The BADGE project is set in a context of increasing globalisation for which language and communication (LC) teachers in engineering schools must prepare their students to have global competence, in the OECD definition “the capacity to examine local, global and intercultural issues, to understand and appreciate the perspectives and world views of others, to engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions with people from different cultures, and to act for collective well-being and sustainable development”.
This project was motivated by a survey carried out in 2015 by the BADGE partners, who had created a network called “Global Engineering Language Skills” (GELS) in 2014. Approximately 200 responses were collected and analyzed. This survey showed that engineers need foreign languages often to talk on the phone or to understand information in meetings across borders and cultures, to write casual correspondence and read short documents. They need their language competences most of the time to communicate with colleagues, not only clients and suppliers. The analysis of the survey showed that language and communication classes needed to integrate more Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) competences and that engineers communicate often without being aware of intercultural contexts. They use their language skills in online meetings and through other ICT tools which LC teachers need to integrate in their language classes to get the students acquainted with these tools. The survey also showed that only 10% of the LC teachers have a specific qualification in engineering while 79% have no knowledge whatsoever or experience of the world of engineering.
The overall goal of BADGE is to inspire language and communication education at engineering schools and departments. BADGE members will design teaching and learning materials for engineering students, and share these materials on an Open Educational Resources (OER) platform.
The BADGE Partnership consists of 13 partner institutions:
Ecole Nationale Superiore des Mines d’Albi-Carmaux, France
AGH University of Science and Technology Krakow, Poland
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Hochschule Harz, Germany
Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
NTUA National Technical University of Athens, Greece
University of Pavia, Italy
Poznan University of Technology, Poland
Universitàt Politecnica de València, Spain
Volga State University of Technology, Russian Federation
VUB Bjelovar Polytechnic, Croatia
For information about the outcomes of the BADGE project, follow this link!