Page 29 - Apuntes de Investigación en la Enseñanza de Idiomas

13 Apuntes de Investigación en la Enseñanza de Idiomas

Previous research on this field have focused heavily on the aspect of original formation and, with a
single exception as mentioned below, not so much on the particulars of everyday operations such
as meetings, visits, training sessions among others. The following is a list enumerating studies which
are considered relevant to the subject matter and have helped define the problem to be addressed.

Engineering English and the high-tech industry. Previous work in the area is aimed most abundantly
at needs analysis, and not so much at actual program development; such is the case with Spence
and Liu (2013) in their needs analysis of process integration engineers at a Taiwanese semiconductor
plant where interaction events, divided by skill were inspected by their frequency, conducting on-site
observation and through surveys and other interviews they were able to determine the frequency
of language skills such as reading manuals and other documents, writing emails, reports and other
business letters, giving presentations and attending meetings, teleconferences, seminars and other
workshops as well as social interactions and receiving instructions and listening to seminars and
conferences.

The Effect of Culture-Specific Syllabus on Engineering English Language Learners. Another area
boarded within the field of ESP is the study done within an Engineering college as described by Sa-
vithri and Kamala (2016). In their study, the issue addressed was the unemployability of engineering
graduates due to poor or lacking communicative skills in English and to find out whether material re-
lated to English culture enable more efficient language learning by researching engineering student’s
reactions to a culture-specific syllabus. The investigation was carried out through questionnaires
answered by 300 engineering students initially focused on the function and familiarity of English to the
students. From the findings, it was concluded that students do not show much familiarity to English
culture but a strong value of their own; therefore, any culture-based language syllabus developed
would necessarily address the culture in question.

Context and Methodology

The proposed research into course design is of a qualitative nature, applying the guidelines for it as
set by Lerma (2009) as a common place study of a reduced group in order to identify fixed patterns
in the subject’s relationships with their peers, superiors and environment so that a product tailored to
address these particular needs can be formulated in the form of our specialized course. Additional to
this type, some elements from a quantitative-evaluative style will also be introduced in the design of a
needs analysis device (NAD), as a phenomenological study, this research takes elements from case
study guidelines to explain the incidence of shared patterns of workplace activity.
The NAD will focus on commonalities and from a private manufacturing company in the Otay Indus-
trial Complex in Tijuana, Mexico with a selection of 30 to 40 administrative staff employees ranging
from mid-20’s to late-50’s, holding a degree of university education selected through convenience
sampling; the sample subjects will remain anonymous, only their position and background will be
noted. The collected data will then be analyzed through hybrid quantitative/qualitative applications
of Likert or alike charts marking repetition indexes for common tasks; additionally, interviews will be
carried out to obtain a more specific view of a particular subject in order to help contextualize the
information gathered through the aforementioned questionnaires. Interpretation and analysis will be
done through charting and development of indexes of incidence.