Media Design and Technical Writing with Industry 4.0 Towards Developing Entrepreneurial Thinking in EFL Learners: A Pilot Study

Abstract

─ This pilot study on understanding the appropriateness and preliminary validity of an English language course focused on entrepreneurship education in this Japanese technical university is a relatively new phenomenon. This study indicates that new media and various software on business content research and analysis are valuable tools that should be included as part of a hard-soft CLIL (content language integrated learning) course. As part of this study, a group of advanced students in a computer science program in Japan took part in an elective English course focused on business and technical writing and presentation skills. Five major unit assignments in the course focused on media design and business strategic communication skills. Results clearly suggested that students are capable of generating enough meaningful content through research on Industry 4.0 in a way that leads to effective visualization-based information processing, including technical writing skills. Preliminary student self-reports also sounded positive about the skills developed as part of the course, suggesting more practice and iterations could lead to serious, practical and meaningful development of the related skillset.