AN E-LEARNING APPROACH TO ENHANCING THE ENGINEERING STUDENTS' MOTIVATION TO STUDY BUSINESS ENGLISH FOR WORK PURPOSES

Recognizing the huge role played by e-learning in mastering a foreign language for work purposes, we aim to point out its importance in meeting the engineering students’ needs for communication in English for business and work purposes. We emphasize the necessity of motivating the engineering students to take a blended learning approach, and particularly an e-learning approach, to studying business English to enable them to understand and cope with the culture of companies and multinationals with a view to their future successful career. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of e-learning for enhancing the engineering students’ motivation to develop their knowledge of business English for work purposes in a company or in a multinational and to adequately use the acquired business English vocabulary in specific contexts, in written and verbal discourses, in presentations, simulated meetings and dialogues in the English language courses and seminars in a technical university. We argue for the necessity of focusing on e-learning for enhancing the engineering students’ awareness that developing their knowledge of business English for a career in a company can be a great asset even if their job description mainly includes technical activities such as software or hardware development. Having knowledge of business English would allow the engineering students to better understand the world of companies and their rules of doing business nowadays, enabling them to professionally communicate and make appropriate decisions in a company meeting, in negotiations or in other business contexts. This paper will present: 1) the importance of focusing on e-learning-based seminar activities meant to develop the students’ communication skills in English, their creativity in accomplishing the given tasks, enhancing their motivation to develop their business English vocabulary; 2) the engineering students’ perspective on the importance of e-learning for developing their business English knowledge for a future career and 3) a methodological approach to teaching business English to engineering students based on traditional learning and e-learning.

鉴于电子学习（e-learning）在职场外语掌握过程中所发挥的巨大作用，本文旨在阐明其在满足工科学生商务职场英语沟通需求层面的重要意义。我们强调，应激励工科学生采用混合学习（blended learning）模式，尤其是电子学习方式开展商务英语（Business English）学习，以帮助他们理解并适配企业及跨国公司的文化环境，助力其未来职业取得成功。本文的核心目的在于凸显电子学习对于提升工科学生学习职场商务英语知识的动机的重要性，使其能够在工科院校的英语课程与研讨会中，于特定语境、书面及口头表达、演示、模拟会议与对话场景下，恰当运用所学商务英语词汇。我们主张，应聚焦电子学习模式，帮助工科学生认识到：即便自身工作职责主要涵盖软件或硬件开发等技术活动，掌握商务英语仍是一项宝贵的职业资产。掌握商务英语能够帮助工科学生更好地理解当下的企业运营环境与商业规则，使其能够在企业会议、商务谈判及其他商务场景中开展专业沟通并做出合理决策。本文将涵盖以下三部分内容：1）聚焦基于电子学习的研讨活动的重要性——此类活动旨在培养学生的英语沟通能力、提升其完成指定任务的创造力，并强化其商务英语词汇学习的动机；2）工科学生对于电子学习在助力其未来职业发展所需商务英语知识培养方面的认知与看法；3）一种融合传统学习与电子学习的工科学生商务英语教学方法论。