Abstract:

This communication deals with a pedagogical application of technological resources to the acquisition of grammar competence to 5th year industrial engineering students. The empirical study focuses on the teaching and learning of a particular linguistic feature of English for Science and Technology (EST): the nominal groups (NG) both simple and complex. The technology used (Virtual Campus: AulaWeb) was implemented as part of the teaching activities included in the curriculum of the core subject English for Academic and Professional Communication, taught at the Polytechnic University of Madrid. The study involved 50 industrial engineering students with an English level ranging from A2 to C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL). It was implemented for pedagogical purposes considering the potential of present-day technologies to promote language awareness and its highly motivating effect on students with different CEFRL language levels. The results of the statistical analysis revealed that, through this technology-enhanced English learning, the entire group improved their ability to use nominal groups correctly, and that the students’ CEFRL language level influenced the student’s initial and final marks, but not their improvement in NG use, which was highly satisfactory. It was concluded that this approach, which integrated technology into the course methodology, improved the students’ performance and, therefore, it can be profitably exploited for the acquisition of grammar competence pedagogical purposes.

Keywords:

Technology, EST teaching, grammar competence, nominalisation in EST, CEFRL levels.