Educational Imitation of Basic Job Function Using the Knowledge of English among Technical Major Students

Abstract

This study explores how English for specific purposes can be effectively introduced into the training of technical major students to form profession-related skills. Students were provided with an opportunity to introduce acquired language skills into their future professional career when performing such professional task as the development of design and technological documentation which is a real and basic job function. The course was developed on the basis of the interdisciplinary approach to improve the level of integrated knowledge and skills to perform the stated job function. Five groups of fourth-year students consisting of 110 people of Aerospace faculty in South Ural State University took part in the experiment. The course includes interdisciplinary tasks and practice. Before and after the implementation of the course students were assigned the same test and their level of integrated knowledge and skills was measured. A statistical method of applying the Rosenbaum Q criterion to compare and evaluate the data was used. Results show that the level of 3 out of 5 types of integrated knowledge and skills has risen significantly which indicates students’ readiness to perform the stated job function. The suggested course can be introduced into an educational process teaching technical major students.