Abstract:

Studying a foreign language is one of the most important parts of a university study. The Faculty of Materials Science and Technology in Trnava (Slovakia) has implemented obligatory language preparation for future engineers. The faculty provides 10 accredited Bachelor’s study programmes, 11 Master’s study programmes and 9 PhD study programmes. The most of them prepare technically oriented students for their future. Slovakia, as a member of European Union, has understood that the necessity of graduates’ language competence will increase year by year. Thus, those who want to meet the market’s demands should study at least one foreign language. When English has become the most used language in daily communication worldwide, the faculty has decided to provide all the students of the faculty new subject “Technical English”. Technical English is a two level English course. Its syllabus covers the core language that students need to be successful in all fields of technical and industrial work. Despite the fact that students find these books very interesting and useful, many of them have marked the necessity of dictionary that could help them during their study. That is why the Department of Professional Language Preparation has decided to elaborate Slovak–English and English–Slovak dictionary of Technical English, course books published by Pearson Longman. As the copyright of the company have to be observed, the dictionary will be used only by students of the faculty as an internal publication. The main aim of the article is to find out if the students:
• have met with some unknown words during their study;
• would prefer online or book version;
• would prefer a specific structure of the dictionary;
• would use the dictionary during their study, etc.
More than 300 respondents have answered the questionnaire. 65 % of them have not understood many English words during their study; 75 % would prefer both, online and book, versions; and almost 86 % would definitely use the dictionary during their study because they find the dictionary very useful. The detailed results of the questionnaire are interpreted in the article.
This topic has been solved within KEGA Project 031-035 STU-4/2010: "Models of project-based learning at secondary vocational schools".

Keywords:

Dictionary of technical English, language preparation.