Professional Study Material for Foreign Language Teaching in Advanced Manufacturing Technologies Students

Abstract

Universities aim to prepare students for their future careers. An important role is also played by foreign language teaching. The study’s purpose was to point out the lack of professional foreign language study material for newly accredited study programmes at the Technical University in Košice. Foreign language teachers at the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities were looking for innovative forms within foreign language teaching. Mixed methods were used to improve communication skills in advanced manufacturing technologies students in a hybrid form of education. This study aimed to find out whether students of manufacturing technologies will achieve different results in tasks related to the professional study material Plasma Cutting, as well as whether the results will differ within their study programmes. The research sample consists of 185 students in the 2nd year of bachelor’s study in the winter semester of 2021. The best results were achieved by students of the Smart Technologies in Industry (A-assessment - 45,2%) and Intelligent Technologies in Industry (A-assessment - 43,3%). Strengths and weaknesses were revealed by teachers. Students enriched their language competencies, which they could apply as engineers, computer programmers, managers, and technicians in foreign companies.