AN E-LEARNING APPROACH TO ENHANCING THE ENGINEERING STUDENTS' MOTIVATION TO STUDY BUSINESS ENGLISH FOR WORK PURPOSES

Abstract

Recognizing the huge role played by e-learning in mastering a foreign language for work purposes, we aim to point out its importance in meeting the engineering students’ needs for communication in English for business and work purposes. We emphasize the necessity of motivating the engineering students to take a blended learning approach, and particularly an e-learning approach, to studying business English to enable them to understand and cope with the culture of companies and multinationals with a view to their future successful career. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of e-learning for enhancing the engineering students’ motivation to develop their knowledge of business English for work purposes in a company or in a multinational and to adequately use the acquired business English vocabulary in specific contexts, in written and verbal discourses, in presentations, simulated meetings and dialogues in the English language courses and seminars in a technical university. We argue for the necessity of focusing on e-learning for enhancing the engineering students’ awareness that developing their knowledge of business English for a career in a company can be a great asset even if their job description mainly includes technical activities such as software or hardware development. Having knowledge of business English would allow the engineering students to better understand the world of companies and their rules of doing business nowadays, enabling them to professionally communicate and make appropriate decisions in a company meeting, in negotiations or in other business contexts. This paper will present: 1) the importance of focusing on e-learning-based seminar activities meant to develop the students’ communication skills in English, their creativity in accomplishing the given tasks, enhancing their motivation to develop their business English vocabulary; 2) the engineering students’ perspective on the importance of e-learning for developing their business English knowledge for a future career and 3) a methodological approach to teaching business English to engineering students based on traditional learning and e-learning.