Резюме. The requirements for expected results from studying have been clearly defined in the European Qualification Framework (EQF) and National Qualification Framework (NQF). Communication skills, including communicating in English, are key requirement for all professions. Herein, we report the creation of a new model for bilingual education in the engineering sphere. This model is successfully applied in Biotechnology education. Our experiment reveals that interdisciplinary modules give students the opportunity to realize meanings and connections of relevant subjects and great number of perspectives.

Ключови думи: bilingual education, English for specific purposes, interdisciplinary module

Introduction

The requirements for expected results from studying have been clearly defined in the European Qualification Framework (EQF) and National Qualification Framework (NQF). Communication skills, including communicating in English, are key requirement for all professions. For engineering specialities, this element, from the professional qualification has become crucial for job search and for the implementation quality of engineering tasks.

In response to the needs of the businesses for engineering staff with knowledge and competencies in a particular professional field, as well as in a broader spectrum, an experimental interdisciplinary course has been developed. The design of the course unites the ideas for development of individual experience, as set of competencies, related to more than one discipline; development of communication competencies in English in professional context and team teaching. The components and methodological approaches have been designed after needs analysis in English for specific purposes.

Materials and methodology

Specific teaching materials in English and Bulgarian for seminar and laboratory classes are designed providing opportunity to work in a bilingual environment.

A team of discipline teachers work together with an English language teacher, in this way they convey the learning of English for specific purposes in the learning process of some of the disciplines.

The works of three groups (36 students) in Biotechnology speciality at the University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy are used to define the specific criteria related to the field (Table 1).

Results

Teaching materials in English and Bulgarian, for seminar and laboratory classes, which provide opportunity to work in a bilingual environment, have been developed. Academic programs at the university afford an opportunity to apply an unconventional educational approach which is a specific form of team teaching (TT), (Lee, 2008; Mohammed, 2012, Terzieva & Kolarski, 2015).

A team of discipline or fundamental teachers work together with an English language teacher, in this way they convey the learning of English for specific purposes in the learning process of some of the disciplines. Core moments of the TT organization are shown in Table 1.

Learning materials in Bulgarian and English are provided in the course so the students have the option to work in either languages and the experience shows that when they are given such an option they prefer working in English. Thus, during the classes students use educational materials in English and can communicate with their teacher and their fellow- students in English and Bulgarian. When students have accomplished the tasks with specialized texts and laboratory work instructions, they present written reports. In addition, the results are assessed with specialized tests that check language progress and scientific knowledge. The model of handout that is used is presented in Fig. 1.

Discussion

The first results show that the approach for widening the field of English for specific purposes in academic disciplines is applicable for engineering education. It has been accomplished according to interdisciplinary principles (Esteban & Valejo Martos, 2002) at content level and learning activities level in order to improve the communication skills of students.

What follows is the creation and application of programs which are based on the capacity and consistency of integrated disciplines. These programs should be flexible enough to form the educational syllabus in a way that corresponds to the needs of the students.

Conclusions

(1) Interdisciplinary programs are applied in order to overcome fragmentation, relevancy and to guarantee building upon knowledge; (2) Interdisciplinary approach should be developed under collaboration with the teaching teams - faculties and departments as the actual result is a product of the efforts of groups of teachers; (3) Interdisciplinary modules and courses follow students through constant putting the questions ‘What is the knowledge in this science and what do we know?’ and subsequent ’How to present this knowledge in this educational environment?’; (4) Interdisciplinary modules give students the opportunity to realize meanings and connections of relevant subjects and great number of perspectives.

NOTES

1. The paper was presented at the 6th International Conference of Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Blagoevgrad, 10-14 June 2015.

REFERENCES

Lee, C. (2008). Interdisciplinary collaboration in English language teaching: some observations fromsubject teachers’ reflections. Reflections English Language Teaching, 7, 129–138.

Esteban, A.A. & Valejo Martos, M.C. (2002). A case study of collaboration among the ESP practitioner, the content teacher, and the students. Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses, 15, 7-21.

Mohammed, O.K. (2012). ESP teaching: reversal of roles between ELT teachers and subject specialists. Intern. J. Social Science & Humanity, 2, 505-508.

Terzieva, S. & Kolarski, V, (2015). Team teaching – an opportunity for development of communication competences for engineers. Vocational Education, 17, 28-40 [In Bulgarian].