1. DESCRIPTION OF THE SUCCESS CASE

1.1 Scope of the initiative

The Language Gateways into the Professions project is an innovative partnership project coordinated by CILT, the National Centre for Languages and funded by DIUS, the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills.

Partners in the project include the modern languages departments and vocational (engineering or built environment) departments within the Universities of Bristol, Kingston, Loughborough and Salford working in collaboration with sector skills councils, professional bodies and employer to design and deliver contextualised language courses to students on engineering and built environment degrees.

The four partner HEIs developed courses autonomously from one another though shared and learnt from each other’s experiences over a period of one year during which the four HEIs and other partners met four times.

1.2 Range of languages learned

• French – 20 hour course delivered intensively over 1 week
• Specifically for undergraduate students of aerospace and aeronautical engineering
• First course aimed at French GCSE entry level students (aeronautical engineers)
• Second course for ab initio students (aerospace engineers)
• Course was optional
• French the only option
• French was chosen because of aerospace industry context

1.3 Learning outcomes

• Develop the student’s knowledge and understanding of the French language
• Be able to communicate confidently and at an appropriate level in a range of typical study, work and social contexts
• Have an awareness and understanding of aspects of the foreign culture and environment and an appreciation of relevant intercultural issues
• Be prepared for a period of work or study with a partner institution or employer in a French speaking environment.
• Course aims to develop aerospace and aeronautical context-specific language skills
• Initially this will be a non-credit bearing module, but will appear on student transcripts and will be highlighted in any references written for students

1.4 Practical realisation

• Two 20-hour courses run, the first during reading week of semester 1 and the second during reading week of semester 2
• Development of a contextualised language curriculum
• Integration of language learning with student’s mainstream academic subject
• Collaboration between language department and engineering department
• Improve graduate employability
• Nearly all students on the GCSE entry-level course were non-native English speakers even though only 50% of the aerospace and aeronautics degree students were non-native English speakers
• Only one student on the ab initio course had any experience of second language learning
• Most students could understand when reading but found listening and speaking much more difficult.
• The students, although beginners, were able to deal with texts containing complicated language but which was in the context of their degree subject.  Understanding the technical side gave the students more confidence in the language
• The second course was scheduled as it had been difficult to recruit students who were already GCSE standard and in future they would not have any pre-requisites for joining the course
• Materials have been produced that will be made available via CILT’s Virtual Language Resource Bank

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5