Exploring the Engineering Communicative Challenges amongst Undergraduates

Yusoff, Mariana; Samah, Siti Akmar Abu

doi:10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n4p59

Cited by 5 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 7 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Although the findings of different studies about the dissemination processes related to the policy are contradictory, the key issue observed in both Yusoff and Samah (2013) and Ali's (2013b) study was that whether it is through a top-down or bottom-up approach, the implementation of EMI policy is problematic. The factor that could lead to the success of implementing a policy depends on the willingness of an individual to do so.…”

Section: English As the Medium Of Instructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These issues are engineering students' limited communicative abilities due to their limited proficiency in English (Che Musa, Lie, & Azman, 2012b;Yusoff & Samah, 2013), engineering educators' understandings of EMI, and the manner in which EMI policy was disseminated (Ali, 2013a;2013b). In a study to examine the learning of content in English in higher education it was found that the students had difficulties in understanding the content when lectures were conducted in English (Che Musa et al, 2012b).…”

Section: English As the Medium Of Instructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another issue related to students' difficulties in communication in English in engineering contexts emerged from a study which investigated the implementation of EMI at one public university in Malaysia (Yusoff & Samah, 2013). The 48 participants were interviewed individually and in groups.…”

Section: English As the Medium Of Instructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There was limited evidence that showed the accounting lecturers addressed language development or language proficiency levels. While the intention of the EMI policy is to promote language through content learning, the findings of both studies above (Basturkmen & Shackleford, 2015;Yusoff & Abu-Samah, 2013) indicate that addressing language issues in a subject-matter classroom such as engineering is problematic.…”

Section: English As the Medium Of Instructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mohammad et al (2012) who investigated the implementation of teaching approaches to address an outcome-based education system argued that developing clear documentation of a policy or a requirement was challenging and could still lead to ambiguity in interpreting this policy or requirement. Yusoff and Samah (2013) advocated that top-down instruction could ensure successful implementation of a policy in the Malaysian context. The findings in this study also extend Mohammad et al's (2012) study by providing new information about the kinds of filters that can contribute to ambiguity in interpreting a policy or a requirement.…”

Section: Diffusing the Demand For Espmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Managing the complexities of English language teaching in engineering

Mohamed¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this 21 st century, engineering employers seek professional engineers who have excellent scientific knowledge and are able to demonstrate good communication and problem solving skills.With this focus on job demands, engineering education has been restructured, balancing the emphasis between scientific knowledge and soft skills. This shift in focus has not only affected the teaching and learning in engineering education, but also English Language (EL) educators who are involved in teaching non-technical components within an engineering education curriculum.This shift in focus has raised the demand for ESP which include teaching communication skills in English language discourse used in engineering, and teaching problem solving skills in English language teaching. With this demand, challenges are inevitable among EL educators who are generally prepared for teaching English for generic purposes in school settings and who bring with them pedagogical knowledge and beliefs in English language teaching, as well as identities they have developed from their previous to their new workplace. This shift also raises questions about the ways in which English language teaching is positioned, the role of English language courses within an engineering-specific context and the implications of this positioning on the design of the English language courses.The main aim of this study was to investigate how EL educators managed the complexities in teaching English at one technical university in Malaysia. In addressing the research questions, a case study design was developed to highlight the complexities within that context and the ways in which EL educators managed these complexities. The data for this study were collected through qualitative and quantitative methods to unpack the complex process of teaching English for engineering which included teaching problem solving and communication skills. These methods obtained insights into the ways in which EL educators conceptualised English language teaching, positioned themselves and framed their teaching in an engineering context. The quantitative data were collected through a questionnaire involving 12 EL educators. The data from the questionnaire were used to profile the EL educators at the English Language Department of this university. Based on the profiling, four EL educators teaching undergraduate engineering students were selected for the main study. The qualitative data were collected through document study, individual semistructured interviews, classroom observations, video recording of classroom observations and stimulated recall protocols.This study found that there were disconnections between English language teaching and the engineering discipline at this university. These disconnections were due to the dissemination process of the engineering accreditation requirements whereby these requirements went through ii multiple layers of interpretation, adaptation and translation before they reached the EL educators, causing ambiguities in positioning English language ...

