Needs analysis for workplace english speaking courses for university engineering students in the Kwara State of Nigeria

Abstract

The globalization of world markets which led to the hegemony of English language over all other languages has required experts and professionals from different fields of specialization to equip themselves with English communicative abilities and skills with which to communicate effectively with their clients and partners at the local level, and with their counterparts at the international level. Nonetheless, a review of research shows that a vast number of graduate engineers lag behind in the required English language speaking skills in the workplace. This is usually as a result of mismatch between the language skills taught in the university and the communicative skills used in the workplace. Due to the extra-ordinary importance frequently attached to the spoken English in the workplace worldwide which indicates the necessity of producing graduate engineers with workplace communicative competency, this study was an attempt to investigate the respondents’ perceptions on the type of English courses taken by both undergraduate engineering students at a public university in the Kwara State of Nigeria and industry workers in the state. It also sought to compare how they self-rated their speaking interaction and production skills as well as their perceptions on the importance of speaking interaction and production sub-skills at workplace. In an effort to actualize this end, an online survey through questionnaire was conducted to obtain information from both groups of respondents. The questionnaire, which was adopted and adapted from different sources, was piloted on a group of university engineering students in Malaysia using SPSS which gave the reliability result of Cronbach Alpha Coefficient of 0.763 and 0.801. The data were then elicited from the respondents and were subsequently analyzed using both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The researcher found that the type of English courses taken by undergraduate engineering students in the Kwara State of Nigeria is English for Proficiency, while those of industry workers in the state are English for Occupational Purpose. Industry workers rated their own level of speaking interaction and production skills higher if compared to students. Moreover, industry workers perceived more speaking interaction and production sub-skills to be important at workplace, unlike the university students. The study concluded with a suggestion for the restructuring of the university’ English curriculum for engineering students so as to equip them well for their future workplace communication.