Communication skills and ESP courses: a Basque experience

Abstract

This paper analyzes those communication skills expected of engineers, as well as their current deficiencies. Subsequently, resources required to develop technical and professional communication maturity used in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses are specified. In particular, oral presentations and report writing, by means of role-play and simulations, are analyzed. Also considered are other aspects directly related to the improvement of communication skills, such as metacognition and interdisciplinary collaboration (communication). Finally, a practical case is presented: an ESP course for engineers at the Industrial Technical Engineering College from Bilbao (Spain). Several examples of tasks and activities to develop such skills are presented. Moreover, studies and data regarding their opinions about the importance of all these topics in their current learning process and in the long term are presented and analyzed. The main conclusions of the study could be summarized as follows: 1. Oral presentations and report writing are highly useful to improve engineering students’ communication skills; 2. The information provided to them can be successfully applied outside academia.