An Analysis of Engineering Students’ English Language Needs (original) (raw)
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An Investigation of English Language Needs of Engineering Undergraduates at Jawzjan University
2015
The purpose of this investigation was to identify the English language needs of the students currently studying at the engineering faculties of Jawzjan University in Afghanistan. A total of 212 undergraduate engineering students from the second and third year classes took part in this investigation. The main tool for data collection was a student questionnaire used to gauge learners’ perceptions on their needs pertaining to the English language. The findings of the study show that the English language proficiency of most of the students is at the average and good level, and most of the students study English for academic purpose and for their future profession. Likewise, the students believe that their English language proficiency has a significant effect on their academic performance in content subjects. Furthermore, the current English language program and classroom resources do not fulfill their needs as they prefer to have a class with lots of activities or more studentcentered. Moreover, a majority of the students were not satisfied with the amount of time allocated for English classes. It is hoped that the findings of this study would be the basis for designing a suitable course that would meet students needs.
Badawy, M (2023). English Language Skills for Engineering Students from the Perspective of the Stakeholders Needs Analysis Study., 2023
The study aimed to identify the English language needs of engineering students from the perspective of stakeholders. The study used quantitative and qualitative methods, including questionnaires and interviews to gather data on the students' English language skills, their perceived needs, and their goals for learning English. The participants of the study were engineering students in the preparatory year (n= 894) at The Higher Institute of Engineering and Technology in Kafrelshiekh and The Higher Institute of Engineering and Technology in El-Mahala, teaching staff (n=17), and engineering employers (n=9). The study found that engineering students need to develop their English language skills to communicate effectively in English, both orally and in writing with equal importance among all the language skills. The study also highlights the need for developing an English course specifically for engineering students to meet their specific needs and help them succeed in their studies and careers. The findings of the study can be used to develop more effective ESP courses and curricula for engineering students, which can help them succeed in their studies and careers.
A Language Needs Analysis of Engineering Undergraduate Students at a Technical University
This study investigated the English language needs of engineering students at a state university in Turkey for their academic achievement in the content area courses offered in English. Data were collected from 104 engineering students, 18 EFL instructors, 9 faculty members (subject teachers), 12 engineers and 4 employers through a 5-point Likert type scale adapted from Canbay (2006) and semi-structured interviews. The results of the study indicated that all basic English skills were very important although faculty members prioritized receptive skills. Based on the findings, this study suggests the need to revise the curriculum of the English Preparatory Program of Bursa Technical University (BTU) to fitthe target needs of the students in the content area courses.
Journal of Curriculum and Teaching
The main purpose of this study was to identify the language skills and the academic tasks that undergraduate engineering students needed to carry out for their study at HU. To achieve the intended objectives, a cross-sectional survey research design with a mixed method was employed. Two sets of questionnaires were administered to systematic random samples of 284 engineering students and 100 engineering instructors and semi-structured interviews were also carried out with a purposively selected 5 engineering students and 5 engineering instructors to corroborate the results. The analysis of data from different sources showed that engineering students needed the receptive skills followed by the productive skills for their engineering study. With regard to the academic tasks in each skill, the most common and highly required tasks in a descending order in each skill were reading: textbooks, lecture notes, reference books, research papers, and manuals; writing: research reports, internsh...
This study investigated the English language needs of engineering students at a state university in Turkey for their academic achievement in the content area courses offered in English. Data were collected from 104 engineering students, 18 EFL instructors, 9 faculty members (subject teachers), 12 engineers and 4 employers through a 5-point Likert type scale adapted from Canbay (2006) and semi-structured interviews. The results of the study indicated that all basic English language skills were very important although faculty members prioritized receptive skills. Based on the findings, this study suggests the need to revise the curriculum of the English Preparatory Program of Bursa Technical University (BTU) to fit the target needs of the students in the content area courses.
investigating the English language needs of engineering students
The purpose of the study was three-folds: to evaluate students' needs, to evaluate the psychometric qualities of the developed questionnaire, and to explore the possibility of writing a textbook based on the insights gained from the study. To evaluate the students' needs, wants, and lacks (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987), a questionnaire was administered to 225 students at Sharif University of Technology when they took their final exams. Students' scores were made use of with respect to one dimension of the questionnaire which dealt with students' self assessment of themselves most of which correlate positively with their final scores. Another purpose of the study was to evaluate the questionnaire itself in terms of its statistical properties. In other words, a construct validation study was conducted. There were distinct parts to this questionnaire. A confirmatory factor analysis using Principal Components Analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation was applied to see if different needs were neatly delineated by the questionnaire (see Hatch and Lazaraton, 1991 for limitations of PCA). Having applied a CFA with PCA using a three-factor solution, it was seen that items loaded on the expected factors with high loadings. In terms of students' needs, here are the findings: Translation was not deemed appropriate. Note taking was not considered important in their future careers. Technical writing was considered to be very important. Unfortunately, the skill has been totally ignored in the English curriculum in the university.
