European context and the need to teach English terminology to architects and engineers.

What is it about?

The importance of English for European architects and engineers is increasing every year with globalization. We explain the training requirements related to their professional profiles, and to Architecture and Building Construction Terminology and Terminography as a subject area. We discuss the complexity of terminology in this field because of the specialized knowledge and interdisciplinarity involved. The added difficulty of identifying terminological units in architecture and construction at several levels of language — specialized and general — is also addressed. We explain the collaboration between UPM University in Madrid (Spain) and Macquarie University in Sydney (Australia) on the TermFinder Project, to fill the lack of satisfactory English-Spanish bilingualized dictionaries in the domain of Architecture and Building Construction. As this research project between UPM and Macquarie University was an educational tool, it stimulated new ways of teaching and learning in the UPM MATerminology course (2008–2009) as explained in the conclusions.

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Why is it important?

Many years after, the 2018 UPM-MOOC Course "Basic English Terminology for Building and Civil Engineering Construction" with 1274 students in its First Session points to the need to update training requirements related to those professional profiles and to develop new research projects as the TermFinder Project, explained in this article.

Perspectives