Oral Communication Ability In English: An Essential Skill For Engineering Graduates
Good communication skills are essential to a person's job performance. Employers are now emphasizing that success as an engineer requires more than simply strong technical capabilities; communication is among the skills that are also needed. In this era of globalisation, English has become o...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia
2011
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://eprints.usm.my/34596/1/26.1.2011_107-123.pdf http://eprints.usm.my/34596/ http://apjee.usm.my/APJEE_26.1.2011/26.1.2011_107-123.pdf |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | Good communication skills are essential to a person's job performance.
Employers are now emphasizing that success as an engineer requires more than simply
strong technical capabilities; communication is among the skills that are also needed.
In this era of globalisation, English has become one of the most important languages of
communication. Thus, it is very important that future engineers be able to communicate
well in English. Self-effcacy refers to an individual's belief that he or she is capable of
performing a task (Robbins & Judge, 2007). A strong sense of self-effcacy enhances
one's accomplishments and personal well-being in many ways (Bandura, 1986). Since
communication is an important skill sought after by employers, it is vital to know the
self-effcacy of future engineering graduates in order to ensure that they will step into
the real world adequately prepared. This article discusses the perceived self-effcacy of
169 senior-year engineering students regarding their ability to communicate in English. A
set of questionnaires designed to assess students' levels of self-effcacy was administered.
Factor analysis results reveal three underlying constructs for self-effcacy: aptitude,
attitude and aspirations. Overall the fndings show that senior engineering students
possess high self-effcacy beliefs in all three constructs studied. The implications of the
fndings to theory and practice are discussed. |
|---|