Context: The BADGE project is set in a context of increasing globalisation for which Language and Intercultural Communication (LC) teachers in engineering schools must prepare their students to have Global Competence, or “the capacity to examine local, global and intercultural issues, to understand and appreciate the perspectives and world views of others, to engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions with people from different cultures, and to act for collective well-being and sustainable development” (http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2018-global-competence.htm). This project is motivated by a survey carried out in 2015 by the BADGE partners, who had created a network called "Global Engineering Language Skills" (GELS) in 2014. Approximately 200 responses were collected and analyzed. This survey showed that engineers need foreign languages often to talk on the phone or to understand information in meetings across borders and cultures, to write casual correspondence and read short documents. They need their language competences most of the time to communicate with colleagues, not only clients and suppliers. The analysis of the survey showed that language and communication classes needed to integrate more Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) competences and that engineers communicate often without being aware of intercultural contexts. They use their language skills in online meetings and through other ICT tools which LC teachers need to integrate in their language classes to get the students acquainted with these tools. The survey also showed that only 10% of the LC teachers have a specific qualification in engineering while 79% have no knowledge whatsoever or experience of the world of engineering (Annexe 1). Objectives of BADGE: * design LSP materials for intercultural communicative competence to be used by the wider community of LC teachers in engineering schools, identified below as Intellectual Outputs (IOs) * create a multilingual Open Educational Resources (OER) platform with the learning materials and lesson plans, jointly developed by BADGE members, engineering students and faculty and industrial partners, allowing LC teachers to choose lesson plans or learning units which can be adapted to local/national needs, be integrated in existing courses and even lead to new curricula * in the long-term, form engineers with digital global skills in sustainable internationalisation as a result of improved educational practices Methodology: * 8 workgroups are formed, one for each IO, to develop content related to a specific skill * Students are encouraged to learn as autonomously as possible by actively contributing to IOs design * Putting the IOs together, developing and improving lesson plans and learning units, will lead to innovative teaching material and allow this to be implemented at all partner universities * The content of the learning materials will be adapted to the needs of a large number of students from different countries, cultures and languages to make them available for other engineering schools in Europe * BADGE partners will meet regularly online and in yearly transnational meetings to share, evaluate and support each other * Engineering faculty and industrial partners will constantly assess the competences developed and compare them to the necessary skills in the engineering professions Results and impact: * IO 01-08: 01 Communication course for future engineers 02 Sustainable writing skills 03 E-communication skills 04 Global competence and entrepreneurship 05 Architectural voices: student-produced podcasts and videocasts 06 Soft skills for engineering students 07 Global competence through IT and serious games 08 EMI (English-Medium-Instruction) for teachers * Open badge assessment system: Each learning unit will be published on the OER platform, when students complete one of these courses, implemented by an LC teacher, they will earn a badge. Once they have collected 5 badges, students will get a certificate attesting their LSP, global competence and digital skills. This certificate will attest larger competences than a language certificate alone. Students can also earn their badges in an engineering school abroad which has implemented at least one of the courses based on the materials of the OER platform. The content of the certificate will be stated in the Europass Diploma Supplement * The developed teaching material will be presented and promoted in multiplier events, conferences and on the social media deemed most appropriate for dissemination * The partners will also work with their national administration to promote this innovative certificate. * The impact of the innovative teaching materials on students' competences development will be surveyed in a quantitative and qualitative manner throughout the project. * The OER platform will continue to be enriched even after completion of the project
The BADGE partners have developed materials for LSP (language for specific purposes) and intercultural communication competence for use by the modern language teaching community in engineering schools, as they often do not have the competence or time to develop specific resources for engineering students themselves. We have created a multilingual Open Educational Resources (OER) platform containing learning materials and course content, developed jointly by BADGE members, engineering students, professors and industry partners, allowing language teachers to choose course content or learning units that can be adapted to local/national needs, be integrated into existing courses and even lead to new curricula. The platform can be found here: https://www.thebadgeproject.eu/. Our aim is to train engineers with global digital skills for sustainable internationalisation through improved pedagogical practices.
The BADGE project takes place in a context of increasing globalisation and teachers of languages and intercultural communication in engineering schools need to prepare their students for global competence, as defined by the OECD (http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2018-globalcompetence.htm). This project is motivated by a survey carried out by the BADGE partners. It showed that engineers often need foreign languages to speak on the phone or understand information in meetings, to write occasional letters and to read short documents. The analysis of the survey showed that language and communication courses need to incorporate more language for specific purposes (LSP) skills and that engineers often communicate without being aware of intercultural contexts. LC teachers need to integrate these tools into their language courses to familiarise students with them. The survey also showed that only 10% of modern language teachers in engineering schools have a specific engineering qualification, while 79% have no knowledge or experience of the engineering world.