Research Article
Testing the Effects of the Digital Linguistic Landscape on
Engineering Education for Smart Construction
Lin Xu,
1
Jingxiao Zhang ,
2
Yin Yuan,
1
Junwei Zheng,
3
Simon P. Philbin,
4
Brian H. W. Guo,
5
and Ruoyu Jin
6
1
School of Foreign Languages, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
2
School of Economics and Management, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710064, China
3
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650500, China
4
School of Engineering, London South Bank University, London SE10AA, UK
5
Department of Civil & Natural Resources Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
6
School of Built Environment and Architecture, South Bank University, London, UK
Correspondence should be addressed to Jingxiao Zhang; zhangjingxiao964@126.com
Received 9 February 2022; Revised 17 March 2022; Accepted 8 April 2022; Published 28 May 2022
Academic Editor: Huihua Chen
Copyright © 2022 Lin Xu et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
is study investigates the mechanism of digital linguistic landscapes in enabling engineering education for smart construction
according to the educational dimensions of A (ability), S (skill), and K (knowledge). A questionnaire survey was conducted based
on the core concepts of the informative dimension and symbolic dimension in digital language landscape as well as the ability
dimension, knowledge dimension, and skill dimension in engineering education. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used as
the test method. e results of the research demonstrate that the informative dimension and symbolic dimension are two main
aspects of DLL in education of engineering students for smart construction. Additionally, DLL has a significant positive impact on
the ability, knowledge, and skill education of engineering students for smart construction. e research has theoretical and
practical significance, as it not only enriches research on the relationship between DLL and engineering education for smart
construction but also expands the theoretical understanding of engineering education from the perspective of linguistics.
Furthermore, the study explores the path of the practical application of digital language landscape to engineering education for
smart construction.
1. Introduction
e construction industry faces a number of pressing
challenges, including improving the level of productivity and
responding to the high level of fragmentation and com-
plexity as well as leveraging the emerging opportunities by
digital transformation [1, 2]. Indeed, the construction in-
dustry has already started to adopt digital technologies to
improve the operational performance of industrial activities,
including virtual reality, Internet of ings, and machine
learning [3]. Moreover, the requirement for smart buildings
is rapidly becoming an inherent constituent of policies as-
sociated with the design and development of buildings for
the future [4]. erefore, smart construction has been
proposed as a new concept for the construction industry to
adopt in order that the sector can fully capitalize on the
opportunities afforded by digital transformation. Smart
construction systems have huge potential to improve the
efficiency of construction industry [5]. Specifically, they
empower the engineering production system and promote
the interconnection of engineering construction processes,
including online and offline integration, resource, and ele-
ment collaboration [6, 7]. In this context, the 21st century
engineers and architects must be able to deal with the rapid
pace of technological change and successfully navigate the
highly interconnected world of industry [8]. Facing such
profound changes in the construction industry triggered by
digital technologies in the new era, there is an increasing
Hindawi
Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience
Volume 2022, Article ID 4077516, 18 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/4077516