Rethinking language teaching for engineering students

In today's globalized world, foreign languages, particularly English, have become imperative for engineers. However, traditional language classes, even specialized technical classes, often lack the opportunity for students to practice and acquire the necessary linguistic skills for their professional lives. These skills include the ability to extract information from technical texts, communicate with co-workers of different native languages and varying competencies in the foreign language, and express technical concepts in an understandable way. Changing the approach of technical English classes to a more practical and hands-on method, while also providing tandem language learning tailored to the needs of engineers by pairing students from the same or related academic disciplines, has been shown to significantly improve students' writing and speaking abilities. Additionally, students feel more confident using the foreign language in a work environment.