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Assess what skills set employers look for in engineering graduates

发布时间:2017-12-07
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CHAPTER 2

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

  1. INTRODUCTION

The objectives of the study were to assess the learners‘ communicative needs, to assess what skills set employers look for in engineering graduates, to evaluate the Engineering English curriculum, to explore the possibilities of incorporating some essential skills engineers need at the workplace into the Engineering English course, to find out what competencies set Engineering English teachers need in order to teach the course effectively, to assess the role of technology in promoting learner autonomy, to redesign the course taking into consideration the suggestions given by stakeholders, to field-test some components of the modified course and evaluate its effectiveness, and to suggest ways to bridge the gap between what is delivered to students and what they actually want. In the light of the above objectives various techniques and methodological approaches were used to gather and analyse information on the Engineering English curriculum and to gain realistic insights into learner needs and corporate expectations.

2.1.1 RESEARCH INSTRUMENTATION

For understanding, analysing and evaluating the learner's needs and Engineering English curriculum the following ten research tools are generally used.

  1. Researcher‘s observation
  2. Questionnaires
  3. Interviews
  4. Job advertisements
  5. End-semester results
  6. Communication apprehension tests
  7. Proficiency tests
  8. Literature related to ESP / EST
  9. Documents related to engineers‘ communicative needs
  10. Case studies

The following sections give a brief description about The data collection methods used for evaluation of Engineering English and needs analysis.

2.2Researcher’s Observation

The researcher as an EST practitioner at an institute of technology in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, has able to watch hundreds of students who had the experience of attending on and off campus recruitments and applying for jobs and undergoing placement training.

From the case studies of those students who could advertise themselves successfully in On and off campus recruitment interviews and those who couldn‘t do so, researcher gain a deep understanding into the needs of engineering students and the need for renewing the existing Engineering English syllabus and course in order to make it more effective with the perspective of job placement.

2.3Analyses-Cum-Evaluation Questionnaire for Needs of Engineering English

Needs analysis-cum- evaluation questionnaires to assess the needs of Engineering students‘ present and future skills in language and communication and also to evaluate the students first-year undergraduate engineering programme’s Engineering English course are designed Based on a combination of various models proposed by different authors and mainly on the model proposed by Dudley-Evans and St John (1998). The basic reason for combining the evaluation and needs analysis was that it was presumed that answering one questionnaire rather than two will be easier for the respondents.

2.3.1 Questionnaire for engineering graduates

The core objectives of this questionnaire (appendix 1) were to evaluate and assess the effectiveness of the first year Engineering English course of their four-year undergraduate programme. Their feedbacks to the questionnaire were used to carry out to evaluate the student’s language skills and communication needs. This questionnaire is aimed to get the suggestions regarding the modification and designing efficient of the course content. Also, this questionnaire collects the suggestions from the students regarding way of teaching of the course.

The questionnaire containing 50 items had the following sections:

  1. Proficiency level in English (items 1-7)
  2. Awareness Need (8 & 9)
  3. Present and Future needs (10, 11, 12)
  4. Evaluation of the Curriculum of Engineering English (13-23)
  5. Views points on placement training (24-27)
  6. Course of Communication skills laboratory (28-30)
  7. System of Assessment (31-34)
  8. Suggestions (35-50)
  9. Technology-integrated EE (37, 38)
  10. Critical thinking (39, 40)
  11. Involving learners in the course design (41-43)
  12. Course for skills-oriented (44-46)
  13. Style of teaching / learning (47-49)
  14. Any other comment (50)

The questionnaire was sent as to 80 senior students of SNS College of Technology who had the Engineering English course (Technical English 1,2) during their first year of their four-year undergraduate programme. The samples were from 5 different departments of SNS College of Technology in Tamil Nadu, and these students had attended placement training in their colleges.

2.3.2 Questionnaire for Placement Training Professionals

The main objective of the questionnaire (appendix 2) is to obtain the views of the placement training professionals on required skills for engineering students to get places in reputed software/ IT companies are in core engineering companies. Also, this questionnaire aim to obtain their vision on the role of Engineering English teachers in improving and imparting the skills in engineering students.

The questionnaire containing 13 items had the following 5 sections:

  1. Professional details of the trainers
  2. Skill sets for engineering students
  3. Job market for engineering graduates
  4. Role of English language teachers and engineering colleges
  5. About job market

The questionnaire was given to 15 placement trainers. The researcher had face -to- face direct contact with the placement trainers and collect the above mentioned details from them in a detailed manner.

2.3.3Questionnaire for EST Practitioners

This questionnaire was designed with the assumption that present status and efficiency of Engineering English curriculum and students need in developing their language skills are well understood by experienced English for Science & Technology (EST) practitioners. The experienced teachers were contacted for the purpose of evaluation.

The questionnaire (appendix 3) distributed to the English for Science and Technology (EST) practitioners had four sections and twenty-five items.

