The teaching of science in english in the Malaysian classroom

In 2003, the Malaysian Government made a purposeful decision to change the medium of instruction for the teaching of Science and Mathematics from Bahasa Malaysia to English. This change was made as a step towards preparing the nation to face the economic globalisation (K-economy) as well as to develop the nation to be on par with the advancement of science and technology globally. This change poses a challenge to teachers who have been trained in Bahasa Malaysia and even for those who have been trained in English, as a large part oftheir professional experience involved the use of Bahasa Malaysia as a medium of instruction. What is more, teachers who were the products of the KBSM syllabus have learnt the subjects in Bahasa Malaysia and might be less familiar with the subjects in English. This unfamiliarity with the new medium of instruction might cause a gap in the fluency ofspeech during the delivery ofthe content. In spite of the directive given by the Ministry of Education that the entire teaching and learning process should be conducted in English, Science teachers may face difficulties in expressing himself/herself and thus, resort to the use of another language so as to "compensate for the deficiency" (Crystal, 1987)

Factors that influence oral presentations of engineering students of Pakistan for workplace environment

Oral presentations have acquired significant importance in the world of work especially in the field of engineering. Industry demands a new type of engineer equipped with new competencies and skills to promote business of organizations. Twenty five (25) engineering students from 2 engineering universities of Pakistan participated in this study. Purposive sampling method was used for data collection since participants were selected on specific criteria of only final year engineering students. All presentations were video recorded to capture actual barriers than perceived barriers of engineering students. Data were analyzed qualitatively through oral presentation assessment rubric. This assessment rubric contained four traits such as presentation skill, confidence, nervousness and vocal variety. Three assessors assessed these oral presentations in order to overcome researcher bias. The results of the study indicated that poor presentation skill, poor confidence and nervousness influenced effective oral presentation performance of engineering students. The findings of the study can be used as a guideline to prepare better human capital for workforce which is demand of modern industry to increase its workplace productivity

Oral Presentation Preparation of Engineering Students of Pakistan for World of Work: Are they really Prepared?

Oral presentations have acquired significant position in the world of work. Industry demands engineering graduates equipped with technical and non technical skills to uplift business of organizations at international level. Seven final year engineering students from 2 engineering universities of Pakistan participated in this study. Purposive sampling method was used for data collection purpose. Semi structured interviews were conducted with engineering students to explore barriers that hindered their effective oral presentation performance. Data were analyzed qualitatively using the techniques of data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing and verification as suggested by (Miles & Huberman, 1994).  Open coding (Richards, 2005; Strauss and Corbin, 1998; Patton, 2002) and content analysis approach was used (Miles & Huberman, 1994). The results of the study revealed that poor oral communication skill, poor knowledge, low self confidence, stress and nervousness and low motivation were barriers that hindered effective oral presentation performance of engineering students. The findings of the study can be used as a guideline to prepare better engineers in terms of technical and non technical skills for modern industry.   Keywords: Industrial Environment, oral presentations, engineering student

Oral presentation preparation of engineering students of Pakistan for world of work: are they really prepared?

Oral presentations have acquired significant position in the world of work. Industry demands engineering graduates equipped with technical and non technical skills to uplift business of organizations at international level. Seven final year engineering students from 2 engineering universities of Pakistan participated in this study. Purposive sampling method was used for data collection purpose. Semi structured interviews were conducted with engineering students to explore barriers that hindered their effective oral presentation performance. Data were analyzed qualitatively using the techniques of data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing and verification as suggested by (Miles & Huberman, 1994). Open coding (Richards, 2005; Strauss and Corbin, 1998; Patton, 2002) and content analysis approach was used (Miles & Huberman, 1994). The results of the study revealed that poor oral communication skill, poor knowledge, low self confidence, stress and nervousness and low motivation were barriers that hindered effective oral presentation performance of engineering students. The findings of the study can be used as a guideline to prepare better engineers in terms of technical and non technical skills for modern industry

Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) approach and sports texts of the postgraduate students at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the scripts entitled ‘‘Sports’’ in terms of processes used and text type based on (Halliday, 1994) Systemic Functional Linguistic approach. Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is looking into the syntactic structure of a clause based on six processes including material, mental and relational process (major category) and verbal, behavioral, and existential processes (minor category). Forty (40) students of the subject ‘Dynamics of Leadership’ at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia were assigned to write essays about ‘Sports’ in between 300—400 words within thirty (30) minutes and sixteen (16) essays were selected for the analysis. Researchers used mixed-method in order to analyze both quantitative (numerical) and qualitative (descriptive) data. All the collected essays were analyzed and then the percentage of all the six processes has been shown in descriptive statistics and interpreted in tabulations and bar graphs. The findings indicate that the dominant process used in all the scripts was material—doing and happening— and subsequently relational. Focusing more on nominalization, the analyzed manuscripts were found to be wordy

