English Language Competence of Future Engineers: From Federal State Educational Standard to Tomsk Polytechnic University Best Practices

Abstract

Engineering education is one of Russia’s priority development areas allowing the country to increase the competitive capacity of its economy in the present world by establishing an effective segment of the national innovative system. Russian national research technical universities are regarded as a powerful force to train highly professional engineering specialists. An essential part of future engineer’s professionalism is foreign language proficiency, particularly proficiency in English as the language of international importance. A range of language skills that students should acquire through mastering a basic educational programme within the chosen direction of training will help them fully realise their potential and become competitive at the international level. In this article, the requirements for bachelor engineers’ foreign language competences determined by the Federal State Educational Standard of Higher Professional Education (FSES HPE) in Russia are analysed for their correspondence to the country’s and global demands that are currently challenging professional engineers. The research procedure and the principles of selecting directions of engineering training for the present analysis are provided, the obtained results are presented and the corresponding conclusions are made. Further, National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) best practices of priority engineering training are described. It is believed that the university’s experience can be successfully adopted by other Russian institutions of higher professional education aimed at training professional engineers for the benefit of the country.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n3s1p290