scholarly journals Fulfilling the Demand for Workplace Communication Skills in the Civil Engineering Industry

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Masadliahani Masduki ◽  
Normah Zakaria
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Communication ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
Engineering Industry ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
Communication Needs ◽  
Academic Qualifications

Human resources today must be nurtured with the skills needed at the workplace in preparation for future challenges. Many engineering graduates nowadays are facing difficulties in adapting themselves to the workplace. They are highly dependent on academic qualifications and underestimate the need for skilled workers who are not only technically proficient but have high competencies of soft skills, especially communication skills. The ability of graduates to communicate effectively can have a significant impact on their career development. Therefore, technical graduates need to equip themselves with knowledge of their future workplace’s communication needs. The objective of this study is to qualitatively explore the elements of communication skills demanded at the civil engineering workplace. Five participants consisting of experts from academia and industries were involved in semi-structured interviews. Data were hand-transcribed and analysed. Four themes emerged from the data and identified as oral communication, written communication, interpersonal communication, and visual communication. Thirty-four sub-themes appeared from the analysis and have been discussed accordingly.

scholarly journals Qualitative Assessment of the Learning Outcomes of an International Service Learning Project in Civil Engineering

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann E. Jeffers ◽  
Paul A. Beata ◽  
Beverly Strassmann
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Interpersonal Communication ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Qualitative Assessment ◽  
Global Competency ◽  
International Service Learning ◽  
International Service

A qualitative study was performed to determine the learning outcomes of an international service learning project in civil engineering. The university program involves the student-led design and construction of suspended pedestrian bridges in rural Bolivia. Five students traveled to Bolivia for a period of four weeks to oversee the construction of a bridge. The students were asked to keep reflective journals that were guided by a series of writing prompts. We analyzed the qualitative data within a phenomenological framework, which allowed common themes to be identified from the data. The measured learning outcomes include technical competency, adaptability, creativity, global competency, cross-cultural communication skills, and teamwork and interpersonal communication skills. The data are examined in relation to relevant literature and supporting quotes from the students’ journals are provided. Our findings support the ideas that international service learning experiences in engineering strengthen global competency and communication, improve mastery of technical skills, and instill an understanding of the social context of engineering work. Additionally, complications that arose in the field taught the students adaptability, which is defined here as the ability to modify an engineering design to meet the constraints imposed in the field. As a result of our analysis, we propose reflection questions that allow the assessment of technical and non-technical learning outcomes. 

scholarly journals Students’ Views of Classroom Debates as a Strategy to Enhance Critical Thinking and Oral Communication Skills

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-145
Author(s):  
Asih Nurakhir ◽  
Fiqih Nindya Palupi ◽  
Cornelia Langeveld ◽  
Devi Nurmalia
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Nursing Education ◽  
Nursing Students ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Learning Strategy ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
Willingness To Participate ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Qualitative Research Design ◽  
The Face

Background: The skills in effective communication and critical thinking are essential for nurses to apply appropriate judgments in the delivery of patient care. Classroom debates are evident to be an effective strategy that can be used to improve such skills. Unfortunately, research focusing on classroom debates to promote critical thinking and oral communication skills among nursing students has not been extensively explored.   Purpose: This study aimed to explore nursing students’ views of classroom debates as a learning strategy to enhance critical thinking and oral communication skills.Methods: A descriptive qualitative research design was employed in this study. Twelve students of the undergraduate program in nursing with classroom debate experiences and willingness to participate were purposively recruited for semi-structured interviews. Open-ended questions were used, and probing questions were also generated from the participants to get more detailed information. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using the inductive content analysis. Results: The results of the study identified five themes, including the acquisition of new knowledge, awareness and responsiveness to diverse viewpoints and arguments, learning structuring ideas and appropriate ways of presentation, development of other necessary skills, and challenges of classroom debates in nursing education.  Conclusion: Classroom debates promoted the development of critical thinking and oral communication skills, and offered students an opportunity to develop other necessary skills in the face of today’s complex healthcare. Classroom debates can be integrated into the curriculum and teaching practices of any nursing educational institutions.  

scholarly journals Using a genre-based approach to promote oral communication in the colombian english classroom

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose David Herazo Rivera
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Interpersonal Communication ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
Promising Alternative ◽  
Making Meaning ◽  
Successful Communication ◽  
English Classroom

The genre-based approach (GBA) has been used in different curriculum areas to develop learners’ meaning-making potential. Using thetext as the main unit of communication and pedagogy, this approach conceives of language learning and use as a social, textual, and goalorientedprocess. Thus, it constitutes a promising alternative to the practice –not uncommon in Colombian classrooms– of teaching EFL oralcommunication through memorized dialogues with no realistic purpose. Based on a revision of recent literature and research, I argue that theGBA may foster students’ oral interpersonal communication skills because it 1) involves them in meaning-oriented, text-based, and realisticpractice, 2) assumes an explicit pedagogy that discloses the lexical and grammatical resources needed for successful communication, and3) facilitates learners’ increasing control of oral communication thanks to their appropriation of the necessary metalanguage to talk about theprocess of making meaning in English. I also maintain that this approach gives teachers linguistically-principled tools for planning instructionand assessing learning. Finally, I discuss various curriculum and syllabus implications resulting from the adoption of the GBA for EFL instructionand suggest specific objectives and activities with a sample lesson based on Colombian standards.