  1. Professional details (items 1-7)
  2. Learners‘ attitude towards English and their needs (8-11)
  3. Engineering English course (12-21)
  4. Testing and evaluation (22-25)

The questionnaire sent to 30 EST practitioners in 4 different engineering colleges. Among these 30 EST practitioners, we receive response to questionnaires from 19 EST practitioners.

2.3.4 Questionnaire for Core Subject Teachers

The core subject teachers also play a very important role in developing the skills of the students regarding their placements in core companies. Hence this questionnaire (appendix 4) is developed to collect the views of core subject teachers.

The questionnaire was sent to 25 core subject teachers of various departments of engineering at SNS College of Technology were asked to give their views on students' language needs in their job placement perspective. Their views were collected via this questionnaire. A list of major skills and sub skills requirements were given in the questionnaire and the teachers were asked to answer the question which language skills their students need and which they have difficulty with.

2.4Interviews with Recruiters / HR Personnel

Campus recruitment programs are common in an engineering institution where companies directly visit institution to recruit students for their companies. In these campus programs companies have their special panel of recruiting team and HR personnel. These panel members are good at evaluating the technical, language and communication skills of the students. So it was decided to gather information regarding the companies need and expectation about its eligible engineering students for their company from these panel members.

The role of a recruiting team and HR panel is to conduct aptitude test, group discussion, technical and HR interviews to shortlist and select candidates at different technical educational institutions selected by the companies. Students are selected based on their possession of skills that employer looks for prospective employee.

The researcher had a series of interviews with members of the recruiting team and HR managers. Though request for interviews were sent to 20 members of recruiting teams and HR personnel employed in various IT companies and core engineering companies were sent, only 9 members responded positively to be interviewed. Out of the nine interviewees 6 were members of recruiting teams and the other three were in charge of HR management in IT companies.

2.5Students’ Communication Apprehension and Communication Skills

Communication apprehension is a proficiency test used to evaluate the efficiency of students in English. Thus, it is very helpful in evaluating the engineering English course’s efficiency. Hence the result shows whether the course is efficient. The communication apprehension (appendix 5) test was conducted with a sample of 87 students at the SNS college of Technology, Coimbatore, in order to assess the communication skills of students who already had studied Engineering English.

CA is used to measure the student’s level of anxiety/fear when they involved in communication with another person either real or anticipated. The students had to select the degree to which each of 24 statement applied to them by indicating whether they: strongly disagreed = 1; disagreed = 2; were neutral = 3; agreed = 4; strongly agreed = 5.

CA scores can range between 24 and 120. Students scored above 70 are considered to have high communication apprehension and those who have scored less than 50 are considered having low communication apprehension.

2.6ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA

Quantitative and qualitative analysis are made on the observed data. Qualitative analysis is made on the data emanated from researcher‘s experience as an ESP practitioner, and the views of placement trainers, professionals, HR managers, EST practitioners, and engineering professionals. Quantitative analysis is made in the Data collected through the use questionnaires. Statistical analysis of the data is illustrated using charts and tables.

2.6.1 Evaluation of the Engineering English Curriculum

One the questionnaires (see Appendix 1) were distributed to 90 second-year and third- year undergraduate students of engineering who had Engineering English during their first-year programme. The students were from different branches of engineering: mechanical engineering, information technology, computer science and engineering, electrical engineering, biotechnology, electrical and electronics engineering.

To evaluate the Engineering English course and suggest ways to make the course more effective students were asked to rate the components such as syllabus, content, skills, teaching methodology and the system of assessment via the questionnaire containing 15 items.

2.6.2 Evaluation of Course Books

The quality of the English course books and important factors while selecting book are obtained from the English for Science and Technology (EST) practitioners through the Questionnaire. In the Questionnaire they were asked to give their feedback on the course books they used in the class. Their response, views and suggestions are very vital in evaluating the engineering English curriculum

A checklist was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of course books prescribed at various engineering colleges was developed based on the criteria for selecting materials and designing activities and based on the principles of ESP courses. The checklist contained 36 items. Then this checklist is asked to fill by 30 English for Science and Technology (EST) practitioners for evaluating course books.

2.7ACTION TAKEN

In order to meet students present study needs and future professional needs and considering the objectives of ESP courses an attempt was made to design a course entitled ―Engineering Communication – An Integrated Skills Approach and pilot it. The sample course was designed based on the nine principles expressed by the majority of stakeholders.

2.8EVALUATION

Due to time constraint only the following components were piloted:

  1. English for Biotechnology
  2. Developing learners‘ speaking skills through role-play
  3. Developing learners‘ presentation skills through a process approach
  4. Developing learners‘ language skills through project-based activities

The evaluation was done via questionnaires and discussion.

2.9CONCLUSION

Finally, it was checked whether the hypotheses of the study have been proved. Then, based on the findings of the study, a list of recommendations has been given.

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