German in Engineering

-----------------------------
Project Leonardo da Vinci II
 
Contractor: Brno University of Technology
Address: Institute of Foreign Languages
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Brno University of Technology
Technická 2896/2
616 69 Brno
Phone: +420 541 142 896
Fax: +420 541 142 877
E-mail: uj@fme.vutbr.cz
 

The project DEUMA - German in Engineering was approved by the European Commission in 2001, number CZ/01/B/F/LA - 134057, part of the Leonardo da Vinci programme II with the aim to support innovation in vocational training; it belonged to the category of language competence development. The total planned financial means was 337 104 Euro; EU funding totalling 252 778 Euro. The project was completed within three years.

Project objective

In Central Europe, the number of companies with foreign capital mainly from German speaking countries has been currently increasing, and the respective employees are required to have not only a good command of general German, but also of professional language usage. This refers mainly to the production industry, in particular, engineering. However, the educational systems of the countries participating in the project do not take these needs into consideration - with the exception of business German. Moreover, learning materials currently available on the market do not meet the requirements of modern technologies and methods used in contemporary language teaching.

The development of new multimedia teaching materials for the professional area of engineering and their implementation into educational systems of partner countries can considerably enhance the chances of young adults finding appropriate jobs in the European job market.

Project aims

The aim of the project was to improve the professional language competences of Czech, Slovak, and French beneficiaries involved in the educational process related to the area of engineering through the use of e-learning teaching methods - both CBT (computer based training) and WBT (web based training).

The target group consists of the students of industrial secondary schools, vocational schools, and universities; beneficiaries attending life-long courses organised by companies or chambers of commerce and industry - in other words - any beneficiary that needs to develop his/her language skills in the area of engineering.

Project outputs

One output of the project was a package of nine multimedia teaching modules for the area of engineering in two versions - CD-ROM and web-based. They cover the following topics: fundamentals of mathematics and physics, materials and their properties, and connecting elements. These areas of interest reflect a progression - both in linguistic and professional terms - from simple to more complex, in order that a larger number of levels related to language skills development can be covered. Each module contains teaching materials developing all basic linguistic skills - i.e. listening and reading comprehension, speaking, and writing. Teaching materials were created on a bilingual basis reflecting specific problems related to German language teaching for individual target groups.

The multimedia teaching materials were created through the use of the software Telos Language Partner /TELOS/ developed in Germany, University of Tubingen within the scope of previous projects funded by the European Commission. This application is an open system containing pre-programmed empty multimedia models /video, dialogues, texts, etc./ that were filled with new content and verified through didactics.

At the same time, users' guides as well as the framework curricula for the educational process were developed in national versions. The output of the project were verified in practice through pilot courses; partially through the use of a new didactic conception connecting autodidactic multimedia teaching /CD-ROM and web/ and tele-tutoring via the internet. Partial results were continuously tested in close cooperation with the engineering industry and assessed with feedback to material developers.

Partnership

In order to achieve the project aims a partnership was established, formed by eleven different organisations from five countries - five partners are from EU countries. The partnership followed institutional framework conditions and was equipped with professional, didactic, and technological competences necessary for the successful realisation of the project. Integral parts of the partnership were, apart from the institutions involved in material development, the partners involved in testing of partial or final results.

   
Institution   Contact person E-mail
Vysoké učení technické v Brně, CZ   PhDr. Irena Čornejová cornejov@phil.muni.cz
Universität Tübingen, D   Prof. Kurt Kohn kurt.kohn@uni-tuebingen.de
Goethe-Institut, D, CZ   Dr. Bernd Schneider schneider@goethe.cz
Vysoká škola báňská - TU Ostrava, CZ   Mgr. Jarmila Fryščáková jarmila.fryscakova@vsb.cz
Žilinská univerzita, SK   Mgr. Anna Tománková tomankova@fpv.utc.sk
Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie du Jura, F   Michel Meuret cci@jura.cci.fr
Technische Universität Wien, A   Dr. Peter Kral peter.kral@tuwien.ac.at
Střední integrovaná škola v Brně, CZ   Ing. Antonín Doušek, Ph.D. dousek@isspbrno.cz
S. A. ROBERT BOSCH, F   Laurence Botella laurence.botella@fr.bosch.com
SEM Drásov Siemens Electric Machines s.r.o., CZ   Věra Girszewská vera.girszewska@semd.cz
TOS Kuřim, a.s., CZ   Ing. Jiří Michele marketing@tos-kurim.cz
   

Dissemination of results

A continuous dissemination of partial and final project results in the respective countries and regions was an important task for the individual project partners. During project development, several specific seminars were organised, as well as international conferences aiming at the presentation of the project in different spheres of the educational process in the regions of the respective partners. The most significant events are listed below.