Vol. 4(10), pp.

577-580, December, 2013

DOI: 10.5897/IJEL2013.0431
International Journal of English and
ISSN 2141-2626 © 2013 Academic Journals Literature
http://www.academicjournals.org/IJEL

Review

Enhancing the effectiveness of English Language

teaching for engineers in India
Walia Divya
S. S Jain Subodh P. G. College, Jaipur, India.
Accepted 29 October, 2013

India is today witnessing a major boost in the “demand for English language”. With its firepower of
engineers, chartered accountants, doctors, MBAs, lawyers, research analysts, India is well positioned
to address the global Knowledge Process Outsourcing / Business Process Outsourcing need. With a
ready access to a large intellectual pool and domain expertise in specialized areas, India has been in
the business of knowledge process outsourcing and other outsourcing services for more than six
years. It will continue to maintain its lead due to its abundant skilled manpower and lead in areas such
as qualifications, quality of work, linguistic capabilities and work ethics. No other country can hope to
match India in terms of an English- speaking talent pool, not even China, despite its larger population
and despite its Herculean efforts to train people in the English language skills. Now on one hand, we
are hoping to compete with some of the greatest nations in the world, and on the other hand, Rajasthan
is still facing the challenge of being a backward state. Despite being very hardworking and intellectually
sound, our younger generation is still struggling for an international exposure on account of below
average communication skills. In the present article, through questionnaires and interviews of
representatives of academia and industry the researcher has tried to review the curriculum and
methodology being followed in the Engineering colleges of Rajasthan. Based on their responses some
substantial measures for the improvement in the current curriculum and teaching methodology are
being offered which will help in enriching the language training programmes. These measures and
suggestions are directly in accordance with the needs of our students and the demands of the
corporate world and would further help in affecting improvement in language teaching programmes at
college level.

Key words: Language teaching, industry expectations, academia, methodology, curriculum

INTRODUCTION

Throughout the twentieth century, technological invent- international business, economy, science, technology
tions and developments such as telephone, fax, and most and even sports, where language does not play such a
importantly computers and the Internet have brought significant role as in other facets of contemporary life. It is
people closer from every continent and helped spread overwhelmingly dominant in scientific and technological
English as the most convenient communicational tool communication with all relevant and ground-breaking
(Coury, 2001). As a consequence, English enjoys the information being primarily published, distributed and
prestige among other languages, which can easily be stored in English (Crystal, 1997). As far as engineering
seen from the number of people of all ages using English disciplines are concerned, the English language plays as
compared to those studying and taking interest in other important a role as in other similar fields, being the most
languages (Walters, 2002). important language in conveying knowledge and new
Nowadays, English is regarded as the lingua franca of inventions on the international scale. However, with the

E-mail: divy81@gmail.com
578 Int. J. English Lit.

