Developing Engineering Communicative Competency through Effective Assessment Methods

A great importance of engineering education over the last decade has been on the development of some very specific non-technical attributes which included communication skills, the ability to function in teams, knowledge of societal and contemporary issues, development of global perspective, and ethics awareness. These non-technical skills complement a strong technical foundation to produce well-rounded engineering graduates who are flexible and adaptable to suit the constantly developing and changing requirements of the workplace. The industry as well as the international and local accreditation bodies have repeatedly highlighted the importance of strong communication skills for engineers entering the workplace [1] – [7]. Industries require a greater number of communication and interpersonal skills for entry-level engineers [8], yet, graduate engineers still lack the required standard of communication skills [9]. Engineering communication competency, especially in the English language is essential for an engineer who aspires to carry out his/her professional practice in the global economy. Similarly, the challenges faced by graduates are to focus on the development of the professional skills in the undergraduate engineering program in order to meet the demands from industries. As such the Malaysian higher education system must produce graduates who can communicate effectively in English. Otherwise, it would lose one of its vital selling points for foreign investors to ensure that the skilled labor forces are sufficient to support internationally competitive commerce and industry and to provide individuals with opportunities to optimize their potentials [10], [11]

Download Full-text

Needs Analysis for Workplace English Speaking Courses for University Engineering Students in the Kwara State of Nigeria

Journal of Critical Studies in Language and Literature ◽

10.46809/jcsll.v1i3.26 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 1 (3) ◽

pp. 25-35

Author(s):

Abdul-Lateef Solihu ◽

Lilisuriani Abdul Latif

Keyword(s):

Communication Skills ◽

English Language ◽

Engineering Students ◽

Needs Analysis ◽

Workplace Communication ◽

English Curriculum ◽

Undergraduate Engineering ◽

World Markets ◽

English Speaking ◽

Speaking Skills

The globalization of world markets which has led to the hegemony of English language over other languages requires graduates from different fields of specialization to equip themselves with English communication skills to communicate effectively in local and international workplace contexts. This study was conducted to investigate the English speaking skills needed by engineering students in the Kwara states of Nigeria. A survey was carried out to compare how the respondents’ (undergraduate engineering students and industry workers in the Kwara State of Nigeria) self-rated their speaking interaction and production skills and to observe their perception of the importance of speaking interaction and production sub skills for workplace communication. The study concluded with suggestions for creating a better perception of the importance of English speaking skills among engineering students and creating a better workplace English curriculum so that students’ workplace speaking skills can be improved.

Download Full-text

What Corporate Executives Are Look-ing For In Entry-Level Accountants For Todays Competitive Marketplace

Review of Business Information Systems (RBIS) ◽

10.19030/rbis.v4i1.5384 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 13-20

Author(s):

Bonita Daly ◽

Beryl Barkman

Keyword(s):

Communication Skills ◽

Global Economy ◽

Educational Process ◽

Management Team ◽

Entry Level ◽

The Past ◽

Corporate Executives

A transition from the role of the traditional accountants of the past to that of financial managers is occurring. The educational process must change to provide an understanding of the needs of business. In addition to looking backward to see what is beyond the numbers, accountants should possess knowledge of what is going on in the global economy and provide forward thinking. They need analytical and communication skills that will enable them to be part of the management team necessary for the company to succeed in the global economy. This survey of approximately 100 accounting executives provides empirical confirmation of such comments.

Download Full-text

A Critical Analysis of the Problems in Communicative English Faced by Learners in Engineering Colleges

JOURNAL OF ADVANCES IN LINGUISTICS ◽

10.24297/jal.v5i3.2861 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 5 (3) ◽

pp. 767-771

Author(s):

Joseph Thomas

Keyword(s):

Communication Skills ◽

Evaluation System ◽

English Language ◽

Point Of View ◽

Language Teachers ◽

Critical Study ◽

Communication Competency ◽

Extra Curricular Activities ◽

Class Room ◽

Teaching Grammar

A critical study is conducted in a premier Engineering college in Tamil Nadu.This Institution enjoys an excellent status in terms of admissions, extra-curricular activities and placement. Meritorious students with high scores in plus two are admitted every year. The institution takes up a series of steps to improve the communication skills of learners. Despite these efforts, many final year students are unfit to be placed due to low proficiency in the basic skills of English language. Hence the study aims at identifying their problems with communication skills, analyzing the causes and suggesting remedies for improvement. Every class room has a heterogeneous group of students from different educational streams such as- CBSE, matriculation and state board. A majority of students have had their schooling in Tamil medium. Further, they hail from different backgrounds, rural, semirural and urban. Technical English is included in the curriculum only in first and second semesters, where concentration is on teaching grammar items. In the fifth semester, every branch of students is given a three hour training per week in the communication lab. The study reveals that the learners indifference and lack of intrinsic motivation is the prime cause for low proficiency. The evaluation system compels the faculty to complete the syllabus from an examination point of view. This is another handicap which prevents the teachers from imparting the required communication competency within the prescribed hours. It is hoped that this study will create awareness among the language teachers to discover more efficient methods to cope up with the learners need.

