ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION: AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

India’s National Education Policy 2020 has made provisions for imparting higher education in regional Indian languages. This also includes imparting undergraduate professional education such as engineering education in those languages. The Constitution of India lists 22 official languages. Primary and high school education is predominantly provided in at least 13 of these. The vast diversity in the medium of instruction at school level poses a challenge to the students who graduate to colleges, as higher education is provided in English. In practice, many regional school boards offer a semi-English curriculum in high school. In the semi-English system, Mathematics and Science are taught in English with the aim of transitioning the students to English as a medium of instruction and preparing them for STEM. There is variation in English Language Proficiency (ELP) levels of Indian students. This variation poses a barrier to learning especially among socio-economically challenged students. ELP should enhance a student’s ability to acquire knowledge, analyse complex problems, research scientific literature among other learning outcomes. However, it is observed that the student community views ELP only in the context of communication and presentation. This paper studies the impact of ELP on learning outcomes in engineering education through a case study covering eight engineering colleges affiliated to Savitribai Phule Pune University in India. An innovative model for blended language pedagogy is proposed wherein the operative language of engineering education remains English, but regional language is incorporated for content delivery and concept realisation for students. This model takes into account the diversity of the Indian student community and aims to bring about inclusiveness in a highly technical field of engineering education.