‘A Critical Study of the Course in Communication Skills Offered in the Engineering Colleges Affiliated to Gujarat Technological University (GTU)’ by Pushpendra C. Sinora

Abstract

In this rapidly changing globalized world, proficiency in English is considered as one of the crucial employability skills. It is considered life skill or ‘survival skill’ in the 21st century. Students of professional courses especially Engineering 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. The need for the students of engineering to be trained in a multitude of transferable skills is high (Hatakka, 2005). While the demand for talented engineers is high in MNCs, there is a huge skills shortage in the country. Employers complain about fresh recruits from engineering colleges not being ‘industry ready’. The urgent need to improve technical students’ communication skills has been emphasized by educationists as well as employers. Narayanan, Chairman, NASSCOM, (Warrier, 2007) said “The industry has moved forward rapidly and technology also has changed but the educational institutions and the curriculum have not changed that rapidly. There is a dire need to bridge the gap by providing additional training to the people who are coming out of colleges so as to make them industry-ready.” This perceived problem of lack of communication skills among engineering students makes the researcher raise a key question whether there is a gap between the course of Communication Skills taught in the Engineering colleges affiliated to Gujarat Technological University (GTU), Gujarat and the academic and professional needs of the students and whether there is a need to revise the course of so as to meet language needs of the budding engineers for proper application in the workplace context and also in real- life situations. The study involves a survey conducted by administering questionnaires upon 60 students and 30 English teachers of various engineering colleges affiliated to GTU. The evaluation of the course has necessitated the urgency of implementing Course-Book to enhance teaching-learning process of Communication.

Introduction

The importance of English, in India and in Gujarat, as a subject of formal studies and as a skill has been under scrutiny and debates for decades now. However English has been indispensable virtually for all disciplines. While English has been a compulsory subject for conventional degrees, ‘communication skills’ in one form or the other, in one name or the other, has been a subject of concern for technical, vocational and professional courses. At present, because of the globalization and liberalization, there is a need for developing effective communication skills. In settings like India, ELT and Communication Education have become synonymous. English being the preferred medium of formal communication and language being the basic development of communication skills, English Language Teaching has a vital role to play in the development of communication skills. Students of professional colleges need a great deal of help in improving their ability to communicate in English to obtain easier entry into the corporate world. Keeping this objective at the focal, most of the syllabi of the course of communication skills are designed in almost all the universities imparting professional education in Gujarat. Similarly, it also brought out a change of syllabus in the technical education too along with the transition of syllabi into other professional programs. 

The present syllabus of Communication Skills in all the Engineering Colleges of Gujarat affiliated to Gujarat Technological University (GTU) aims at catering to the needs of students to develop their inter-personal and professional communication abilities. It claims to be designed especially to meet students’ current and future language and communication skills. It also attempts to develop their proficiency in the four language skills i.e. Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing of English language along with enhancing their knowledge of grammar and vocabulary. The course contains guidelines for teachers wherein they are made aware about the process and evaluation pattern for the course. Though, no specific and exclusive textbook is prescribed, rather, many reference books covering some of the contents of the syllabus are suggested as teaching and reading material for students as well as teachers. There is no specific course book designed or prescribed, rather isolated syllabus contents focus on developing essential skills requisite to fulfill professional requirements of the job market.

Review of Related Literature

The increasing specialization of content in English teaching curricula saw its beginning in the early 1960s. English language plays a major role in transmitting knowledge as a means rather than as an end in itself. Teaching of English generally is treated as teaching with utilitarian purpose. English language usage taught at the school level is less communicative in nature, but consists more of how the syntactic rules of English operate. Generally, adults use English language only when associated with an occupational, vocational, academic or professional requirement. When needs are clear, learning aims can be defined in terms of these specific purposes under which the language content are tailored. This results in focused teaching such that the learner picks up communicative ability in the required area. The results can be impressive where such a requirement for communicative ability is matched with specially designed materials relevant to the needs of particular students. According to Mackay, “ A difference in approach from the current ‘start at the beginning again’, or remedial ‘solutions’ is needed, when English ceases to be an examination subject and assumes the role of instrument of communication’.

To meet the rising needs of English language teaching, variants of general ELT have paved way to English for Specific Purposes (ESP), English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP). In all the above-mentioned variants, the nature of the purpose involved is self-indicative. ESP marks advancement in the conventional framework of ELT, which defines the teaching requirements depending upon the specific needs of different groups of students. MJAL, vol: 1:1 February 2009 1:1 English language teaching in India: a theoretical study Narayanan, et.al.

