Professional Applications in English for Architects
Unit 1. INTRODUCTION
SECTIONS
The material presented here is a dynamic website divided into five clearly defined sections:
1. Introduction: A brief background of the pedagogical context and methodology followed.
2. Working out skills: This section will outline the most common skills that an architect is asked for from a professional scope. In order to fulfil the lack of students’ vocabulary, an extensive list of adjectives and exercises to improve this need has been provided. Also, attention has been paid to working out what needs to be focused on with reference to the personal profile and career objective, depending on the position advertised.
3. Interview questions in architectural contexts. Taking into account the architectural market requirements, a list of the most frequent questions has been selected providing a sample of the most common situations and the answers that a standard student with a B2 Level can produce.
4. Body Language advice: Non-verbal communication is also part of the interview process, so the students’ common mistakes have been presented in a visual way.
5. Bank of descriptors in real interviews: the activities and targets in this work are sustained under the Academic and Professional European Language Portfolio (ACPECL Portfolio) (2009) a research project awarded by the INAP in 2010. The selected questions and their answers, which can be practised in class or independently, are matched with a recommended descriptor.
Examples shown here have been assigned for this work generously and selflessly by courtesy of the authors, all of whom are students at the School of Architecture of Madrid. They are all now ready to deal successfully with their first English interview. We hope that many other students will take advantage of this web.
PEDAGOGICAL CONTEXT
This guidebook was designed within the framework of an English language module in the School of Architecture at the Technical University of Madrid called “Professional Applications in English for Architects” with the aim of preparing the students (mainly Spanish) to be able to effectively perform in future professional job interviews and scholarship applications, by learning:
- How to prepare for the interview
- How to pick the right words in English
- How to explain their abilities and qualifications for the job/scholarship
with the right language and communication strategy - How to answer interview questions
- How to use body language