The Language of Civil Engineering: Corpus-based Studies on Vocational School Textbooks in Malaysia (original) (raw)
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The knowledge on the features of the English varieties is essential to understand the differences and similarities of the varieties for second language teaching and learning, either for general proficiency (EGP) or English for Specific Purposes (ESP) classes. This paper demonstrates a corpus-based comparison of the lexical features between an ESP variety (Engineering English) and a General English (GE). Two corpora are used in the study; the Engineering English Corpus (EEC) acts as the representation of the specialized language, and the British National Corpus (BNC) as the General English (GE). The analyses are conducted by employing the WordList functions of a linguistic software-Wordsmith. Discussions on the differences (or similarities) of these two corpora include general statistics, text coverage and vocabulary size. The empirical findings in this study highlight the general lexical features of both corpora. The analyses verify that the Engineering English has less varied vocabulary, but higher text coverage than the GE; in other words, most of the words are used repeatedly throughout the EEC. Thus, this study further emphasizes the importance of corpus-based lexical investigations in providing empirical evidences for language description.
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English for Specific Purposes (ESP) was designed to fulfil the needs of learners learning languages in specific disciplines. ESP concerns on words or terms that are created specifically or have their own definition in specific fields. As engineering students read abundance of technical texts such as manuals and reports that contain numerous technical terms that have specific meaning in the engineering field, the vocabulary knowledge of technical terms is essential for them in order to understand and comprehend the texts. However, engineering students were found to have difficulties whenever they encountered texts filled with abundance of technical terms. Hence, this study aims to investigate the vocabulary size of technical vocabulary among engineering students at Universiti Malaysia Pahang. This research employs two instruments which are technical vocabulary test and semi-structured interview. The test was used in collecting quantitative data while the semi-structured interview was...
Ibérica, 16 , 2008
The integration of a genre-based and a corpus-based instruction in ESP learning has proved to be a suitable theoretical framework for describing the lexis of construction and architecture university textbooks, such as the sample compiled in the Construction Textbooks Corpus (CTC). This paper is a contribution to the study of the formal and semantic profiles of the lexis of this particular genre type and, by way of illustration, focuses on the case study of the lemmas build and construct. From a formal standpoint, the CTC reveals that the noun building (the first content word in the CTC) is six times more frequent than the verb build, and the noun construction (third in frequency) is eleven times more frequent than the verb construct. Semantically, the corpus displays a prevalence of technical meanings which refer to building and construction as the activity or business of erecting edifices or structures. By observing the lexical profile of construction textbooks, this paper will finally consider possible teaching/learning implications.
Designing English for Civil Engineering Students
I. INTRODUCTION The development of world technologies and economies in the last decades is in line with the needs of using English as a medium of communication for businesses and education. Most of developing and developed companies expect their employee is having an adequate communication in English besides their major fields. Jawhar, in Yasin et al. (2010), states that in the private sector, graduates are becoming unemployable as a result of lack of proficiency in the English language. It means that English proficiency is equally important to the employees' principal field. Furthermore, since the graduates of an education institution, university, or college are prepared to work in a specific kind of job, the same as companies expectation, it is better for them to be taught English which is specified for communication in their major field. The English learning should be able to lead the students to learn English related to their major area appropriately, effectively, and efficiently, so that the learning English can be meaningful and helpful for the students in facing the real work challenges. Due to the English skill required at work, the English course at higher education needs to be correlated with the students' needs for a certain target situation. The course then should provide broadly English knowledge related to the students' major field. The focus of specifiable content of the course is not only on specific language features, vocabulary, or grammar but also on what skills needed by the learners in communication using English in the workplace (Hutchinson, 1987). Consequently, English course should facilitate the students with relevant English skill which can support their professional career. As the subject of this research, the Civil Engineering Department (CED) of Universitas Negeri Padang (UNP) provide a specific English course for Civil Engineering students which is called English for Civil Engineering (ECE). The course is designed by using English for Specific Purposes (ESP) approach since the field of the study is in the vocational study; preparing an individual for work or a group of work, and also developing them in the field of work itself. Hutchinson and Waters (1987) state that ESP is not a learning methodology but an approach to learning English which is based on the learners' needs. ESP has functioned to help language learners to cope with the features of language and to develop the competencies needed to perform in a discipline, profession, or workplace (Basturkmen, 2006). Moreover, Dudley-Evans and St John in Harding (1998) state that ESP is designed to meet specific needs of the learners. It makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves, and it is centered on the language components (grammar, lexis, register), skills, discourse and genres appropriate to the activities. Therefore, the aim of the course of English for Civil Engineering is the students have the ability to function English terminologies used in the field of civil engineering and communicating any technical specifications of civil engineering, especially in the field of civil engineering. This course should be able to lead the students to have good English skills related to their target situation or civil engineering field to support their career later. Robinson (1991) points out that ESP courses are taught to adults in similar classes in term of the work or specialist studies that the students are involved in. Also Streven and Robinson (1991) state that ESP learners come from the similar field of education or profession as well as having the same level of English proficiency. Based on the tracer study conducted by CED in 2012, it was found that about thirteen percent of CED UNP graduates were unemployed, although, the workplaces which are targeted by the graduates, such as construction services firms, project management consulting services, and detailed engineering design consulting services, lecturers, and vocational teachers, provide a large number of job opportunities for the graduates. In addition, several kinds of job, such as planning, scheduling, supervising,