ESP advocates the designing of special courses instead of one multi-purpose course, to suit the needs of various groups of students. The concept of ESP is said to be particularly appropriate for teaching English to students of science and technology (EST). Besides, English at the undergraduate level of engineering studies differs from English in other undergraduate courses because it has a specific purpose unlike a general purpose in other colleges. It differs from other courses in the three aspects, such as relevance, register and style. These three aspects gain prominence in material designing because the course must equip the learners for both academic and professional requirements. Their academic functions include oral and written communication, comprehension of lectures and books, note-making, note-taking, paper presentations, participation in regional, national and international seminars and taking interviews.

Rationale for the Study

‘The time has come to create a second wave of institution building, and of excellence, in the fields of education, research and capability building so that we are better prepared for the 21st century.’ (PTI, August 2, 2005) says Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister, India at the inaugural of National Knowledge This goal, according to NKC, can be achieved by creating a favourable environment for equitable and universal access to knowledge resources. In view of this, the central government and the state governments in India have been striving to upgrade the standards of education and have been adopting strategies to cater to the varying needs of learners across the country.

According to National Knowledge Commission, “The current curriculum should be modified to provide greater flexibility, interdisciplinary perspective and choice of electives. The focus in the teaching/learning process should be on integrating skills such as problem solving and logical reasoning, process orientation, learning ability, English communication and programming fundamentals. Industry participation to discuss real life case studies should be encouraged. Laboratory courses must be revamped to develop a healthy attitude towards experimental work. Environment must be created to encourage students to participate in co-curricular activities.” (Pitroda Sam, 2008, NKC web)

Education Reforms in India has in general emphasized 24 dimensions out of which 06 dimensions are related to Curriculum design and evaluation. Owing to the emerging needs of the state for hi-tech industrial development, it has become imperative to generate a stock of highly technically skilled manpower. This in turn has necessitated bringing about sustainable improvement in the overall quality and growth of technical education, including engineering education in Gujarat. As a result, it has generated the need to assess and evaluate present syllabus used to develop essential language skills and thereby satisfying the learners’ professional needs to be successful at a workplace. It is because, it is syllabus which is generally considered accountable for the effective teaching and learning program which should be based on the needs of program. As Widdowson (1984) said, the syllabus is a framework within which activities can be carried out to facilitate learning. In a nut shell, the successful and masterly designing and implementation of the syllabus materials is accountable and prerequisite for the effective teaching and learning of the course. Therefore it is very much necessary to find out how effective the course of Communication Skills is. The effectiveness of the course can be evaluated through continuous assessment or by conducting survey targeting teachers, learners, methodology and components of the course. This will provide ‘wash back’ effect and may lead to bring out necessary changes in the existing program.

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 course of Communication Skills should be modified based on the needs of students and expectations of recruiters.

Statement of the Problem

“A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE COURSE IN COMMUNICATION SKILLS OFFERED IN THE ENGINEERING COLLEGES AFFILIATED TO GUJARAT TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY (GTU)”

Definition of Terms:

  • GTU stands for Gujarat Technological University and which is located at Ahmedabad,    Gujarat, India. It is the affiliating university for Govt. and Self-financed Engineering (Degree and Diploma), Pharmacy, Management and MCA colleges in Gujarat.
  • Course of Communication Skills: Students of engineering and technology studying at the institutes affiliated to GTU are offered the Communication Skills course for first or second semester during their first year programme.

Delimitation

The present study tries to explore the efficacy of the course of “Communication Skills” in developing required inter-personal and language skills of the students of 1st year pursuing Bachelor of Engineering in Gujarat Technological University- GTU. It analyzes the syllabus on the basis of the parameters like inclusion of essential components focusing on developing required skills useful at the workplace, teaching methodology and assessment criteria etc. It aims at finding out the limitations of the course and providing suitable recommendations so as to make it effective. It also proposes the inclusion of “course book” in the Curriculum so as to deliver contents successfully to the students. However it does not comprise designing of comprehensive syllabus for the Engineering.

