Communication Barriers Among Undergraduate Engineering Students: Assignment Project

Abstract

This study had twofold objectives first, it explored communication barriers of engineering students that impacted their communication performance and the reasons behind their communication barriers. Engineering students enrolled in communication skills course were drawn as respondents. Research instrument was an open-ended questionnaire. Eighty-three (83) undergraduate engineering students participated in this academic survey. Content analysis approach was implemented for data analysis. Findings show that ‘lack of vocabulary, lack of confidence, language problem, hesitation, poor knowledge, poor preparation, stress, anxiety, poor listening skill, fear of criticism, confusion, poor interest, poor judgement, depression, technical jargon, poor perception and overloaded information’ were communication barriers of engineering students. Moreover, the reasons of these communication barriers were lack of vocabulary, low confidence, hesitation, shyness, poor self-esteem, inferiority complex, fear of criticism, anger, poor language, stage fear, memory loss, poor environment and peer pressure.