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TEACHING ORAL COMMUNICATION AT A RUSSIAN UNIVERSITY: HELPING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS PRESENT THEIR ENGINEERING DESIGNS

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Conference

2016 ASEE International Forum

Location

New Orleans, Louisiana

Publication Date

June 25, 2016

Start Date

June 25, 2016

End Date

June 25, 2016

Conference Session

Concurrent Paper Tracks Session II Courses

Tagged Topic

International Forum

Page Count

15

DOI

10.18260/1-2--27260

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/27260

Download Count

486

Paper Authors

biography

Jennifer Craig Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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Jennifer Lynn Craig is a lecturer in the Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she teaches writing, oral communication, and collaborative skills to engineering students in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. She has consulted in the graduate program of the Department of Mechanical Engineering as well as in industry. Ms. Craig has also consulted and taught in universities in Russia, Singapore, Chile, Costa Rica, and Mexico. She is the author of "Integrating Writing Strategies in EFL/ESL University Contexts: A Writing-across-the-Curriculum Approach." She is a co-author of "Learning to Communication in Science and Engineering: Case Studies from MIT", a book that was the 2012 winner of the CCCC’s Advancement of Knowledge award.

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Abstract

Abstract: A writing-across-the-curriculum approach was used to teach and refine oral communication skills of English language learners (ELL) at Skoltech, a Russian university. The objective was to develop disciplinary communication skills in English so that students could present their engineering designs during a rapid prototyping project. A pre/post survey assessed changes in self-efficacy as a measure of success in the instruction about, practice and performance of oral presentations. The post-test survey showed a statistically significant increase in self-efficacy for a majority of the students. Survey data combined with faculty observation indicates that the communication pedagogy combined with practice was effective in increasing self-efficacy and in facilitating and refining oral communication skills for the majority of the Skoltech students. However, the presence of a less active population within this group illustrates some of the challenges in teaching and strengthening disciplinary oral communication skills in a group of ELL with varying levels of English proficiency. Suggestions are made for teaching communication skills to low proficiency ELL in disciplinary settings.

KEYWORDS: writing-across-the-curriculum (WAC), writing-in-the-discipline (WID), oral communication, ELL, English language learners, self-efficacy

Craig, J. (2016, June), TEACHING ORAL COMMUNICATION AT A RUSSIAN UNIVERSITY: HELPING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS PRESENT THEIR ENGINEERING DESIGNS Paper presented at 2016 ASEE International Forum, New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/1-2--27260

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