Track: Engineering Education

Abstract

This paper reports on a nine-year study at a Japanese technical college involving an effective CALL training program for EFL learners to meet ESP curriculum goals: to develop global engineers who can work in the real-world environment and exchange ideas globally. 

According to the survey based on needs research, e-Learning software such as voice recognition software had been introduced and its effective usage had been discussed. However, although the effect of metacognitive strategy was observed, criticism toward e-Learning as passive type of study remained.

As e-Learning materials were deemed a passive learning method, a Text to Speech (TTS) system was introduced to resolve this issue. Training using TTS systems was conducted in various settings, including metacognitive strategies and autonomous learning, such that students could more actively engage in the training. Furthermore, oversea training and combination of TTS and online lessons were introduced to enhance options of active study.

As one element of the subsequent development of an effective ESP curriculum, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was also introduced and applied to evaluate the effectiveness of e-Learning systems.  These various approaches performed in the past has become basis of study to develop an effective ESP curriculum for engineer students to meet ESP goals.