growing demand for language skills, one factor that is do as part of a given enterprise.
hampering us from attaining the ideal situation is the gap Indeed, this is a commendable initiative in terms of
in the present language teaching scenario and the desired making educational institutions responsive to the
outcome. This gap is quite obvious from the fact that preferences and requirements of the job market. It is also
even the brightest of our engineering students are not a strong marketing strategy for educational institutions as
being able to get good job placements. a "come on" for students aiming to land a job after
Realizing this, it is essential to not only review curri- graduation”(A Competency-Based Curriculum, Manila
culum and methodology so as to make the learning Bulletin, January 18, 2009).
process more effective and result oriented but also offer
suggestions for improving core competencies in areas
considered basic to successful adjustment and achieve- Need for effective teaching methodology
ment in the challenging business environment
Another essential component that requires immediate
attention is the emphasis on speaking skills. In a semes-
Need for competency based curriculum ter system of the engineering course, considering the
time constraint, students focus only on the core subjects
Venkataraman and Krishnamurthy (2013) have criticized and the rest of the papers are dealt with only for scoring
the English language courses at the tertiary level in India marks and their knowledge remains confined only to the
for being excessively knowledge-based instead of being extent required for passing the examination. Such a
skill-based. They hold that view that despite the focus on practice is detrimental to language learning. Nunan (2003)
communication skills in some of the recent courses goes on to point out the gap by stating that although the
introduced in universities and colleges, the courses are government rhetoric stresses development of practical
handicapped because the objectives are not well defined, communicative skills, at the classroom level, the em-
and consequently, the teaching methodology, testing and phasis is on the development of reading and writing skills
evaluation are sketchy. The learning objective must be for the purpose of passing entrance examinations.
specific, measurable and limited to a single definite Therefore, with due consideration to the requirements
result. For example every curriculum should have a of the industry as well as the students, if not more at least
specific objective stating, equal emphasis should be laid on speaking skills as a
part of curriculum and the evaluation component.
1. conditions (how or where the student will perform the Besides speaking skills, some relevant modules and
task) corresponding practice sessions in listening and reading
2. behavioral verb (describe student behavior) skills should be a part of the curriculum too.
3. criteria (how well the student performs the behavior) Acknowledging the below average competence level of
the students and the increasing demands of the industry
For e.g. by the end of the semester, the students will be from the future professionals, it is imperative that English
able to write business correspondences (letter, memos, as a compulsory subject should continue till the final year
emails), using proper format and tone. of the course, with increasing emphasis on the active
Next point in question is course content focusing quite a skills. Any skill requires constant practice and therefore
lot on the literary texts which are far removed from the after familiarizing the students with the theoretical
needs of engineering in terms of subject, usage and aspects of the language learning, towards the end of the
vocabulary. The curriculum should therefore include course, there should be emphasis on its application in a
texts, vocabulary and exercises specific to the needs of practical setting. The Communicative Approach is the
the students with focus on its relevance in their future latest version of what is usually referred to collectively as
professional setting. For all the four skills, there should be the “inductive/usage model,” so called because linguistic
exercises and assignments based on the situations and structures are deemphasized and the teacher’s principal
subjects related to Engineering so that while practicing role is to encourage interaction (Celce-Murcia, 2001).
the language students get an opportunity to be acquaint- Such an approach for language teaching will lead to
ted with the subject and the topic too. Such a practice better and a more confident use of language by the
would facilitate language acquisition at a faster pace as it learners.
will directly address the needs of the students. The evaluation techniques and paper patterns should
The curriculum should be made competency- based. also focus on testing more of the active skills. The
“The basic context of the competency-based curriculum passive skills should be tested through internal assess-
is a list of skills and techniques required by business, in- ment. Biggs (2003) argues that validity is achieved when
dustry, and other employment places which are generally the assessment items assess the kind of knowledge
task-oriented to serve current and merging needs - in desired in particular content areas. The assignments and
more specific terms, what new graduates are expected to questions/exercises should therefore be prepared with a
 Divya 579

