Engineering Language Portfolio - Curriculum Development, Assessment & Pilot Summary Report

This summary report describes an overview, materials and lessons learned as part of the Engineering Language Portfolio (ELP). The ELP project builds on the innovative Engineering Language Portfolio developed in 2007-8 by the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers in collaboration with the Canadian Language Benchmarks Centre under an Enhanced Language Training (ELT) grant. Under a further 2-year ELT-sponsored project from April 2009 to October 2010, the portfolio was piloted in the classroom in the Engineering Technologist Integration Program (ETIP) at EMCN in January-April 2010. As a result of this, the portfolio was rewritten and made to be a much closer match to the needs of engineers. New support materials for teachers implementing the portfolio and for engineers using it were created. Based on EMCN’s research, a framework of 38 key engineering workplace tasks was produced, each of which is matched with custom Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) descriptors at benchmarks 6, 7 and 8. These are the key CLB levels for internationally educated engineers seeking to get and maintain employment in Canada. This framework allows teachers and engineers to effectively reflect on current language levels and set focused language and communication learning goals using the portfolio. The 38-task framework also formed the basis of engineering-specific curriculum materials which were developed in parallel with the portfolio pilot. These lesson materials are based around authentic engineering workplace scenarios (developed by an engineer). They provide structured practice and skill building opportunities (scaffolded to the key CLB ability levels 6, 7 and 8) in Canadian workplace language and culture as well as resources for formative and summative assessment. Also listed in the ATESL database are many of the materials described in this summary report, including the curriculum outline, sample lessons, and the English Communication Portfolio

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