International collaborative tasks in language courses for engineers integrated in a multidimensional teaching format

Abstract

The field of language learning has undergone considerable changes with the emergence of new technologies. This digitalization process has led us to reconsider the format of our language courses and has subsequently had an impact on course design, the teacher's role as well as the student's role. Language courses at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (KTH) aim to prepare students for their future professional lives and have a strong focus on language for specific purposes (LSP). Our experience has shown that a blended learning course design as well as student-owned learning are especially well suited for these language courses. In this report, we wish to present a multi-dimensional course-design which provides several pedagogical added values by combining three dimensions of teaching and learning; online/face-to-face, synchronous/asynchronous and teacher-led/student-owned. We will illustrate the combination of the three dimensions by presenting how we have integrated international collaborative activities in French and German courses for engineers. Collaborative online international learning projects (COIL) are well suited for our teaching model as they combine online meetings with asynchronous work and are typically a student-owned activity. As a virtual mobility experience, this activity assists students in creating a global engineer profile by emphasizing collaboration and developing intercultural and multilingual competence.