EMBEDDING BUSINESS ENGLISH COMPONENTS IN AN EST PRACTICAL COURSE FOR ENGINEERING STUDENTS - A CASE STUDY
EMBEDDING BUSINESS ENGLISH COMPONENTS IN AN EST PRACTICAL COURSE FOR ENGINEERING STUDENTS - A CASE STUDY

Summary/Abstract: As we are progressing into the 21st century, the landscape of the labour market worldwide is characterized by quite high expectations of most employers from the young engineers in search of first employment positions. They are supposed to bring along a wide portfolio of skills, of the hard and, not least important, soft type. Therefore, the role of the academia has increased in this respect, with most universities, including the technical ones, providing various courses meant to develop the specific abilities required from an engineer. Against this background, the EST practical course is a significant tool by means of which the short- and medium-term needs of the learners can be fulfilled. A particular educational context is discussed in this paper, which refers to the necessary amendments to be operated in the course syllabus when it is offered to students of a faculty which combines engineering and business oriented tuition. The proposed approach is presented as a proposal of the manner in which the EST syllabus can, and indeed it is, supplemented by a range of Business English focused units. Various viewpoints are reviewed, the context features are taken into consideration in designing original materials, a needs analysis stage is included, and the resulting findings are transposed into the creation of several Business English flavoured units, whose description and rationale are also provided, to be embedded in the EST course.

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