Poster Session 2

Introducing Learned Lectures: Providing listening material for science and engineering majors

Samuel Barclay & Roderick Lange

Providing engineering/science students with listening material that is relevant to their major is both important and challenging. This poster introduces an online self-access database of English language lectures called Learned Lectures in Science & Engineering (www.learnedlectures.com). The website contains transcribed, subtitled lectures by domain specialists of various nationalities. The poster outlines both the rationale for the website and some issues faced during its development, as well as discussing the future growth of the project.

Harnessing keyness: Corpus-based approach to ESP material development

John Blake

Concordancers often provide an option to generate lists of keywords. Novice users tend to expect that the keyword lists produced are identical, yet there are significant differences in the lists generated. This presentation aims to show how the generation of keywords may be skewed by the choice of reference corpus and statistical formula. This knowledge enables ESP materials developers to fine-tune keyword lists to enable them to select the most appropriate vocabulary.

Aspects of designing an English for Science and Technology course in non-English speaking countries

Sonia Sharmin

Many aspects need to be considered when designing a suitable English for Science and Technology (EST) course for non-English speaking students, specifically, needs analysis, choice of textbooks, subject-matter expertise of the teachers, English proficiency of the students and evaluation of the students. Here, these different concerns are addressed in detail to contribute to a model of a comprehensive and useful course that can be beneficial for both the students and university.

Diary Writing for Science Majors: The Potential for Language Improvement

Mohammad Naeim Maleki & Brent Wright

In preparation to study abroad, 10 science and engineering major university students were required to keep a daily diary for three months. Each student met with an English teacher, weekly, and the diaries were a starting point for these tutoring sessions. Positive attitudes towards the effectiveness of diary writing to improve English were evident from the results of a questionnaire and interview. Examining student writing samples showed evidence of improvement in content and mechanics.

An Approach to Develop Genre Awareness for Japanese Science & Engineering Students

Masako Terui

Since students are members of a discourse community in which genre texts are frequently used for communication among its community members, the goal of this ESP approach is that students can develop systemic literacy (Noguchi 2011), such as an awareness of genres features to identify framework structures. In this poster, I will show how the third-year-students majoring in mechanical engineering and information technology can acquire an awareness of genres with specific examples.

Integrating and Editing Information for Science and Engineering Technical Writing of Research Papers Using Electronic and Classroom Techniques

Katherine Nelson Tanizawa

Writing for technical purposes is a crucial skill for science and engineering students to master. In such exact fields, being able to express oneself with precision and accuracy is of utmost importance. This workshop will explore challenges students face when editing, revising, and integrating information into their research writing, and offer possible solutions for implementation to expedite having their work published.

Corporate views on needs for English in the agriculture industry

Glen Hill

How do companies view English for workplace needs? A survey from a recruitment day at an agricultural university provided data. Employers responded to questions about need for TOEIC scores, timing of English training on the job, and importance of study abroad experience. Responses are broken down by companies who have no connections or offices abroad, who have foreign clients but no offices overseas, and who have offices and clients in foreign countries.

Science Challenge - a novel language-learning project at Kochi National College of Technology

Michael Sharpe

This presentation will describe an ongoing effort by the presenter in cooperation with the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering at Kochi National College of Technology to design and implement a practical, science-based, language-learning project for 1st year junior engineers. The presentation outlines the course rationales and language-learning objectives, practicalities, implementation and outcomes.

Starting out right: Guiding students towards ESP

Robert Moreau

One challenge facing teachers in many science and technical universities in Japan is how to effectively prepare first year students for the ESP courses they will eventually need to attend later in their academic career. This presentation explores areas such as the role of genre-based instruction, choosing appropriate topics and preparing practical evaluation tools. Also included in the presentation are suggestions for getting students to become more autonomous vocabulary learners.

Formal academic writing instruction to advanced English learner groups in science and engineering

Steven Taro Suzuki

One ESP context that can pose challenges is teaching formal academic writing skills to advanced English level EFL science and engineering university students. Although having TOEIC scores over 900, many may still struggle in acquiring formal academic writing skills. This presentation shares suggestions and activities that will engage and empower students in better understanding these difficult skills. The activities are designed to enhance both students’ analytical and rhetorical skills, and encourage rhetorical consciousness-raising and reflection.