Research Questions

  1. What are the components of the syllabus? Are they suitable to develop “communication skills” of the students?
  2. How is the present course helpful to the students?
  3. What is the teaching scheme (contact hours and credit) and examination scheme of the course of Communication Skills  for teaching theory and exercising practical in the classroom and lab? Are they sufficient to develop and enhance communication skills of the students?
  4. What are the goals and objectives of the course? Are the components of the syllabus in correspondence with them? Is the course able to fulfill them?
  5. Is the syllabus compatible, relevant and sufficient enough to cater to the language needs of the students?
  6. Does it focus on generating employability skills of the students along with study skills?
  7. What are the perceptions of the students and teachers regarding the syllabus?  Do they seek any limitation? If yes, what solutions and recommendations do they think of?
  8. What is the nature of teaching material? Is it interesting, authentic and suitable to the needs of the learners so as to make them feel at ease and help generating confidence? Is there a scope for adapting the instructional material? What approach was selected for its selection and subsequent evaluation? Is it integrated and having wide-ranging coverage?
  9. What is the scope and system of updating syllabus? Does it aim at developing conversational and communicative ability of the learners?
  10. Does the course offer any guidelines and support for teacher to make the teaching effective? Does it advocate the use of modern technological tools of communication and teaching-learning in the classroom and in lab?
  11. What specific expertise and skill sets do industries look for in their prospective employees?
  12. What are the strengths and limitations of the course of Communication Skills?
  13. What changes should be brought about in the English curriculum at technical institutes to improve students’ communication skills and thus prepare them to the workplace?

Hypotheses

  • Research Hypothesis: The present syllabus used in the Technological Universities falls short of the language needs of the students.
  • Null-hypothesis: The components of the syllabus of the course of Communication Skills are not sufficient and suitable to develop essential language and professional skills of the students.

Objectives of the study

  1. To assess the close correspondence of the objectives of the syllabus with the goals of the teaching program and with the needs of the learners.
  2. To judge the comprehensiveness of the syllabus in terms of coverage of the content and required skills.
  3. To analyze and evaluate how the contents are organized and sequenced.
  4. To examine the adequate coverage of essential language skills suitable to the level and interest of students.
  5. To discover how far the topics in the syllabus are interesting and motivating.
  6. To find out and evaluate the approaches to language learning prescribed by the course designer.
  7. To inspect the adequacy of the guidance provided to the instructors in the guidelines for effective execution of the syllabi in the classroom.
  8. To examine the validity and suitability of the assessment-scheme of the course along with scrutinizing its correlation with the objectives of the course.
  9. To assess the learners’ needs taking into account the specific purposes for which learners will use the language in their jobs, the kind of language required in their field, the starting level of proficiency and the target level envisaged.
  10. To evaluate the existing course materials: to focus on what has been going well and to ask what have been the most significant contributing factors so that less successful can be modified.

Research Procedure:

  1. Directing questionnaires to the learners and teachers to find out their perceptions about the effectiveness and usefulness of the syllabus and the course of Communication Skills.
  2. Analyzing and evaluating the course and syllabus on the basis of given criteria.
  3. Proposing the obvious need of the “Course Book” for the effective implementation of the syllabus components so as to generate required English language competency among the students of 1st year Engineering.

Tools: A survey administering questionnaires for teachers (who teach the syllabus), and students of 1st year Engineering (to whom the syllabus is taught) was conducted to assess the efficacy of the syllabus in developing crucial language and professional skills prerequisite to be enhanced to work effectively at the workplace.

            The entire course and especially syllabus has been analyzed from different perspectives such as students’ perspectives and teachers’ perspectives. Apart from this, course in general and syllabus in specific was analyzed from evolved criteria. The purpose of looking the course from different perspectives gives an objective view of its effectiveness.

Findings of the study

It has been found from the present study that the course and syllabus of Communication Skills in use by GTU affiliated engineering colleges need many changes and modifications. The same syllabus has been offered to the students of all the Engineering Colleges (Grant-In-Aid as well as Self-Financed) affiliated to GTU and it has been designed only for the first year students. They are not suggested any specific Syllabus to refer to, rather they are just given the syllabus components and for the study of those components the students have to rely upon various reference books and study books published by various publication houses. As a result, the quality of the study material is so poor and does not become successful to make the students study well and develop essential skills required to serve their various academic and future workplace needs. Though the quality of the students varies from average to good, the employability ratio of the students of most of the engineering students is reported as poor.

As it is not specifically designed for engineering students, there are topics like business letters in English or Paragraph writing/Essay writing which are not relevant to the engineering students. According to responses of most of the teachers and students, the course material is not very appealing, it does not provide varieties of activities and the components of the syllabus are not sufficient to satisfy communicative needs of the students.

Syllabus focuses to develop only to some extent or not at all some necessary study skills and professional communication skills like analyzing and interpreting of subject content, understanding other subject books, participating in discussion and debates, summarizing and elaborating the text or ideas, presenting new views, getting exposure to conventional and modern modes of Communication, learning and mastering Professional Writing, training in conversational and spoken English, learning correct grammatical construction in written or oral communication, reading Scientific or Technical texts, listening to lectures and making notes etc.

