INDENTIFYING THE BARRIERS IN ORAL COMMUNICATION ENCOUNTERED BY ENGINEERING STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY OF ENGIEERING UNIVERSITIES OF SINDH, PAKISTAN

Abstract

- Oral communication skills are importantin the engineering career in 21st century. It is observed thatengineering students face challenges in learning them. The teachers are, therefore, supposed to detect the oral  communication barriers for addressing them in their teaching. Teachers of English language in Pakistan face some challenges to address the oral communication barriers of engineering students. This research study intends to explore the oral communication barriers encountered by Pakistani engineering students from the teachers’ point of view. To achieve the research objectives of this study, data was collected through two instruments; literature review and semi structured interview. Semi-structured interviews were conducted from the English language teachers who are teaching oral communication skills to the engineering students. The collected data was analyzed through thematic
analysis method. The findings of this study identify that engineering undergraduates face psychological, linguistic, social, and some others barriers in learning oral communication skills. Moreover, the teachers asserted that they were using modern teaching methodologies to address the oral communication barriers. Teachers also agreed that the different teaching methodologies such as CLT, ALM, and mix methods can effectively address the barriers of oral communication. It is highly recommended that oral communication skills of the engineering students need more attention and teachers should adopt modern teaching methods to address the barriers.