Download Full-text

Turn Taking Patterns of Average Achievers in an Oral Interaction Test

LSP International Journal ◽

10.11113/lspi.v4n2.57 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

Author(s):

C. Y. Tang ◽

Abdul Halim Abdul Raof

Keyword(s):

Communication Skills ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

English Language ◽

Group Discussion ◽

Communication Competency ◽

Oral Test ◽

Turn Taking ◽

Oral Interaction ◽

Graduating Students ◽

Interaction Test

This study aims to investigate the turn taking patterns of final year undergraduate students who are average achievers in an oral interaction test. The scope of this study focuses on profiling the students’ oral interactive ability in terms of their turn taking patterns in a small group discussion. In order to examine this, the oral test of 14 group discussion tasks in the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Test of English Communication Skills (UTMTECS) for graduating students were video recorded after consent was sought from the students before the recording took place. The recordings were then transcribed for analysis using an adapted version of Allwright (1988) model of turn taking patterns. From the transcribed files, it is observed that the average achievers mostly gave turns through ‘Neither’ turn giving pattern and gained turns through ‘Take’ turn getting pattern. From the findings, the average achievers in UTMTECS oral test are profiled as moderate speakers of English language. Nevertheless, they are still able to interact with other candidates in the group discussion with functional level of communication skills. This study also provides more insights into the setting of a benchmark to evaluate graduating students’ oral English communication competency and preparedness for the workplace.

Download Full-text

Professional Communication Skills in English for Non-native English Speaking Engineers: Challenges and a Proposed Teaching Framework

International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering - 2 ◽

10.35940/ijrte.b1107.0982s1019 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (2S10) ◽

pp. 595-599

Keyword(s):

Communication Skills ◽

English Language ◽

Engineering Students ◽

Mother Tongue ◽

First Language ◽

Oral Communication ◽

Professional Communication ◽

Undergraduate Engineering ◽

Written Form ◽

English Speaking

Communicating effectively in English does not come naturally to undergraduate engineering students in India and presumably everywhere where English is not the first language or the mother tongue. In India, English is used as official language in most of the states. It is also the medium of instruction in most educational institutes. Teaching methods and objectives to be achieved while imparting knowledge of English language mainly focus on ability of students to reproduce the learned facts in written form in the examination. Focus on the oral communication and development of English as a medium to share and express original ideas is not really observed at school or university level. Employers worldwide have acknowledged that the conventional engineering curriculum that is focused on imparting technical knowledge has proved to be inadequate in equipping engineers with the adequate employability skills. The objective of this paper is to present a framework for design, teaching and evaluation of a course on communication skills/professional communication for engineering students. A proposed pedagogical framework has been discussed and illustrated as appendices. Guidelines regarding improving communication skills have been made keeping in mind that rather than emphasizing upon incorporating a course on communication skills in the engineering education, communication should be made an integral part of the curriculum

Download Full-text

Language competence, identity construction and discursive boundary-making: Distancing and alignment in domestic migrant worker narratives

International Journal of the Sociology of Language ◽

10.1515/ijsl-2019-2071 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2020 (262) ◽

pp. 97-122 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Hans J. Ladegaard

Keyword(s):

Identity Construction ◽

Migrant Workers ◽

Global Economy ◽

English Language ◽

Migrant Worker ◽

Theoretical Concept ◽

The Philippines ◽

Language Competence ◽

Boundary Making

AbstractMany people in developing countries are faced with a dilemma. If they stay at home, their children are kept in poverty with no prospects of a better future; if they become migrant workers, they will suffer long-term separation from their families. This article focuses on one of the weakest groups in the global economy: domestic migrant workers. It draws on a corpus of more than 400 narratives recorded at a church shelter in Hong Kong and among migrant worker returnees in rural Indonesia and the Philippines. In sharing sessions, migrant women share their experiences of working for abusive employers, and the article analyses how language is used to include and exclude. The women tell how their employers construct them as “incompetent” and “stupid” because they do not speak Chinese. However, faced by repression and marginalisation, the women use their superior English language skills to get back at their employers and momentarily gain the upper hand. Drawing on ideologies of language as the theoretical concept, the article provides a discourse analysis of selected excerpts focusing on language competence and identity construction.