show abstract

Section: English As the Medium Of Instructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: English As the Medium Of Instructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: English As the Medium Of Instructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: English As the Medium Of Instructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Diffusing the Demand For Espmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Managing the complexities of English language teaching in engineering

Mohamed¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Preliminary Investigation of ESL Student Writing in Engineering

Deli

2018

International Journal of Asian Social Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Given the importance of writing skills for communicating messages in the field of engineering, and the seemingly perpetual conflict between novice engineers" poor ability to write and the quality expected by employers, it is worthwhile to investigate student engineers" writing ability or experiences prior to their employment. This study thus aims to investigate English as a Second Language (ESL) students" writing in engineering studies. The objectives of the study are to (1) identify the genres of writing by ESL undergraduates in engineering studies, and (2) analyse students" laboratory reports for "moves" typically identified in the genre. Students" written scripts were collected from various engineering courses within the mechanical, electrical, and electronic engineering programmes of a Malaysian public university, and identified by genre based on their structure and content. The preliminary finding suggests that the majority of the writings are laboratory and technical reports. Based on a "move" analysis outlined for student laboratory reports in science and engineering (Parkinson, 2017) a total of 14 laboratory reports was analysed and 5 macro-sections were identified namely introduction, method, result, discussion, and conclusion. This differs from the 6 macrosections found for engineering in Parkinson ( 2017) study. Although the number of moves identified was essentially similar, some steps were unavailable in the laboratory reports within these macro-sections. It is believed that findings from this genre-based study can have pedagogical importance in that it may help to enhance the writings of ESL students in engineering studies to reach a standard that may be more aligned to the accepted norms of laboratory report writing. Contribution/ Originality:This study contributes in the existing literature by detailing common "moves" found in ESL student writing of laboratory reports in the engineering field. Most analyses of moves for similar written genres in the engineering discipline have focused on the writings of native speakers of English.

show abstract

A Corpus-Based Analysis of Lexical Verbs in L2 Professional Engineering Writing

Deli

Chuah

Razali

2019

International Journal of Asian Social Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study focuses on the use of English lexical verbs in the writings of Malaysian professional engineers. The research objectives were to: (1) identify frequently used lexical verbs in written engineering texts, (2) determine whether these frequent verbs are highly relevant for engineering, and (3) whether the verbs are technical or nontechnical in nature. A total of 20 written texts consisting of official reports, ‗pass down' instructions and memos from the fields of electrical, electrical and mechanical engineering were collected. The texts were contributed by non-native English speaking Malaysian engineers from various Malaysian-based companies. The annotated data was analysed using the AntConc 3.5.7 software. All verb forms were found to be used in texts namely the base, the infinitive, the past tense, the third person singular simple present tense, the present continuous and the past participle forms. The corpus contained the highest number of lexical verbs in the base form compared to the singular simple present form which had the lowest occurrence. A further analysis showed that the base form was used in the imperative to relay task instructions to peers or subordinates, while the singular present form may correlate with the infrequent usage of the active form in engineering texts. Of all 30 frequent verbs in the top 5 for each verb form, only eleven can be considered as highly relevant for engineering despite their non-technical nature. The results further suggest that overlaps exist between commonly used non-technical verbs in academic and professional engineering writing. Contribution/ Originality:This study is one of the very few studies that have investigated L2 professional engineering writing with a focus on lexical verbs using the corpus methodology.

show abstract

Exploring the Engineering Communicative Challenges amongst Undergraduates

Abstract: Much has been said in the Malaysian

Cited by 5 publications

References 7 publications

Managing the complexities of English language teaching in engineering

Managing the complexities of English language teaching in engineering

Preliminary Investigation of ESL Student Writing in Engineering

A Corpus-Based Analysis of Lexical Verbs in L2 Professional Engineering Writing

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About