Abstract
This paper reports the English reading proficiency of a sample of engineering undergraduates in a public university of Malaysia. A standardized online reading comprehension assessment, called Reading Evaluation and Decoding System (READS) was administered with 189 first year engineering students during their enrolment into six different engineering faculties in the university. The results showed that only 7.9% of the engineering students were able to perform above secondary school level of English reading comprehension proficiency. Specifically, the students were found to perform poorer in questions related to critical thinking than those related to literal comprehension and reorganization. The implications of the findings on the English language education and the professional training of future engineers in Malaysia were discussed.
Highlights
It is the norm that the engineering industry is characterized by extreme competitiveness, innovation and widespread use of English[1]
In a study on engineering employability skills required by employers in Asia, researchers compared the findings from different studies in Malaysia, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong and they found that the employers in Malaysia and Japan both pointed to communication competency as the first employability skill that they expected from their potential employees, including the competency to communicate in English[3]
The data indicated that almost two third the participating students were from School of Chemical Engineering (41.8%) and School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering (30.2%). In terms of their origins, about half of the students were from the Northern region of Peninsular Malaysia (56.5%), i.e., 22.2% were from Penang, 19.0% were from Perak, and 15.3% were from Kedah
Summary
It is the norm that the engineering industry is characterized by extreme competitiveness, innovation and widespread use of English[1]. To meet with the demands of globalization, it is important for engineers and prospective engineers to equip with various industrial skills such as proficiency in English; other than their hard - core technical skills and knowledge in engineering sciences[2]. It is important that engineers and prospective engineers are able to communicate with their work counterparts and collaborators in English[4]. Many engineers will eventually being promoted from their original positions to become managers and directors of company[2]. In such instances, the ability to communicate in English is becoming even more important during customer visits and relationship building[1]. Other business activities that involve the use of English include global conference calls, product presentation, and customer or partner negotiation[5]
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