Students’ Readiness For Speech Production In The Second Language

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of master students' competence for speech production on the topic of their scientific work when they are completing the first year of masters' courses and at the final stage of learning the English language as a second language. The objective of the paper is to find out the level of readiness to produce utterances in English in the professional context concerning master's scientific work, to analyse the ability to explain the objective of the work and to demonstrate theoretical background in the second language. In the study, 116 masters' students of four different masters' courses (radio electronics, environmental safety, technological machinery and design) were asked to complete a survey concerning the topic, purpose and theoretical foundations of their future thesis. As a result of written statements analysis, it was revealed that despite numerous grammar mistakes (word order, use of grammar tenses, etc.) and spelling, the majority of students are able to formulate the topic of their work. 76% of test persons can clearly formulate the objectives of their work in the second language, while a quarter of the students confuse it with the object or the result of the study. Only 3% of students can explain in English which theories and scientific works are used in their research projects. That is why an integrated approach to teaching English is needed to improve the ability of masters' students to produce professional speech for future successful communication in their professional field.