The Essential Role of Language Mastering in Science and Technology Education

Education is based on mutual communication between the teacher and the learner. Any other process leading to acquisition of knowledge is based on communication between a certain source (a person, a book, other types of sources) and the person who aims at acquiring knowledge. The quality of the communication determines the quality and efficiency of the learning process and the quality, depth and completeness of the acquisition of knowledge - where by acquisition of knowledge is meant not a passive ability to reproduce memorized materials, but the sort of internalization that makes the learner capable of developing independent ways of reflecting and thinking on the material concerned. Language is the fundamental tool for communication, and has a fundamental role also in the development of abilities in other communication tools like visualization or the use of symbols. Language is also the fundamental tool for the development of thought and is, therefore, essential for all the inquiry aspects in the sciences and in the trains of thoughts leading from information to interpretation and ultimately to theory. The article: underlines and documents the importance of language mastering for students pursuing science or engineering careers; suggests that the development of language-mastering abilities, up to the sophistication levels needed for the generation and communication of scientific information, needs to become a relevant component of science and technology education; and discusses some possible implementation pathways.