The aspects and skills like soft skills, speaking skills, Professional/Technical-writing, corporate ethics, team-work culture, grammar, and internet communication skills, verbal reasoning skills, interpersonal/group communication, decision-making, problem solving skills, leadership, group behavior/dynamics, phonetics practice etc. which are the most important and relevant skills of 21st century but not included in the syllabus/course of Communication skills. Even other skills like interview, group discussion and presentation skills are there in the syllabus but there is no provision in the course to provide guidelines about teaching material and styles to be applied while dealing with these units with the students. Listening unit is there in the syllabus however there is no practical suggestion regarding improving listening of the students. Moreover, there is no provision where students can be given exposure to Listening and Speaking Skills. Reading and Vocabulary sections are there up to certain extent but because of the lack of prescribed books; it becomes difficult to understand how to teach them without any context. For reading there are just theoretical suggestions but no practical guidelines and provisions. Interview Skills is one of the components of the syllabus. However, in the unit except types of interview and do’s and don’ts, no practical applications are suggested.

The course does not at all focus on speaking skills components. It is observed that very less attention has been given to reading, writing skills and especially speaking skills. Vocabulary part in the course receives less attention. For example, the course does not provide any material on the development of technical or sub-technical vocabulary. Thus, the present materials for teaching English and developing Communication and Soft skills of engineers do not exploit the registers required for the engineers. In the last unit, which is focused on developing grammar knowledge of the learners, almost all the activities are based on sentence level exercises, such as fill in the blanks, correct the errors etc. There is no to use the knowledge of grammar for the sake of effective communication.

Most of the teachers were of the belief that the components of the syllabus are not sufficient to develop or enhance communication skills of the students of engineering. They suggested inclusion of topics like employability skills, presentation skills, reasoning skills, interview skills, group discussion skills, interpersonal and group behaviour, team building, people skills and social skills, modern communication tools, E-Etiquettes, Business Communication, Report and Proposal Writing, Project Writing, Paper presentation tactics, etc. into the course of communication so as to make the prospective engineers employable and industry-ready. Most of the teachers were of the view that it does not develop the employability skills of the budding engineers so as to make them survive in the job market.

The syllabus components of the course of communication skills do not help the students to study other subjects of Engineering. The present syllabus and teaching, learning and evaluation pattern just focus on enhancing general writing skills of budding engineers. Except writing, for the other components and technical aspects of syllabus the students have to mug up without understanding and as a result they are unable to write specific technical formats or to write something creative. They cannot prepare the user-manual or technical proposal, or even cannot draft appropriate business letter or technical report. Moreover, instead of aiming to fulfill, long ranging and international goals, the syllabus just mostly focus on achieving only regional or national or short ranging goals. Surprisingly the course does not contain any of the objectives at all.

The design of the course is based on language skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing and the knowledge of grammar and vocabulary. All these aspects of language have been presented in separate discrete chapters. So, there is no scope for the literary genres like prose, poetry, drama, stories etc. in the course. As a result there is no scope for teaching and developing various language skills in context because all the skills-related units are offered to teach in isolation. The skills mentioned in the course are not integrated and bears no resemblance with the real life communication. Since the course does not provide opportunities for real life communication, the engineering students find it less useful and not very much appealing. The course does not have catered a large space for grammar. There is no Chapter describing sounds of English and devoted to listening and speaking. The learners are not familiarized with International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), stress variations, strong and weak forms of structured words, and intonation in English language. There are no section which include activities like, phonetic transcription listening and repetition, listening and filling up blanks, syllable division, reading texts, use of dictionary etc. None of the activities are suggested and involving the use of the audio CD. Students are not given listening practice to the audio CD and perform certain tasks such as filling given blanks, listen and to repeat etc.

The syllabus does not contain adequate components for study skills development. There is not at all a mention of how to use dictionary, which the foremost required skills for the young learners of language. Study skills such as note-taking, note making, information-transfer etc. do not get any place in the Syllabus. Apart from this, the Syllabus does not provide enough support to the teachers in planning lessons. Because of the lack of a Teacher’s Manual, it was observed that many teachers still teach through ‘lecture’ method, where learners are supposed to listen and make note. This may not help the engineering students to learn. There is not even a one page note to the teacher to guide them in planning lessons. No activities are suggested in the Syllabus, then how can there be a scope of inclusion of varieties of activities to capture students’ attention and interest. Activities like information gap, opinion gap, information transfer, etc. are not included in the course. Inclusion of these types of activities could have generated interest among the learners.

