W-06 Evaluating Lexical Development and Global Competence in International Engineering Students: A Pre-AI Comparative Analysis

Abstract

This study evaluates English-language lexical development among international engineering students and its relationship to global competence within an EMI undergraduate humanities course in Japan. Data were drawn from a 14-week EMI History course at Shibaura Institute of Technology (Fall 2022), with student writing completed before widespread generative AI use. Both tools showed statistically significant gains in average CEFR-J vocabulary scores: from 4.954 to 5.432 with CVLA v2.0, and from 4.818 to 5.272 with CVLA v3.0. Global competence was assessed using the Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity Scale–Short Form (MGUDS-S). While overall correlations between vocabulary gains and global competence were weak or modest, the findings suggest that lexical development and intercultural competence may evolve along separate trajectories and highlight the value of assessing both dimensions independently in EMI program evaluation.