Understanding Engineering Undergraduates’ Technical Oral Presentation: Challenges and Perspectives

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of an evaluation study on technical oral presentation and its potential application in English language courses for engineering undergraduates setting. The main aim is to delineate difficulties and challenges faced by engineering undergraduates in learning Technical Oral Presentation (TOP) skills in an English proficiency course. The participants were 310 engineering undergraduates who enrolled in the English for Technical Communication (ETC) course and nine instructors. Various difficulties and challenges faced by the engineering undergraduates to learn the TOP skills were identified and input from instructors were also examined. Suggestions to address the challenges faced by the students were highlighted with the view to preparing them for their future engineering workplace communication.

Enhancing Conclusion Sections in Final Year Project Presentations: An Engineering Perspective

“…The results of this study showed the need of FYP students to inscribe clarification for the outcome of their project. Through this result, we could see the importance for the students to be able to give clarification of their FYP outcome, as it would prove that they really understand their project inside out as stated in Kaur et al, [41] and Mohamed et al, [42]. Based on the results shown in Table 11, that 15 (45.5%) out of 33 students believed that it was Very Important for them 'to indicate the significance of the outcome of the final year project in conclusion section'.…”

“…The students seemed to agree with this move as this would be the part that assists the students to inscribe or evoke negative appreciation, data or reading on previously conducted research which may appear differently to the data or reading of the students in their FYP as mentioned in Singh [1] and Sèna et al, [45]. Hence, this would portray the sufficient technical knowledge and effort that the students went through to complete the FYP as stated in Mohamed et al, [42]. ) students both agreed that 'to give justification of the FYP in conclusion section' is Very Important and Quite Important.…”

Communication apprehension and self-perceived communication competence: a study of undergraduate students in their final year

“…Similarly, Huwari and Hashima (2010) concluded that Jordanian postgraduates had high levels of oral CA. The findings of these studies have attributed students' CA to a lack of authentic and straightforward sources and a target language that is not their native language and constructs each word differently (Huashan, 2019), inadequate linguistic competencies (Mohamed and Asmawi, 2018), struggle with group communication (Nugroho, 2022) and lack of paralinguistic prerequisites as well as fear that as public speakers, they will attract both attention and criticism (Riaz and Riaz, 2022). CA can occasionally cause brief brain blocks during presentations, causing students to forget or lose sight of ideas (Soomro et al ., 2019), which hinders them from speaking fluently in FL settings.…”

AI-Assisted Enhancement of Student Presentation Skills: Challenges and Opportunities

“…Engineering students are no exception. Some are concerned that their lack of sufficient linguistic skills affects their explanation of concepts and procedures, and hence they cannot fully exhibit their technical ability or theoretical understanding [8]. Some are aware they do not possess the paralinguistic skills, such as eye contact and body language, that are needed to enhance their verbal delivery.…”