La explotación lingüística de textos técnicos como complemento evaluativo y génesis de materiales pedagógicos en inglés para fines específicos

Abstract

Teaching Technical English for Civil Engineering involves some limitations that must be overcome with initiative and imagination. On the one hand, the market provides no suitable pedagogical materials to meet the students´ needs, which often implies working with outdated textbooks, either too general or from other ESP fields like Business English. On the other hand, any serious analysis of the teaching conditions for this language in most Spanish universities shows that these are extremely inadequate: too short courses, a still high ratio of students per class, and contents far too extensive to be covered. Therefore, teachers must be practical while adjusting objectives to these restrictions. This paper makes an useful proposal to fulfil the challenge of teaching successfully within this context, by suggesting a method to produce plenty of materials and a complementary system for assessments. Basically it is about asking students to hand in written projects related to Civil Engineering issues. The teacher gives selection criteria for both text and exercises, which results in a wide range of updated readings. Secondly, the best works are used in class, increasing the students´ linguistic awareness and their interest in the subject.