is essentially utilitarian. Those partaking in this endeavor need the language to understand text references and audio clips as a prerequisite for efficient and effective research. However, the overriding goal of course is to be able to communicate at an advanced, professional/technical level with foreigners from all over the world in this increasingly and irrevocably globalized, interdependent world we live in.
ESP (English for Specific Purposes) is often categorized into EAP (English for Academic Purposes) and EOP (English for Occupational Purposes). Further subdivisions of EOP are sometimes applied (i.e., Business Professional English, which pertains to lawyers, doctors, entrepreneurs, etc.); and Vocational English (English for tourism, nursing, aviation, and bricklaying, etc.). The identifying characteristic about ESP is that it is designed to meet the specific needs of the learner not only with a focus on the language itself (grammar, lexicon, register), but on skills and discourses, as well. This development of communicative competence is of paramount importance in light of the language’s increased use in professional environments due to—as previously mentioned—globalization.
Author Keith Harding stresses that the general skill set which an English teacher employs—particularly with respect to its semantics–(i.e., practical usage)—is also applicable to ESP. He proposes that teachers should think about what is actually needed and not simply follow the suggestions of a textbook; specifically, they should strive to master the content of their students’ subject matter, assess their language needs in relation to their skills, utilize contexts, texts, and situations from their subject area, use authentic materials, devise real-world applications, and motivate with a variety of fun activities.
According to researcher Tony Dudley-Evans, ESP is designed to meet specific needs of the learners. It makes use of underlying methodology and activities of the discipline which it serves, as it focuses on the language appropriate to these activities in terms of grammar, lexicon, register, study skills, discourse, and genre.
ESP possesses a variety of characteristics, as it might use in certain situations, for example, a different methodology from that of General English when catering to the needs of adult learners–either at a tertiary level institution or in a professional work—as well as for intermediate and advanced students.
Most ESP courses assume some basic knowledge of language systems. Some teachers in the field may feel intimidated when faced with the prospect of teaching Engineering English, for example. This is generally because they are concerned that their potential lack of technical expertise in that particular field will be exposed, and as a result, they will be made to feel inadequate. However, the instructor’s role in this case is not to present engineering content; rather, it is merely to develop students’ potential language skills–a “zone of proximal development,” if you will–and to encourage the student to ask content-related questions as they arise.
Teaching Engineering English typically differs from teaching General English with respect to the choice of contexts for instructional texts and in the choice of lexicon in grammar and vocabulary exercises. With innovations occurring constantly in this field, in particular, technology demands an ever-increasing level of scientific competence. For engineers, English is first and foremost a “library language;” in other words, the student must acquire a base level of knowledge in order to experience success with classroom resources—particularly with respect to technical periodicals/journals—in order to extract information to keep abreast of the most updated professional information.
The second most important role that English plays for engineers and engineering students relates to its position as the “gold standard” medium for conferences, symposia, and seminars, which indicates a clear need for at least proficiency—if not fluency—in the most specialized content of this language. Active and meaningful participation in these meetings, however, necessitates a continuous need to raise the bar of competence for higher-level collegial dialog.
It therefore has become somewhat of a conundrum as to which type of English with which to target engineering students in Morocco. The most glaring complication is that disciples of this particular field are primarily matriculated as full-time students. Especially at the undergraduate level, the future is wide-open as to what kind of jobs—if any, at least immediately upon graduation—will await these individuals. Many a coed graduates and finds oneself working in a completely unrelated occupation for an extended period of time in this very competitive labor market. Therefore, imparting “soft skills” competence is just as important as prioritization of the technical aspects of the curriculum. Also, one must account for the fact that there are countless sub-disciplines of engineering (i.e., civil, mechanical, environmental, geological, electrical, computer, agricultural, etc.) with vastly different prerequisite skill sets of their own.
However, the all-encompassing professional requirement to comprehend not only the written word but also the spoken one will not change. The proportion of engineers who go on to study or practice in Anglophone countries is very small compared to those whose comfort zones lie in French-speaking ones. Consequently, teachers concentrate both on teaching engineering student the skills needed to speak everyday English and more specialized engineering English, as well as the skills needed for writing. This approach therefore elicits the pitfall of trying to accomplish too much, too quickly—resulting in somewhat of a “jack-of-all trades, master-of-none” scenario.
