Abstract:

Nowadays English language is relevant to students and practitioners whose first language is Spanish. For instance, English has been increasingly taught as a second language and presently, it is considered as a second language in the undergraduate program of the architectural curriculum at the Juarez Autonomous University of Tabasco, Mexico. For this reason, it is frequent for architectural undergraduate students to dislike and under-perform in English language. The objective of this research was to address these issues by redesigning the way that English language is taught. The study brought together English language, architectural background and education experts to re-conceptualize the syllabus, and focused on developing different methods of delivery. In order to reach the objectives, new teaching materials including videos, animations and contextualized workbooks were properly designed and produced. A great emphasis on applying English language and interpreting data was performed. There were six groups of English language in the academic period of February-July in 2010 in the Juarez Autonomous University of Tabasco. Two of these six groups were for Architecture students; therefore, these two cohorts of students were taken as a sample and were evaluated under two treatments: old style teaching and new style teaching. Both groups were similar with respect to gender, age and previous level of English language knowledge. The research was exploratory and data through observation, open interview and a questionnaire was obtained. The results showed that from the 100% of students that were taught using the new approach, the majority could better define basic and low-intermediate English language concepts (76%). They were more likely to regard English language as integral to architectural practice (84%), and to expect to use it in their architectural career (95%). There was no significant difference in the numbers who thought that English language was essential to understand literature (97%) and those who felt comfortable with the basics of English language (90%). More than half the students in both cohorts felt that they were comfortable with the basics of English language. Using a variety of media and placing emphasis on interpretation can help make teaching, learning and understanding of English language more people-centered and relevant, resulting in better outcomes for students.

Keywords:

English language, innovation, curriculum, design, architecture.