Neither the course nor the syllabus provides any guidelines regarding assessment criteria. The scheme of the course is (1+2) i.e. one hour of the theoretical exposure and two hours of practical exposure, which is actually very less. Most of the teachers were complaining about the less time (just one semester i.e. actual teaching of 2.5 months only) wherein they have to complete lengthy syllabus of 14 chapters. As a result there were around 60% teachers who could not complete the syllabus in time and giving the students the rest units as self-study. They were all suggesting modification or change in the teaching scheme or evaluation criteria. There were many (70%) who suggesting 3+4 i.e. three hours of theoretical exposure and four hours of practical exercises for students in each 1st and 2nd semester of an Engineering Course. In order to make the students employable and industry-ready 60% of them were suggesting offering some separate courses like “Professional Communication”, “Technical Communication” or “Industrial Communication” for the students of both 5th and 6th semesters of Engineering Course studying in various Engineering Colleges affiliated to Gujarat Technological University (GTU).

Suggestions and Implications

English for Specific Purpose (ESP) as a course concentrates more on language in context than on the aspects of language like grammar and vocabulary without any context. The focal point of ESP is that English should be taught as a subject, concentrated to the students’ real world and it should be integrated in to the subject matter areas of the learners. In the case of the Syllabus in study, language used in the real world of engineers is not focused upon. Instead, the contents of the syllabus put more emphasis on grammar and language structure without connecting to the learners’ context. The Syllabus needs to incorporate topics and themes that center on the language used in the field of engineering.

The lack of adequate training of teaching English was observed in the teachers handling the Syllabus in the classroom. It implies the fact that trained teachers are indispensible part of language teaching. In order to compensate for the lack of training, GTU should provide frequent training and workshop to the teachers of English. It has also been found that the note to the teachers in the Syllabus does not provide ample guidance to the teachers regarding the objectives to be fulfilled and methodology to be used in the class room. A teachers’ manual in the form of a booklet should be provided to the teachers. Examples of different procedures and methodology to be used in the classroom can be comprehensively given in the teachers’ manual. Apart from this, models of lesson plan with a time frame for each chapter can be included in this manual.

Inclusion of topics like presentation skills, group discussion skills and interview skills, persuasion and  negotiation skills, inter-personal behaviors, group dynamics, verbal reasoning skills etc. are highly essential for academic and professional needs of an engineer. As the present Syllabus does not cater to these needs, such topics should be included in further modification of the Syllabus. Engineering students are expected to attend seminars and conferences and present research paper on their areas. Any Syllabus for engineering students needs to provide this component also.

In the entire eight semesters of engineering course, English occupies only in the first semesters. By the time students reach to the eighth semester they tend to forget all the skills needed for interviews and jobs. Thus the course of English needs to be extended up to eighth semester so that students would get enough practice before facing interviews and going to the world of engineering. Apart from basic communication skills, courses like “Professional Communication”, “Technical Communication” or “Industrial Communication” should be offered to the students of 5th, 6th or 7th semester pursuing engineering in various colleges affiliated to GTU.

However, there are very few positive aspects the Syllabus possesses. The first two units of the syllabus cover all the issues pertaining to communication in a very comprehensive manner. Further, there is a very much need to attach an audio/video CD dealing with some of the syllabus components in Indian accent which helps the learners listen and understand the contents without any anxiety of encountering the language in a foreign accent. Moreover the course book which need to be implemented for the students to study their components effectively should also be well organized, full of pictures, images and graphs, interactive, user-friendly and attracting the students’ attention and interest so as to make them study those components very well.

Scope for Further Research

There has been a scope for designing a new course or course book keeping in mind the needs of students of professional courses. Moreover, that course book can also be evaluated to assess its effectiveness or to suggest further improvements.  In the present context a survey on the course specifically on syllabus materials and methods used in the colleges of engineering under GTU is needed in order to find out the materials being used and its efficiency and suggest further improvements into it. Apart from this, a course book containing effective teaching materials to complement and supplement the Syllabus should be designed and experimented to find out its effectiveness.

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About the Author

Pushpendra C. Sinora is an Assistant Professor in CHAROTAR UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (CHARUSAT), Anand, Gujarat. He has 04 years of experience of teaching Communication Skills & Professional communication to UG and PG  students of Engineering, Pharmacy and Nursing. He is graduated from M.S.University and post graduated with Gold Medal in ELT from H.M. Patel Institute of English, S.P. University, Gujarat. He is pursuing his Ph D in ELT.

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