How to teach communicative engineering English depends mainly upon teachers’ readiness to help students achieve success in their field of work. The teacher thus concentrates more on contextual language than on rote grammatical structure. A combination of internet-based resources along with traditional TOEIC and TOEFL textbooks can team up to provide an effective resource package by which to enrich traditional lesson plans, providing authentic and up-to-date materials at any level of student cognition.
Inquiry-based learning almost invariably provides an effective methodology for linguistic success. One way to apply this approach would be to design a project whereby each student prepares a presentation related to his/her field of study (i.e., mining in Morocco, computer sciences, electric vehicles) and initiates debate on pertinent issues within that field. In this manner, students must create their own questions for their peers to address and debate. The internet enables them to further research a particular topic and access a wealth of free information. Presentations may be individual, in pairs, or in small groups. In this age where social media reigns, students often scoff at the mere thought of paying heed to a textbook, and they quickly become out-of-date and are often difficult to obtain anyway due to budgetary constraints.
Moreover, presentation skills allow students to learn and apply profession-embedded vocabulary, which fosters further independent research. Pre-teaching vocabulary is imperative, and this can be accomplished by providing either hardcopy handouts of the terms themselves, or by providing lists of websites and search engines which contain such terminology. Articles on science and technology–particularly those published in English, and American books, magazines, and newspapers–may also be used as teaching materials, thereby providing the added benefits of contemporaneity and relevance.
Obviously, most technical articles contain no actual “plot,” so the boredom factor is absent. Materials selection is crucial, as educators should be wary of utilizing long-winded, dull, and highly-specialized texts. Articles related to the profession at hand can easily be selected from amongst cross-disciplinary sources in various fields, emanating from URL searches such as “Financial Times” or “Market Leader,” for example.
The teacher will invariably play the role of facilitator, thereby providing support, monitoring, assessment, and evaluation. In addition, students will acquire English competence as they engage in high-interest and relevant materials for application in future professional capacities. The more learners pay attention to the meaning of the language they hear or read, the more they will encounter success. In contrast, requirements to focus on linguistic technicalities and isolated language structures serve as demotivational devices for the purposes of classroom attendance.
Based on a recent sample of 120 students affiliated with the Mining School “ENSMR” and who responded via questionnaire format, virtually nobody chooses to study exclusively grammar courses, as they obviously find them to be heavy and boring. Rather, they prefer grammar to be embedded within context. That is to say, teachers would be burdened with and distracted by grammar correction, and their de facto role in the classroom would be to explain rules while discussing an important issue or while attending to a presentation, should grammar be “king.” As an effective alternative, students can pick up a considerable amount of knowledge through communicative teaching methods by utilizing visual aids such as video clips, photographs, transcripts, etc.
In addition, a listening quiz provides more motivation to learners. In their final year of studies at the ENSMR, students prepare for the TOEIC exam. During the entire semester, students receive training specifically in effective listening skills, either with respect to different dialogues or in relation to short texts followed by multiple choice comprehension probes.
Furthermore, students acquire language when they have opportunities to use the language while interacting with other speakers. That is precisely why reading a “hot topic” from a news source and engaging in a round-table discussion will provide learners optimal self-confidence with communication. The teacher holds the pivotal responsibility of building this self-confidence, though. The internet eventually builds a new dimension in the educational process in this age of globalization by combining language education with technology education.
Students from various Moroccan engineering schools prepare themselves in accordance with which school they plan to attend next, and in regard to what field they plan to enter. At the ENSMR, the school funds all fees involved in the student’s pursuit of the TOEIC certificate.
As far as is known at this time, the majority of the world’s engineering publications are written in English. International students and faculty must undergo a standardized English proficiency test in order to move on to higher levels of education and employment. There are three popular exams from which universities and employers typically choose in order to determine this proficiency: TOEIC, the Test of English for International Communication; TOEFL, the Test of English as a Foreign Language; and the IELTS, the International English Language Testing System. Academic institutions typically accept passing scores from any of these options.
