English for Engineering and Technology

As part of my PhD research on 'A Critical Evaluation of English for Engineering and Technology', I've been analyzing various job positions related to engineering and technology to identify what skills engineers need to have to carry out their responsibilities at workplace successfully.  The aim of the research is to develop strategies to incorporate such skills in the 'Engineering English' course taught as a compulsory course during the first year of the four-year undergraduate engineering programme (BE / B Tech) in engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu, India.  About 250 engineering colleges are affiliated to the Anna University.

The role of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) professionals in engineering colleges is not only to impart linguistic skills in engineering students but also many soft skills.   As the range of employment for engineers and technologists expand in the twenty-first century, there is a need to teach multiple skills to engineering students.   As engineering students are required to communicate effectively in different situations, think creatively and critically, demonstrate good interpersonal and team skills, and have a set of soft skills demanded by recruiters, the Engineering English course should be modified based on the needs of students and expectations of recruiters.   Such changes in the syllabus will set higher demands on the ESP practitioner.  They will be expected to play a more professional role.  They can no longer be mere teachers of Technical English; they will be expected to play the role of soft skills trainers and communication skills consultants. 

A careful analysis of more than 100 job advertisements (posted on the Internet and appeared in different newspapers in India and abroad) aimed at engineering and technology graduates showed that engineers and technologists need to possess both technical as well as non-technical skills in order to climb up the ladder of success in their career.  The non-technical or soft skills desired in them are: communication skills, problem-solving skills, negotiation skills, critical thinking skills, interpersonal skills, team work skills, etc.  These skills can be very well called ‘survival skills’.  As defined in Career Opportunities News, October 2002, Volume 20, Number 2, Ferguson Publishing Company,

"a soft skill refers to the cluster of personality traits, social graces, facility with language, personal habits, friendliness, and optimism that mark each of us to varying degrees.  Persons who rank high in this cluster, with good soft skills, are generally the people that most employers want to hire.  Soft skills complement hard skills, which are the technical requirements of a job.” 

Employers who use psychometric tests during the recruitment process include a verbal reasoning test because most careers require the ability to understand, analyse and interpret written information, often of a complex or specialised nature.  It is appropriate that EST practitioners incorporate  verbal reasoning exercises into the Engineering English course.

The Government of Canada, along with other national and international agencies, have identified and validated nine essential skills that are used in nearly every occupation regardless of job description.  The skills are:  reading, numeracy, writing, speaking, computer skills, teamwork, continuous learning, document use and thinking. (http://www.todaysengineer.org/2007/Jan-Feb/worldbytes.asp ).  Given below are some basic skills that engineers need: 

Critical reading: Reading effectively for content and evaluating information are extremely important.

Technical writing:  Writing status reports, discussion papers and project proposals are but a few of the documents that engineers / technologists should know how to write effectively.

Effective speaking: Learning how to articulate your ideas effectively, how to make an effective presentation, how to speak convincingly to others, how to take part in group discussions and how to ask the right questions are some of the most important speaking skills.

ICT skills: Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plays an important role in any industry or company.  Engineers / technologists should know how to use the technology to disseminate and retrieve information.   

Teamwork: Today's workplace is increasingly diverse, so engineers need to learn how to work with others whose generation, culture, and primary language may be different from your own.

Thinking: Creative thinking, decision making, planning and organizing are all important in today's knowledge-based economy. Some of these thinking skills include: problem-solving, decision-making, critical thinking, and job-task planning and organizing.

According to a recent report by AC Nielsen Research Services for the Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DETYA) on "Employer Satisfaction with Graduate Skills", new university graduates lack creativity and flair, oral communication skills and problem solving ability--qualities which employers say are important.  The report also mentions that employers found that engineering graduates in particular were "poor in many skills, particularly at problem solving and oral business communications and also "particularly poor at critical and independent thinking".”   (http://homepage.mac.com/herinst/sbeder/columns/probe3.html cited in Sharon Beder, 'Valuable skills learned from "basket-weaving"', Engineers Australia, March 2000, p. 46.)

According to a survey I carried out among recruiters, EST practitioners, engineering professionals, and engineering students, 73 percent of the respondents said that most engineering students lacked skills such as creativity, communication, problem soliving and independent thinking and they felt that it was very important to foster the skills listed above in future engineers in order to prepare them to face the challenges ahead in the age of globalization.

I'd like to know whether any ESP practitioner has been doing research on the topic. If anyone has developed English for Science and Technology materials, I'd like to have a look at the materials.

I'm in the process of designing a new 'English for engineering' course based on the learner’s needs and corporate expectations.   If anyone is willing to help me in the process, please contact me at rayanal@yahoo.co.uk

You can help me in many ways: by sending me a relevant research paper, by giving me the contact address of someone doing research in the field, by suggesting some language activities/tasks/exercises the engineering student may find useful, by collaborating with me in the course design, etc.

Looking forward to your suggestions, comments and help.

Albert P'Rayan

Senior Lecturer in English

Jeppiaar Engineering College

Chennai – 600 119

Tamil Nadu, India

Email: rayanal@yahoo.co.uk, raydeal@indiatimes.com

Phone: 0091 -9884380861