Badawy, M (2023). English Language Skills for Engineering Students from the Perspective of the Stakeholders Needs Analysis Study., 2023
The study aimed to identify the English language needs of engineering students from the perspective of stakeholders. The study used quantitative and qualitative methods, including questionnaires and interviews to gather data on the students' English language skills, their perceived needs, and their goals for learning English. The participants of the study were engineering students in the preparatory year (n= 894) at The Higher Institute of Engineering and Technology in Kafrelshiekh and The Higher Institute of Engineering and Technology in El-Mahala, teaching staff (n=17), and engineering employers (n=9). The study found that engineering students need to develop their English language skills to communicate effectively in English, both orally and in writing with equal importance among all the language skills. The study also highlights the need for developing an English course specifically for engineering students to meet their specific needs and help them succeed in their studies and careers. The findings of the study can be used to develop more effective ESP courses and curricula for engineering students, which can help them succeed in their studies and careers.
A Comparative Analysis of Engineering Students'Problems in Speaking and Writing
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The objective of the study was to investigate the English language problems in terms of speaking and writing skills of engineering students at a technical university in Malaysia based on the perceptions of students and English language lecturers. The study was conducted within the framework of needs analysis as part of the larger curriculum review exercise in the effort to redesign English language courses that meet the needs of the stakeholders. A 15-item questionnaire was formulated and distributed to 612 engineering students and 36 English language lecturers of the technical university. The findings of the survey indicated that there is a difference between students' and lecturers' perceptions of students' problems in speaking and writing. Based on the findings of the study relevant recommendations were made to assist in the decision making process of the curriculum review exercise.
Engineering English: A Critical Evaluation
In the age of globalization, engineering students and practitioners need to enhance their English communication skills and other soft skills in order to cope with increasingly tough competition in the job market. Mere subject knowledge in the chosen field of engineering is not going to be a guarantee for an engineering graduate to get a good job or excel at the workplace. Multinational corporations (MNCs) and major information technology (IT) companies in India recruit engineering candidates who have good English communication skills. In this highly competitive society, proficiency in English is considered one of the employability skills. In other words, English language skills are considere ‘life skills’ or ‘survival skills’ in the twenty-first century. Engineering students need to be able to think critically, solve problems, communicate clearly, be creative and work in a team in order to get placed in a reputed company. As the need for the students of engineering to be trained in a multitude of transferable skills is high (Hatakka, 2005), most private engineering colleges in India hire trainers to train their wards in soft skills including English communication skills and prepare them for on and off campus placement. In many institutes of technology, English language teachers are involved in placement training. As there is an increasing focus on and demand for soft skills, the English for Science and Technology (EST) practitioners in engineering colleges are expected to play the role of communication skills consultants and soft skills trainers. There is a shift from imparting mere linguistic skills to multi-skills in an integrated manner. In this context, the Engineering English course taught during the first year of the four-year engineering programmes in around 300 engineering colleges affiliated to the Anna University in Tamil Nadu, India, is expected to play a vital role in improving students’ communication skills and preparing them to the workplace or making them ‘industry ready’. Though the aim of the course is to enable the students of engineering to learn certain macro- and micro-skills in the English language and use them effectively as students while following other courses and later as engineers/technologists at the work place, most students and professional engineers/technologists who have undergone the course are not proficient enough to communicate effectively in the language. This perceived problem of lack of specific language/communication skills among engineering students and professional engineers and technologists makes the researcher raise a key question whether the English for Engineering course reflects the needs and wants of the learner and whether there are any other factors that affect the successful imparting / learning of the skills required by the target group. It is presumed that there are problems in the teaching of the course at colleges, resulting from inappropriate teaching materials and instructional techniques, lack of English Language Teaching (ELT) – trained professionals and poor teaching methodology. The hypothesis of the study is that if the Engineering English course offered during the first year of the four-year engineering programme at engineering colleges affiliated to the Anna University is redesigned or modified based on the corporate expectations /needs / requirements, delivered (taught) properly by competent English for Science and Technology (EST) practitioners and students’ language skills are assessed effectively during and at the end of the course, then the course will achieve its goal by instilling confidence in the students and preparing them to higher education, campus recruitments and thus to the workplace. In the light of the data for needs assessment collected from different sources, the study identifies the situations that are encountered and the skills which are required by the engineer, as a student and in professional life, evaluates the English course critically and suggests changes to make it effective.
International journal of academic research in progressive education and development, 2022
Need analysis is a crucial part of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) that guides instructors to plan and design an appropriate course for target learners. As there is limited number of research on the needs analysis for engineering students in Malaysia, this study focuses on assessing and determining the ESP among engineering students in public university students in Selangor, Malaysia. The objectives of the study are to analyze the perspective of final year engineering students regarding their English language proficiency, language skills emphasized in their field and the perceived most important English language skill in the workplace. The data of this study were collected from final year chemical engineering students who have attended industrial training. An online survey questionnaire was adapted from Alsamadahi (2017) and was distributed to respondents via Google Form. The data was analyzed using SPSS and utilised descriptive analysis to summarize the findings. Based on the findings, the students perceive writing and reading as the most important skills in their field whereas speaking skills are the least important. The majority of respondents also perceived that they can perform the listening task on their own better compared to the speaking task. Overall, the results of the data analysis provide great significance to the ESP course design. It can be concluded that the study conducted can be improved if more samples can be collected from various universities.