Innovation in Language Learning

English for specific purposes (ESP) courses fulfil an essential function in tertiary education to prepare content students for their academic studies and future career fields. In a globalised world, demands on learners to actually use professional English are increasing and may already occur during university studies. An example of such a scenario are international engineering contests that challenge students on technical-mathematical, financial, logistical, organisational and linguistic levels. The current paper presents the role of ESP in an aeronautical student design competition hosted by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). This annual contest requires participating teams to design, build and fly a model aeroplane according to certain operational parameters, within a tight schedule and under highly selective conditions. Through several competitive stages, the initial number of above 100 teams is reduced, and the winning team is determined after a sophisticated scoring process at the contest site in the United States of America. Before the teams are admitted to the competition flyoff, they need to write and submit a design proposal in October and a design report in February. Only if both documents are accepted, will the respective team be allowed to participate in the flyoff in April. Particularly non-US student teams are thus faced with the challenge of producing decisive technical documents in English to achieve a good final ranking in the competition. The author’s institute has encouraged student participation in this contest for four years now to boost learner motivation and compete with other teams on a global scale. The paper finishes by depicting the team results from these contest years and by drawing conclusions on the potential of engineering design contests for higher education.

Keywords: English, ESP, technical documentation, language use, engineering student contest, higher education;