Communication Needs of Science Graduate Students

Abstract

Graduate programmes in most universities are typically oriented towards training students to master their disciplinary studies and communication skills courses are often offered as add-on courses that rarely take into consideration students’ needs. The needs of graduate students can vary depending on their educational backgrounds and English language proficiency and as such, it is important to conduct a needs analysis to ensure that these courses cater to the needs of both proficient and less-proficient speakers of English. Using focus-group interviews, this study was conducted to examine the communication needs of local and international graduate students at a university in Singapore. More specifically, the objectives were to investigate the communication tasks prioritized by science graduate students, their communication needs and difficulties, as well as the help they would need through communication skills courses at the university. The findings suggest that the needs of the students vary depending on their proficiency in English. Those with higher proficiency aspire to master a repertoire of academic genres and higher-order language skills whereas those with lower proficiency require more help with lower-order language skills as well as more peer and professor support.

Identificación de barreras/competencias lingüísticas en comunicación científica de investigadores universitarios

“…Esto es esencial, para evitar el surgimiento BL ocasionadas por falta de preparación y puedan continuar como limitantes en el desempeño profesional del investigador, de las instituciones y de las disciplinas científicas (Lederman y Katsman, 2015). Existe una serie de elementos que el investigador debe tomar en cuenta al momento de escribir un documento científico, para que de esta manera su trabajo sea claro, breve, profesional y presente sus hallazgos de una forma adecuada, logrando hacer la escritura lógica e interesante, coherente y con ciertas características lingüísticas adecuadas a la escritura científica (Englander, 2015;Kathpalia et al, 2020). https://doi.org/10.54167/rei.v1i1.1183…”

“…Las CL se convierten en formas de interacción en diversos contextos sociales y culturales, por lo que es importante conocer e identificar las características propias de cada lengua en la cual se habla o se escribe (Kathpalia et al, 2020). Tales CL, que son requeridas de manera regular, demandan la aplicación gramatical, pragmática y sociolingüística, que al no poseerlas se convierten en automático en BL, provenientes regularmente de la educación previa recibida y sus limitaciones, la falta de oportunidades de desarrollar tales habilidades durante la carrera profesional y la falta de posibilidades de recibir preparación específica en la elaboración de documentos científicos (Cheng-Chung et al, 2022).…”

“…Las conductas observadas pueden tener diversos tipos de influencias, provenientes de aspectos individuales o de normas y formatos de las instituciones y de los grupos sociales (Badia y Gómez, 2014). Las condiciones del contexto suelen denominarse como conocimiento condicional o conocimiento estratégico, en donde el sujeto reconoce el conocimiento a sí mismo y el conocimiento a otros participantes de las circunstancias que influyen en su actividad científicas (Monereo et al, 2009), en donde se consideran actitudes de acomodación del sujeto para referirse a la influencia limitadora de su actividad científica que puedan ejercer dichas condiciones del contexto (Kathpalia et al, 2020;Lewenstein et al, 2022).…”

Revising English Language Course Curriculum Among Graduate Students: An EAP Needs Analysis Study

“…A large number of EAP needs analysis studies have been conducted to examine the needs of undergraduate students (e.g., Abdullah, 2021; Akyel & Ozek, 2010; Bosuwon & Woodrow, 2009; Chen, 2021; Eslami, 2010; Gholaminejad, 2021; Huang, 2018; Kaewpet, 2009). With more and more international students going aboard to pursue graduate studies, EAP needs analysis has been conducted among graduate students in different contexts (e.g., Atai & Hejazi, 2019; Hekmati et al, 2021; Huang, 2010; Kathpalia et al, 2020; Kim, 2006; Son & Park, 2014). Previous research has shown that learners might have different needs for EAP courses based on their learning contexts.…”

Business communication with a graduate as a pedagogical tool in the process of training software users

“…The initiator of such actions can be either the graduate himself or the graduate's employer [8]. The initiator can also be an educational organization [9]. This is possible if the educational organization knows that the graduate has not actually achieved the required educational result [10,11].…”