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ABSTRACT
The prevailing civil engineering graduates’ technical writing and oral presentation-related drawbacks have necessitated the design and implementation of demand-driven courses applying interdisciplinary pedagogy. This study investigates civil engineering academia-industry interdisciplinary contents, methods, and situations needed to design technical communication course. The analysis which engaged students, instructors, and professionals from industries employed sequential mixed methods design which grounds the quantitative analysis with exploratory detailed interviews. This revealed that classroom, internship, and industry contexts are essential foundations of interaction for stakeholders. Oral presentation, writing, reading, and evaluating technical documents infused with engineering design processes of initiating, designing, managing, and evaluating civil engineering projects were the contents selected from the needs analyses. Basic skills, rhetoric analysis, ethical and critical issues, and teamwork were the precedence pedagogical frames preferred to establish the methods of technical communication instruction. These interdisciplinary needs analyses imply how technical communication-related courses should be designed to enhance students’ multiple competencies better than solely addressing instrumentally codified skills that deny the author and the discourse community.
Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge Debre Markos University for the financial support.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
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Notes on contributors
Wondifraw Mihret Dessie
Wondifraw Mihret Dessie is an experienced educator and researcher who has been working as an Assistant Professor of language education in Debre Markos University, Ethiopia. He has offered professional development trainings on critical thinking, creativity and innovation to EFL teachers and published different articles in these areas. In the meantime, he is working his PhD research project on interdisciplinary technical communication for civil engineering.
Haile Kassahun Bewuket
Haile Kassahun Bewuket has PhD in TEFL. He is working as an associate professor of TEFL in Debre Markos University, Ethiopia. He has long years of experience in language teaching and conducting researchers.
Mekonnen Esubalew Tariku
Mekonnen Esubalew Tariku has PhD in TEFL who has been working as an assistant professor of TEFL in Debre Markos University, Ethiopia. He has many years of teaching and research experience in the area of English language education.