Pre-requisites for the engineer’s profession
Looking at things from the perspective of European and international exchanges, foreign languages, and especially English, are essential to exercising the engineer’s profession. A major ENSICA training goal is to give future engineers the necessary skills in English for communication, as suited to their future professional context.
Skills to be acquired
After three years of language teaching, the student will be capable of:
- writing a report or e-mail in correct and idiomatic English,
- reading a document whether of a scientific nature or not,
- taking part in a conversation or debate between non-French-speaking contacts; initial training aims at familiarising the student with the huge diversity of accents in the English-speaking world,
- handling telephone conversations effectively,
- feeling at ease when communicating for professional purposes.
Additional objectives
Foreign languages are not only a working tool, they are also used to convey and better understand the culture of a country.
Another essential objective of language teaching is thus to bring students engineers an opportunity to better understand the multiple facets of the different cultures of non-French speaking countries.
Thus, as from the first year, preparations are made for an increasing number of students to make stays abroad during their studies for linguistic and cultural purposes, with substitute years, FPT in the USA, Canada, Germany, Britain, Sweden and Asian countries, etc.
Method for language training
All students with ENSICA Program must know at least two foreign languages. The objective is to give them adequate proficiency in English (minimum of 550 points in Toefl to obtain the diploma) to understand English-speaking counterparts in various situations, be able to communicate in fluent English and to be capable of making summary presentations in English in cultural and technical matters.
Students also choose a second foreign language (from among French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese or Russian) on which they follow training during the three years of the Graduate Program. They can thus maintain and develop good language skills, develop communicational skills and gain greater awareness of non-French speaking cultures.