Project LAPROCOM: reforming language curriculum and methods in technical HE contexts

The Project "New Language Curriculum for Professional Communication" (LAPROCOM), 2007-10, was funded by the last selection round of the EU Tempus III Programme, to be a targeted intervention into the provision and methodologies of language teaching at a technical University in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. The field of language teaching at Russian technical institutions was identified as a priority for the Russian Federation in the later TEMPUS III selection rounds, and so this offered a unique opportunity for a team of teachers to introduce methods associated with ESP training into their approaches, through the design of new courses and pedagogical materials. Three teaching teams, covering slightly different areas, created a set of new General and more specialised English language curricula, and then elaborated them with the development of new learning materials. In the process different ideas about the organisation of language training programmes have been introduced to the practice of the teaching and materials writing teams. This paper presents as a case study the organisation, work and results of this Project.