About Me
Teacher of Technical English and German/ Communication at LHB Technical College in Dortmund.
Ph.D-student at Oldenburg University; summary of dissertation project: Diverse and extensive international economic contacts provide an indication of inter-cultural communication in connection with successful economic action. Based on three surveys, this dissertation will examine the actual need for Technical English in engineering companies generally, as well within one larger company in particular. This work combines a cross-sectional study with a case-study. A pioneering survey conducted in June 2006 on a sample of 43 German engineering companies ascertained the industry need for Technical English. The second survey, conducted in 2007, is a case-study and analyses, through a limited procedure, the specific language needs of a particular company in order to gain, through this detailed analysis, a clear image of the prevailing language needs (cf. Schroeder 1984b, 83). The companies will be interviewed again in a re-test (cf. Bühner 2006, 30) after a period of two years (2008), to support the reliability of the first survey, conducted in 2006. From the results of all three surveys considerations about language needs and recommendations for tailor-made English teaching will be deduced.