Engaging summer school programme’s participants in reflective learning

Experiencing studying in one’s home country might be different from experiencing it in a host country. Hence, to help Japanese students who participate in the two-week Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) ESL summer school programme achieve their goals to better communicate in English and to experience an academic life in UTM, many in-class and out-of-class activities and tasks were conducted and organized for them. One of the out-of-class task was the half-day classroom visit designed based on the foundation of reflective learning where the participants had to attend their UTM buddies classes. While in the classrooms, they were encouraged to participate in the class activities. They were also required to write their own reflections on the visit in their journals. Once the task was completed, they were required to share their experience in a group discussion activity. From the analysis of both their written and oral reflections, it was found that many of the participants claimed that there were differences between the Japanese and UTM classrooms with regard to the teaching methods and the UTM students’ classroom behaviour. These findings revealed that the specifically designed half-day classroom visit had stimulated the participants to recognize their personal values, to build their confidence and to maximize their learning experience. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to share the summer school participants’ reflections on their experiences undergoing the half-day classroom situation in UTM

How final year chemical engineering students cope with learning in English

There seems to be little information found in reports regarding the final year chemical engineering students’ situation of learning in English. Since the students’ learning condition in English is unknown, this issue has captured the interest of the researcher and there is a need for further investigation on the topic. The focus of the research is on the existence of problems faced by final year chemical engineering students when learning in English and strategies of overcoming them. A total of 90 final year chemical engineering students and two lecturers from the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Natural Resources Engineering were involved in the study. The data needed for the research were collected via questionnaires and interview sessions. The questionnaires used contained 38 questions and the interview sessions consisted of ten questions. The data gathered were analyzed using descriptive statistics where percentages were used to show the results of the research. The overall findings indicate that the final year chemical engineering students were able to cope well with learning in English

Conceptions on low motivation of engineers in engineering workplace of Pakistan

Motivation plays paramount role for engineers at workplace in order to increase workplace productivity of organizations. The purpose of this research was to investigate whether engineers of Pakistan are motivated to perform workplace jobs effectively at workplace. Thirty engineers from two engineering organizations of Pakistan participated in this study. Data were collected through questionnaire survey and semi structured interviews. Purposive sampling method was used for data collection purpose since respondents were drawn on specific criteria of engineers with minimum 5 years work experience. Data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitative data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) in order to draw percentages for agreement and disagreement of engineers for low motivation at workplace. Qualitative data were analyzed using data reduction, data display and conclusion drawing and verification method as suggested by (Miles and Huberman, 1994). Open coding (Richards, 2005; Strauss and Corbin, 1998; Patton, 2002) and content analysis approach was used (Miles and Huberman, 1994). The results of the study indicated that engineers face low motivation at workplace. The findings of the study can be used as a guideline to motivate engineers in order to increase workplace productivity of organizations

Global influences on modern industry and oral presentation barriers of engineering students of Pakistan

Globalization has brought dramatic changes in engineering workplace and it demands new skills and knowledge of engineering graduates to be fit in this competitive work environment of organizations. The present study aims at investigating barriers that hinder effective oral presentation performance of engineering students of Pakistan for workplace environment. A survey questionnaire was distributed to final engineering students from three engineering universities of Pakistan. Out of a pool 287 engineering students completed this survey questionnaire. Purposive sampling method was employed for data collection purpose since respondents were drawn on specific criteria of only final year engineering students from specific engineering departments surveyed for this study. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to draw percentages for variables included in the questionnaire. The results of the study indicate that poor oral communication skill, low self confidence, stress and nervousness and low motivation hinder effective oral presentation performance of engineering students. However, the results of this study are consistent with other literature findings relating to barriers that hinder effective oral presentation performance of engineering students

Oral communication skills of engineering students of Pakistan in perspective of industrial internships

The purpose of this study was to determine impact of industrial internship training on oral communication skills of engineering students during this program. Fifty engineers from two engineering organizations participated in this study. Participants of this study had industrial internship training from different organizations. Purposive sampling method was used for data collection purpose. The results of the study revealed that industrial internship trainings contribute to develop oral communication skills of engineering students such as oral presentation skill, meeting skill, discussion skill, conversation skill, and project participation skill during this internship program. However, the results of this study are consistent with other literature review findings on industrial internship trainings for engineering students