LANGUAGE IN INDIA

English for Engineering Colleges
What Do the Students Want?
And What Would the Teachers Like to Change?

V. Subbulakshmi, M.A., M.Phil.

Introduction

Until 1990, all students in Tamilnadu pursuing undergraduate courses, irrespective of the disciplines of their choice, took a course called Compulsory General English. This course was very similar to general ELT courses. In order to help students pursuing science courses, universities designed a distinct course modeled after the courses relating to English for Special Purposes. This course was a required course. Universities assumed that this ESP-type course would be more useful for the students pursuing science subjects.

A separate need-based syllabus in English was designed to meet the specific needs of students pursuing Engineering. In this syllabus, emphasis was laid on science vocabulary and sentence structures more useful to technical students. Such syllabuses have now been followed for more than a decade in various Engineering colleges in Tamilnadu.

Analysis of the Content of English Language Textbooks

I examined the actual working of this new effort in detail in my M.Phil. Dissertation. I analyzed the content of several textbooks prescribed under this programme in several Universities in Tamilnadu. I also elicited the views of the textbook writers with regard to achieving the objectives set before the students. I also gathered feedback from the teachers and the engineering students. I administered several questionnaires to the engineering students. The findings of this inquiry provided valuable inputs in identifying areas that needed more attention. The findings also provided information that would help revise the English textbooks meant for engineering students.

Widespread and Welcome Research

Similar efforts elsewhere have resulted in developing new textbooks. For example, the CIEFL, Hyderabad had prepared a package of materials under the general title Enrich your English to be used in 150 hours. This package aims at developing a take-off proficiency in reading and writing skills. The focus of this package was on the reading skills, though speaking and listening skills are also given due importance (Inthira and Saraswathi, 1995). But all these efforts, research and subsequent production of textbooks, etc., seem to have resulted in perceptive impact on the nature of the English courses followed in engineering colleges.

The Present Paper

The present paper undertakes to present the summary of my findings and the relevance of the recommendations in the present context of globalization and outsourcing.

In my study, I made an analysis of needs from the students’ point of view. According to Nunan, “Needs analysis asks learners to identify their own priorities. This throws up their wants” (Nunan 88).

The Questionnaire

My questionnaire focused on the following:

1. Do the students consider English an essential subject?
2. Do they learn English because it is a compulsory subject or because
they like it, or it (English) adds to their employment prospects?
3. What sort of topics do they like best?
4. Do they like to work in pairs or in small/large groups or individually?
5. How would the students like to be assessed? By tests, projects and so on?
6. Do they think that their teachers are aware of their students’ needs?

I administered the questionnaire to 500 First Year Engineering students from different Colleges and Universities in Tamilnadu. The samples constituted two groups, those who did their schooling in the regional language medium and those who did their schooling in the English medium.

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