The TOEIC test measures everyday English skills of those working in an international environment. There are different versions of the exam. The TOEIC Listening and Reading Test consists of two equally graded measures of comprehension assessment activities totaling a possible 990 score. The TOEIC Speaking Test is comprised of tasks to assess pronunciation, intonation, stress, vocabulary, grammar, cohesion, relevance of content, and comprehensiveness of application. Finally, the TOEIC Writing Test addresses tasks to assess grammar, relevance of sentence correlation to visual prompts, quality and variety of sentence structure, vocabulary, organization, and to what degree the test-taker’s assertions are supported with reasoning and examples.
The TOEIC test got its start in the 1970s and is based on English used in the workplace; however, the assessment does not require knowledge of specialized business jargon. Questions come from real-life situations such as attending a company meeting. Organizations sometimes utilize the TOEIC to gauge progress in English training programs. They also use it to place individuals in language programs appropriate to their skill level. The ETS (Educational Testing Service) indicates that 14,000 organizations in 150 countries use the TOEIC.
Created in 1963, the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) has become the industry-wide standard for the abbreviated version measuring competency. The exam was created as a means to measure the English skills of non-native speakers aspiring to attend schools where English is the primary language of instruction. Looking at a student’s TOEFL scores aid admissions officers in determining if a student has a high enough competency level in English to succeed at their institution. Today, the exam is administered in over 130 countries and has been utilized by over 30 million students across the globe.
There are several versions of the TOEFL, which include the Internet-based TOEFL (TOEFL IBT) and the TOEFL ITP. The IBT iteration is an important part of the learner’s journey toward studying in an English-speaking country. As such, many U.S. universities require the TOEFL IBT for international student admissions. TOEFL ITP (Institutional Testing Program) exams are paper-based and utilize academic content to evaluate the English proficiency of non-native English speakers. There are two levels of TOEFL ITP: Level 1 (Intermediate-to-Advanced) and Level 2 (High Beginning-to-Intermediate). TOEFL ITP scores are mapped to the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages), and successful test-takers are provided with a certificate of achievement.
The IELTS is test of academic and general language skills. It is the world’s most popular English language proficiency test for higher education and global migration, with over three million participants in the past year. IELTS holistically assesses English skills–reading, writing, listening, and speaking–and is designed to predict how successfully an individual will apply his/her English skills in the domains of work, study, recreation, and overall new life abroad. The Academic IELTS uses topics and materials covered in undergraduate, graduate, or professional programs, while the General IELTS employs topics and materials from everyday books, newspapers, and magazines.
The GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) is a standardized exam taken by students who are applying to business schools. Almost 2,000 schools either require the test or advise that students take it before applying to the university’s MBA program. It is primarily administered via computer and contains a verbal, mathematics, and writing section. The top score is 800.
The GRE (Graduate Records Examination) provides the learner yet more opportunities for success. Whether a student is opting for a graduate school or a business school—or is still deciding on a future career—he/she only needs to take one exam accepted by thousands of graduate and business schools worldwide. It remains the sole graduate-level admissions test that permits student to skip questions and then return to them, to change answers, and to prioritize their “attack” strategy. In addition, the GRE provides the Score Select option, which indicates that one can take the GRE now–and again in the future–while sending schools only the highest scores attained. The GMAT and GRE are designated primarily for business students and the general population, however, and are not targeted specifically to future engineers.
According to the study, the majority of engineering students are familiar with both the TOEFL and the TOEIC, but none are familiar with the IELST, GRE, or GMAT. For many, the TOEFL is easier to access since there exist a multitude of preparatory materials both in the form of books and internet resources. Some prefer the ITP because they find it more challenging to interact with a computer, as would be required by the IBT version.
The aforementioned questionnaires infer that students should listen to native speakers and become acquainted with their accent, as well. The results also show that the same students prefer Engineering English to Business English, prefer writing to speaking, have never enlisted the assistance of any language center, and favor PowerPoint Presentations over traditional instructional delivery methods.
Overall, contrary to the widespread idea that engineering students cannot do well or attain the level achieved by graduates of arts schools with a major in English, these same young aspiring engineers fare well when courses are tailored to their language needs and to the job market’s prerequisites.
* Prof. Khadija Anasse is a professor of English at the Faculty of Languages, Letters and Arts – Ibn Tofail University