Acquisition of academic literacy in an Engineering communication course: Integration of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)

Devira, Merina

doi:10.24815/siele.v4i1.7003

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…However, they did not feel that they had mastered the desired skills upon the completion of the course. Engineering students should be taught technical writing skills that are relevant to what will be expected of them at their jobs (Devira, 2017).…”

Section: Adequacy Of An Engineering Degree In Preparing Students For mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Engineers’ Guide to Technical Writing: Insights for Budding Engineers

Khan

2019

ALLS

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Engineers, being hands-on experts, need to produce technical documents that are convincing to colleagues, executives, and clients. This study analyzes different technical documents written by engineers and offers instruction on how to approach the task of technical writing. The quantitative part of the study involved gathering statistics on the types of documents most frequently written by engineers and the importance engineers assign to technical writing in their career. The study participants consisted of 60 engineers selected through a snowball sampling method. Data was collected through the use of a questionnaire. The results of the data are presented in frequencies and percentages. An analysis of the data reveals that engineers currently practicing in Saudi Arabia believe writing to be important in their field. In total, 66.7% believe writing to be “very important,” whereas the remaining 33.3% believe it to be “important”; none of the respondents believe writing to be only “slightly important” or “not important.” When asked whether their background education in the engineering field adequately prepared them for writing on the job, only 30 (50%) were confident of their writing abilities following their engineering degrees. The other 30 (50%), although they found their skills in technical writing to be useful, were not confident of its adequacy in the workplace. Given the option of selecting more than one answer, respondents recorded the following frequencies for the type of writing they usually do at work: 40 out of 60 respondents (6.7%) stated that they frequently write interim or progress reports; 30 (50%) stated that they write final or recommendation reports. However, only 10 (16.7%) of the respondents revealed that they often write more focused reports, such laboratory reports. Engineers also write a fair number of non-report documents, including memos, emails, and logbook entries.

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Section: Adequacy Of An Engineering Degree In Preparing Students For mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Engineers’ Guide to Technical Writing: Insights for Budding Engineers

Khan

2019

ALLS

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“…It can be said that cohesion and coherence are tools used in the writing of texts, and they serve as a link between sentences to make the text flow smoothly. Cohesion in writing can be highlighted as the key problem faced by students when learning to write English texts, as explained by (Devira, 2017). Cohesion and coherence are primarily needed for paragraph writing, this topic should be a major issue to be resolved.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thematic Progression in Students’ Descriptive Text

Purba

Pasaribu

2021

IJERSC

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A way for developing good writing skills is by using thematic progression. It can help students improve their writing abilities. Theme and rheme are used to analyze the thematic progression. This study aimed to find out the types of thematic progression of students' descriptive texts and the most dominant pattern of thematic progression in students’ descriptive texts. The researcher used the descriptive qualitative method in the research design. There were 50 texts written by students at SMP Swasta Sultan Agung Pematangsiantar. The data was analyzed using (Eggins, 2005) theory as the theoretical framework that found three types of thematic progression. The findings revealed that the students' descriptive texts follow three thematic progression patterns: reiteration or constant pattern, zig-zag or linear pattern, and multiple patterns or split rheme pattern. The constant pattern was the most dominant used by students in 271 occurences (91.80%), followed by zig-zag or linear pattern occurred 13 times (4.4%) and multiple patterns or split rheme pattern occurred 11 times (3.8%)l. The findings show students, in writing descriptive text, tend to use simple thematic progression due to their level of knowledge in grammar and thematic progression is relatively low.

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“…Many graduates remain unemployed due to their lack of language proficiency particularly in English as well as not having sufficient knowledge and competency in the jobs that they applied for (Arumugam et al, 2014;Gopala et al, 2012;Hossain et al, 2018;Othman et al, 2011;Shahrul Ridzuan & Ima Shanaz, 2013;Ting et al, 2017). In addition, despite possessing excellent results, the future graduates are still unable to communicate effectively because they lack confidence and have a poor command of the English language (Devira, 2017;Ramakrishnan & Yasin, 2012;Ting et al, 2017). Given the estimation of 53,000 unemployed graduates after six months of graduating, as in the latest Malaysia's National Higher Education Blueprint 2015-2025(Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2015, this is indeed a worrying trend.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Industrial trainees learning experiences of English related tasks at the workplace

Singh

Harun

2020

SiELE

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This study aims to examine (a) the needs and usage of English language by Industrial Trainees at their workplace, (b) the challenges they faced, and (c) the relevance of Diploma in English courses in a public university in Malaysia to their language and communication needs at the workplace. The sample consists of 55 final year Diploma in English students who had just completed their three months of industrial training at various organisations. The data was collected by means of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study indicated that English was widely used in the organisations and all the four language skills were required in conducting various tasks at the workplace. However, most of the trainees experienced difficulty in making online ticketing and online hotel reservations, holding briefings, attending to clients’ concerns and complaints, negotiating with clients to make a deal, making oral presentations, contacting with other firms, preparing the filing system, preparing flyers/brochures/posters/advertisements and preparing accounts. It is thus suggested that the essential courses especially concerning public speaking and interpersonal communication skills to be taught before the students underwent their internship. The findings of the study have some pedagogical implications. Higher education institutions that offer similar courses can make use of these findings in revising the program in line with current demands of education and the workforce. Besides, the lecturers can also rethink the way how specific courses should be taught to meet the students’ needs and allow them to explore meaningful learning through experiential learning.

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Acquisition of academic literacy in an Engineering communication course: Integration of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)

Abstract: This study investigated academic literacy practices by an EFL student at an

Cited by 8 publications

References 18 publications

The Engineers’ Guide to Technical Writing: Insights for Budding Engineers

The Engineers’ Guide to Technical Writing: Insights for Budding Engineers

Thematic Progression in Students’ Descriptive Text

Industrial trainees learning experiences of English related tasks at the workplace

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