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Case Study: Voxy "English for Software Engineering" – The Conception and Creation of an E-Learning English-Language Course Tailored to Learners’ Real-World Needs
Abstract
This case study provides an overview of Voxy’s language-learning platform and the needs analysis conducted to determine the content required for its “English for Software Engineering” course, which received a 2018 International E-Learning Award in the Business Division. This study documents Voxy’s methodology and theoretical underpinnings. Further, the report outlines the rationale behind using authentic, real-world content, how the company identified the English skills that software engineers require to do their jobs, and how a team of working software engineers provided both guidelines and raw materials to help develop the course content.
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This article reviews some of the wide-ranging issues and research surrounding authentic materials and authenticity in foreign language learning. After a brief historical overview and a discussion of some of the definitional ambiguities associated with authenticity, the paper goes on to discuss four important areas of concern: i) the gap between authentic and textbook discourse; ii) the English-as-a-world-language debate; iii) authenticity and motivation; iv) text difficulty and task design and their effects on language acquisition. The article concludes by examining some of the reasons behind resistance to change in curriculum and materials design and possible future directions.
Rational choices among the numerous technological options available for foreign language teaching need to be based, in part, on psycholinguistic considerations. Which technological advances help create an optimal psycholinguistic environment for language learning, and which may be innovative but relatively unhelpful? One potential source of guidance is offered by the ten methodological principles of Task-Based Language Teaching（Long, 1985, and elsewhere）, each realizable by a variety of pedagogic procedures. Interest in TBLT derives from several sources, including its responsiveness to learners’ precisely specified communicative needs, the potential it offers for developing functional language proficiency without sacrificing grammatical accuracy, and its attempt to harmonize the way languages are taught with what SLA research has revealed about how they are learned. TBLT’s ten methodological principles are briefly defined and motivated, and illustrations provided of how the principles can inform choices among technological options in the particular case of distance education for the less commonly taught languages. Forum of internatnional development studies. 23, 2003, p. 35-73
Online language learning in the workplace: Maximizing efficiency, effectiveness, and time-on-task
- K Nielson
Nielson, K. (2013). Online language learning in the workplace:
Maximizing efficiency, effectiveness, and time-on-task.
Proceedings from the International Conference of E-Learning in
the Workplace. June 12th -14 th, New York, NY.
PhD, is an applied linguist specializing in instructed second language acquisition and Chief Education Officer at Voxy. The company is based
- Iela Award Winner Voxy English For Software Engineering Author Katharine
- B Nielson
IELA AWARD WINNER
VOXY ENGLISH FOR SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
AUTHOR
Katharine B. Nielson, PhD, is an applied linguist
specializing in instructed second language acquisition and
Chief Education Officer at Voxy. The company is based
in New York, New York. (katie@voxy.com)