Development and testing of a specialized English language course for heavy industry engineers with a focus on technical documentation and safety

Abstract

The article is devoted to the development and testing of a specialized English language course for heavy industry engineers focused on working with technical documentation and safety issues. The relevance of the research is due to the growing requirements for the accuracy of translation of technical instructions, specifications and regulations, where errors can lead to accidents, equipment failures and disruptions of production processes. The introduction substantiates the need for in-depth language training for engineers working in high-risk industries and analyzes gaps in existing educational programs. The materials and methods section describes the principles of the course formation: a systematic analysis of production documentation (corporate regulations, international standards, technical descriptions of equipment), as well as mixed research methods (quantitative and qualitative analysis of vocabulary, syntax). The experiment included testing of the control group (standard training) and the experimental group (author's course) with assessment of translation skills, oral interpretation of instructions and understanding of safety standards. The results demonstrate a significant advantage of the experimental group: the average score for translation increased by 13 points (78.45 vs. 65.37), for the oral test – by 14 points (82.19 vs. 68.04). Critical security errors decreased from 4.22 to 1.57 per participant. The dynamics of learning confirms the effectiveness of the practice-oriented approach: by the end of the course, the indicators of translation and oral speech increased by 15+ points, and security errors decreased by 4 times. Tables and graphs illustrate the direct dependence of the results on the intensity of practice and the professional orientation of classes. The discussion highlights that the key success factors were: a focus on industry terminology, analysis of authentic security documents, training in contextual vocabulary, and modeling real-world production scenarios. The findings confirm that the course not only improves language competence, but also reduces operational risks, facilitating the integration of specialists into international projects.