Students' beliefs about professional english in engineering

Abstract

This work is contextualised in the course Inglés Técnico I, which we teach for the Chemical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering programs (School of Engineering, UNRC). The course aims at training students to read academic genres that are instrumental in the engineering disciplinary culture, in order to contribute to the students´ academic literacy development. In view of the new educational programs for both careers, we have been considering gradual changes to systematize the three new courses to be lectured in 2026: Inglés Académico, Inglés Profesional I and Inglés Profesional II. This curricular framework will allow us to scaffold the students’ development of academic literacy in Inglés Académico, so that we can transition into Inglés Profesional I and Inglés Profesional II and therefore foster the development of competences that students will need in work contexts for professional purposes. In this scenario, the purpose of this work is to socialize an activity we carried out at the beginning of Inglés Técnico I (2024), to be able to listen to our students’ voices regarding their beliefs and expectations about their roles as future engineers, related to the use of English in their professional practice. We conducted an educational experience based on an action research approach with the use of narrative frames as data collection instruments. The data about the students’ beliefs provide relevant information to design and teach Inglés Profesional I and Inglés Profesional II in the new educational programs.