Technical German from the beginning:

1. 19th Annual Colloquium on International Engineering Education: Preparing the Global WorkforceNovember 3 & 4, 2016,   Newport, Rhode Island Technical German from the beginning: Developing German language courses for international engineering students at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Duisburg-Essen Renate Kärchner-Ober Faculty of Engineering, University of Duisburg-Essen Renate.kaerchner-ober@uni-due.de

2. Introduction • In the third millenium: reinforcement of international cooperation between universities • Importance of multilingualism for global engineers, dominance of English to be rethought • Specialized linguistic competencies important for the labor market • Concern of universities to offer language courses for specific purposes (LSP, ESP X-SP) • In Germany, LSP courses usually designed for advanced learners (B2) • Novel approach at UDE, Faculty of Engineering: GSP (technical German) from early stages of language learning (A1) www.uni-due.de

3. Approach • Principles of multiple language learning/tertiary language didactics (transfer didactic) • Eurocomprehension, complement to conventional language teaching • Making use of prior acquired languages • Making use of subject knowledge • German L3 after English L2 • Language learning: a process, not a straight line www.uni-due.de

4. If you can read English, you can already read German • Multilingualism within language families can be obtained quickly by receptive methods • Within Germanic language families people can understand each other • Making use of prior acquired linguistic + subject knowledge • Students possess command of English and have acquired subject knowledge • Focus on receptive skills due.de

5. Specifics of L3-learning www.uni-due.de

6. Seven sieves www.uni-due.de

7. Needs analysis www.uni-due.de

8. Participants • Convenience sample, representativ for the target popluation (South-East-Asian students of engineering) • 10 Indonesian, 12 Chinese and 35 Malaysian students (n= 57, 8 questionnaires), 14 female, 43 male • 20 Malaysian students wer enrolled in both, subject and language courses • Fields of engineering: electrial/mechanical/civil and computer science www.uni-due.de

9. Findings and discussion (selection) • Part II: All studentsaremuchorverymuchinterested in taking GSP coursesatan earlystageoflanguagelearning. Results not reallysurprising • Part III:Contentof material – Expectations (usefulness/importance) • Ranking accordingtomaximal differencesbetweenstudyprogramms • e.g.: „shapesanddimensions“ Mechanical Eng: 4.476, Computer Eng.: 3.000 www.uni-due.de

10. Results: Content of material highcorrespondenceslow www.uni-due.de

11. Results: Content of material Highest correspondences all study programmes Lowest correspondences all study programmes Shapes, dimensions Engineering landmarks, buildings Making predicitons, future trend and technical innovations Phases of construction • Grammar, syntax • Specific vocabulary • Describing processes • Numbers and quantities • Classifying devices and equipment • Engineering materials and properties • Problem solving • On the job www.uni-due.de

12. Model www.uni-due.de

13. Thank you for your attention www.uni-due.de