scholarly journals Industrial trainees learning experiences of English related tasks at the workplace

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-42
Author(s):  
Amreet Kaur Jageer Singh ◽  
Raja Nor Safinas Raja Harun
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Communication ◽  
English Language ◽  
Public University ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Industrial Training ◽  
Communication Needs ◽  
Oral Presentations ◽  
English Students ◽  
Deal Making ◽  
Experienced Difficulty

This study aims to examine (a) the needs and usage of English language by Industrial Trainees at their workplace, (b) the challenges they faced, and (c) the relevance of Diploma in English courses in a public university in Malaysia to their language and communication needs at the workplace. The sample consists of 55 final year Diploma in English students who had just completed their three months of industrial training at various organisations. The data was collected by means of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study indicated that English was widely used in the organisations and all the four language skills were required in conducting various tasks at the workplace. However, most of the trainees experienced difficulty in making online ticketing and online hotel reservations, holding briefings, attending to clients’ concerns and complaints, negotiating with clients to make a deal, making oral presentations, contacting with other firms, preparing the filing system, preparing flyers/brochures/posters/advertisements and preparing accounts. It is thus suggested that the essential courses especially concerning public speaking and interpersonal communication skills to be taught before the students underwent their internship. The findings of the study have some pedagogical implications. Higher education institutions that offer similar courses can make use of these findings in revising the program in line with current demands of education and the workforce. Besides, the lecturers can also rethink the way how specific courses should be taught to meet the students’ needs and allow them to explore meaningful learning through experiential learning.

Addressing the Content Vocabulary With Core: Theory and Practice for Nonliterate or Emerging Literate Students

2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 74-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debbie Witkowski ◽  
Bruce Baker
Keyword(s):  
Communication Skills ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Written Communication ◽  
Academic Tasks ◽  
Meaningful Participation ◽  
Core Theory ◽  
Communication Needs ◽  
Core Vocabulary ◽  
Personal Success

Abstract In the early elementary grades, the primary emphasis is on developing skills crucial to future academic and personal success—specifically oral and written communication skills. These skills are vital to student success as well as to meaningful participation in the classroom and interaction with peers. Children with complex communication needs (CCN) may require the use of high-performance speech generating devices (SGDs). The challenges for these students are further complicated by the task of learning language at a time when they are expected to apply their linguistic skills to academic tasks. However, by focusing on core vocabulary as a primary vehicle for instruction, educators can equip students who use SGDs to develop language skills and be competitive in the classroom. In this article, we will define core vocabulary and provide theoretical and practical insights into integrating it into the classroom routine for developing oral and written communication skills.

“We Speak the Truth!”

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-80
Author(s):  
Sari Hanafi
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Social Science ◽  
The Political ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
The Social ◽  
Academic Qualifications

This study investigates the preachers and their Friday sermons in Lebanon, raising the following questions: What are the profiles of preachers in Lebanon and their academic qualifications? What are the topics evoked in their sermons? In instances where they diagnosis and analyze the political and the social, what kind of arguments are used to persuade their audiences? What kind of contact do they have with the social sciences? It draws on forty-two semi-structured interviews with preachers and content analysis of 210 preachers’ Friday sermons, all conducted between 2012 and 2015 among Sunni and Shia mosques. Drawing from Max Weber’s typology, the analysis of Friday sermons shows that most of the preachers represent both the saint and the traditional, but rarely the scholar. While they are dealing extensively with political and social phenomena, rarely do they have knowledge of social science

‘Are we on the same wavelength?’ International nurses and the process of confronting and adjusting to clinical communication in Australia

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tonia Crawford ◽  
Peter Roger ◽  
Sally Candlin
Keyword(s):  
Communication Skills ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Care Setting ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
The Other ◽  
Culturally And Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Clinical Communication ◽  
Professional Experiences

Effective communication skills are important in the health care setting in order to develop rapport and trust with patients, provide reassurance, assess patients effectively and provide education in a way that patients easily understand (Candlin and Candlin, 2003). However with many nurses from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds being recruited to fill the workforce shortfall in Australia, communication across cultures with the potential for miscommunication and ensuing risks to patient safety has gained increasing focus in recent years (Shakya and Horsefall, 2000; Chiang and Crickmore, 2009). This paper reports on the first phase of a study that examines intercultural nurse patient communication from the perspective of four Registered Nurses from CALD backgrounds working in Australia. Five interrelating themes that were derived from thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews are discussed. The central theme of ‘adjustment’ was identified as fundamental to the experiences of the RNs and this theme interrelated with each of the other themes that emerged: professional experiences with communication, ways of showing respect, displaying empathy, and vulnerability.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document