Download Full-text

Communication and language skills pay off, but not everybody needs them

International Journal of the Sociology of Language ◽

10.1515/ijsl-2020-0021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

Jiří Balcar ◽

Lucie Dokoupilová

Keyword(s):

Labour Market ◽

Communication Skills ◽

Cognitive Skills ◽

English Language ◽

Effective Communication ◽

Standard Deviation Increase ◽

Job Requirements ◽

Wage Returns ◽

And Gender ◽

Basic Level

Abstract The importance of communication skills is increasing on the labour market and a further strengthening of this trend is expected due to Industry 4.0. This development will have significant consequences for individuals’ employability, requirements on educational outcomes and gender equality. This article employs data from a representative survey of Czech employees (N = 1,500) replenished with information on requirements on their communication skills (Effective communication, Czech language and English language) in order to explore (a) the distribution of communication skills requirements on the labour market, (b) personal and job characteristics related to work positions requiring highly developed communication skills, and (c) wage returns to these skills. The results show that one standard deviation increase in job requirements on communication skills is connected with 5.8% wage premium. However, not everybody needs well-developed communication skills. Only a quarter of employees needs highly developed effective communication, Czech and English languages, while there is also a quarter of employees that needs only a very basic level of communication skills. The results also revealed that females perform more communication-intensive occupations than males do. Cognitive skills and the need to excel represent other significant factors correlated with higher job requirements on communication skills.

Download Full-text

Countryís Competitiveness and Sustainability in the Context of the Higher Education System Reforms

Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability ◽

10.2478/jtes-2013-0005 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 73-83 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Elita Jermolajeva ◽

Ludmila Aleksejeva

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Economic Development ◽

Education Reform ◽

Education System ◽

Global Economy ◽

Middle Term ◽

Higher Education System ◽

National Economic ◽

Quantitative Indicators

Abstract The accumulation of knowledge and its use have become important factors that promote economic development as they contribute to a countryís competitiveness in the global economy. The basic significance of research is obtained by defining new approaches in the organisation, function and efficiency of the higher education system (HES) by emphasising its qualitative aspects. The aim of the article is to describe the influence of education reform on economic competitiveness, paying a special attention to analysing and evaluating international experiences from an interdisciplinary perspective, including economics, pedagogy, etc. Quantitative indicators are used to characterise specific features of the HES and the interaction of this system in the overall context of state development. Some aspects of the Latvian HES are also analysed. The economic activity of inhabitants often directly depends on their level of education. In order to reorganise the Latvian HES and increase its competitiveness and efficiency, thus ensuring quality and availability, the Latvian education system must define a middle-term (4ñ5 years) and long-term (10ñ15 years) development plan that is coordinated with national economic development.

Download Full-text

Students’ Perceptions about the Importance of Communication Skills: A Case Study of EFL Learners at Jazan University, Saudi Arabia

International Journal of English Language Education ◽

10.5296/ijele.v4i1.8782 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 63

Author(s):

Muhammad Riaz Khan ◽

Shehla Riaz Khan ◽

Saeed Ahmad

Keyword(s):

Saudi Arabia ◽

Communication Skills ◽

English Language ◽

Personality Development ◽

Oral Communication ◽

First Grade ◽

Social Needs ◽

Survey Method ◽

Sample Population ◽

Speaking Skills

The graduates of Jazan University (Saudi Arabia), like anywhere else in EFL or ESL settings, require effective oral communication skills in English language for a highly competitive and expanding market economy of the country, and the worldwide too. The study was taken to evaluate the students’ perceptions about the need of speaking skills and the urgency to participate in language enhancement activities keeping in view the generally unsatisfactory position of the Saudi students in speaking English language. The sample population for this research was taken from three colleges, i.e. the first grade students from Engineering, Business and Computer Science of this university. A survey method technique was adopted in which data was obtained using a structured questionnaire about students’ responses on multiple items indicating their understanding of the importance of speaking skills, their existing level of oral communication and the need to participate in the extra coaching programs offered by the university. The quantitative data were analyzed by using SPSS 17. The data shows the participants’ understanding of the importance of communication skills for social needs, personality development, attaining and survival in the job market, and their needs for attending extra language training sessions other than their normal routine courses.

Download Full-text