distinct focus on the needs of the students and the a young engineer’s awareness of how designs
demands of the industry. on paper do not necessarily eventuate in reality.
In the first two semesters, the students should be made
to learn and practice accuracy in grammatical structures She further commented, “… the importance of industry
and then during the later years of the course, they should involvement in experiential learning, as greater depth can
be given practice in using those structures for practical be achieved than would be the case under academic
and professional purposes. As Widdowson (1995) points instruction, increasing a student’s potential in the
out, we need to consider the larger discourse context or workforce”.
the meaning that lies beyond grammatical structure. To Besides industry’s participation in curriculum design,
go beyond grammar, language should be looked at as a there should be regular revision of the syllabus in order to
form of social practice (Fairclough, 1992). keep it updated with the changing times and the require-
As a part of the course, students can also be sent to a ments. The Vice-Chancellor of Nagarjuna University, L.
corporate setting for 15-20 days for an internship. Venugopala Reddy, has said that standards of education
Besides giving the actual workplace training to the stu- in India are not, in any way, lower than those of western
dents, this will also familiarize them with the professional countries, but there is a gap in orientation. Prof. Reddy
requirements in terms of language skills. Zuboff (1988, p. laid emphasis on the various measures required for the
395) argued prophetically: “Learning is no longer a improvement in quality of higher education. He said that
separate activity that occurs either before one enters the curriculum must be revised constantly to meet modern
workplace or in remote classroom settings … learning is needs (Source: The Hindu, 1 Oct. 04).
not something that requires time out from being
employed in productive activity; learning is at the heart of
productive activity”. CONCLUSION
Since by endeavoring to prepare better professionals,
we are actually catering to the demands and the expec- Zahid (2008) concluded that higher education and in-
tations of the industry, industry’s role in curriculum design dustry linkages should remain alive for constant updating
and development cannot be undermined. In curriculum of courses. By creating the partnership between univer-
design, it is important to solicit the industry's views to sities and industry, both can benefit from resources of
ensure its relevancy to industry needs. This can be done each other.
by inclusion of some industry people in the committee for Paliwal (2009) has focused on coordination among the
curriculum planning and design. Such an arrangement efforts of academia, industry and the government. He
would guarantee a curriculum design that will take into emphasized on instilling the traits which are expected by
account industry (employer) participation, besides univer- the prospective employers. Mannan (2003) recom-
sity perception, so that the graduate has the professional mended that faculty-student ratio should be close to 1:10,
qualification expected by Industry. The suggestions made frequent revision of syllabus in consultation with the
by the industry representatives on the curriculum design industry and institutions should create the professionals
will help the educationists in shaping the curriculum in with global mind set so that they can adjust in different
accordance with the industry’s requirements and cultural & social settings. By incorporating above mea-
expectations. sures in curriculum and methodology, this gap between
Brown (2005) also described some of the benefits of the expectations and the needs can be minimized and
industry involvement in the curriculum: our objective of preparing the students for the inter-
national corporate scenario can also be achieved to a
When industry representation is involved…, certain extent.
students are able to extend themselves and
actively participate knowing that they are under
conditions more similar to the workforce than in REFERENCES
their theoretical courses. “This was good as it
Biggs JB (2003) Teaching for quality learning at university: What the
made it clear that we were learning things that student does (2nd ed.). Buckingham: Society for Research into
we could put into practice in the future.”. The Higher Education & Open University Press.
result is that students are more attentive to the Brown SA (2005) “Practical Enhancement of Engineering Learning”.
Dream It, Create It, Live It:Young Engineers Australia 2005: Year Of
steps involved in completing the task than they
The Young Engineer Special Edition: Engineers Australia
normally would be, and thereby learn more from Transactions pp.13-19.
the experience, which actively prepares them for Celce-Murcia M (2001) (Ed.). Teaching English as a Second or Foreign
the workforce. Employers see great benefit in Language (3rd ed.). Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
Mannan SA (2003). “Business education in the context of global
industry running a practical course, as hearing
competition”. Ind. J. Commum. 56(2):204-209.
from “people like Kim [White], where they’ve had Nunan D ( 2003) “The Impact of English as a Global Language on
to do things and things didn’t work” will increase Educational Policies and Practices in the Asia-Pacific Region”.
580 Int. J. English Lit.

TESOL Q. 37(4):589-613. Zahid A (2008). Interaction between industry and higher institutions,
Paliwal U (2009) “Educated Youth and Unemployment in Ethopia”. The engineering universities in particular, 2nd conference on planning &
Indian J. Comm. 62(1). development of education & scientific research in Arab states,
Venkataraman G, Krishnamurthy B (2013). “A Course in English for Retrieved from www.kfupm.edu.sa/conference/erplanning/find/
Students of Engineering with Emphasis on Problem-solving eaf/80.pdf on Oct 09, 2009.
Methods.” http://www.esp-world.info/Articles_20/DOC/problem% Zuboff S (1988) In the age of the smart machine: The future of work and
20solving.pdf [Last accessed: 20 Feb 2013]. power. New York: Basic Books.
Widdowson HG (1995) Discourse analysis: A critical view. Lang. Lit.
4(3):157-72.