Implementation of a bilingual curriculum Engineering degree in the Spanish AirForces

Zusammenfassung

As a requirement of the Spanish Ministry of Defence and Spanish Air Forces,Lieutenants graduating as Engineers in Industrial Organization and finishing themilitary training should be able to use English in all situations of their workingenvironment. These include commanding, working in international operations andimplementing new tasks according to different job assignments. We have tackled thechallenge in third year in the 6 ECTS course Security and Defence Technologies. Itcomprises basic training in defence against non-conventional weapons (Nuclear,Biological, Chemical and Radiological), electronic warfare and counterelectronicwarfare in combat aircrafts. Lectures are delivered mainly in English, whilepresentations are written in Spanish and English except for terminology that isNATO. Learning material is roughly 60% Spanish 40% English. Students present ashort seminar in English on a chosen subject, comprising 20% of the final grading. Inspite of the initial reluctance the oral presentations are excellent and showsignificantly higher grading than the multiple choice theory test performed in Spanish.We discuss our findings and the general overview of our teaching strategy