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Communication needs of Thai civil engineering students
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
English for Specific Purposes 28 (2009) 266–278
ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES www.elsevier.com/locate/esp
Communication needs of Thai civil engineering students Chamnong Kaewpet * Rajamangala University of Technology Krungthep, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Department of Western Languages, 2 Nanglinchi Road, Tungmahamek, South Sathorn, Bangkok 10120, Thailand
Abstract This article reports on an examination of the communication needs of a group of Thai civil engineering students. Twenty-five stakeholders helped identify the communication needs of the students by participating in individual interviews. These included employers, civil engineers, civil engineering lecturers, ex-civil engineering students of the technical English course, and ESP teachers. Based on the stakeholders’ recommendations, the teacher/researcher determined that four communicative events should be incorporated into the course, namely, talking about daily tasks and duties, reading textbooks, reading manuals, and writing periodic/progress reports. The findings highlight the increasing demand for professional English in the engineering field and the degree to which English is required in various circumstances throughout Thailand. It is crucial to add more professional English courses to engineering programmes and to conduct further research to predict learners’ needs as specifically as possible. Those needs can then be more efficiently satisfied in the ESP courses. Ó 2009 The American University. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction The most important aspect to keep in mind when running ESP courses is that the course content should consist of material that the learner can authentically use outside class (e.g., Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998). The focus of this article is on stand-alone courses, for other forms of course design are likely to be approached in a different manner; for instance, when courses are taught collaboratively by both teachers of English and technical departments (e.g., Andrews, 2003). For this study, the Department of Civil Engineering selected a technical English course, Technical English 1, by reviewing the university’s English curriculum offerings through the Department of Western Languages. There was normally no contact between the technical and language departments. At the end of each semester, the English teacher reported the students’ results to the registrar’s office. A group of civil engineering students in a 3-year program was going to attend the course. These students had finished diplomas in areas such as construction before commencing their study at the university. The 2-year diploma course was comparable to the first two years of the university’s undergraduate degree. Therefore, the students were not required to repeat two fundamental English courses that they had already *
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0889-4906/$36.00 Ó 2009 The American University. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.esp.2009.05.002
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completed in their technical colleges. The technical English course would consist of 12 lessons of 3 hours per week. Instruction would be completed in 10 lessons, while the sixth and twelfth classes were for official midterm and final examinations. The course was designed approximately 10 years ago while the university was a campus of an institute of technology (Faculty of Liberal Arts, 1996). The ‘communicative events’ (Munby, 1978) listed in the course description included reading articles, documents, periodicals, textbooks related to students’ fields of study, writing descriptions and reports, conversing in the target disciplines, and giving oral presentations on topics related to the profession. Listening was categorised under ‘study skills’ (Jordan, 1997), that is, listening for gist, interpretation and summarising. The purpose of the course was clearly to support the need for professional English. As a teacher of the course, the researcher questioned whether or not those communicative events continued to be significant for civil engineering students in the current situation. It was determined that an update of the course should be carried out. If the communicative events were up-to-date, there was still strong motivation to establish more thorough knowledge concerning the communicative events such as types of reports, their content and length, who wrote them, and who read them. This led to the idea of creating a profile of communication needs as recommended in Munby’s (1978) sociolinguistic model for defining the content of purpose-specific language programmes. The model has been criticised for its complex and time-consuming procedures (West, 1994). However, its framework comprehensively embraced the interests of the research in terms of the content of reports, as stated above. Adapting Munby’s model, a profile of communication needs would be comprised of information regarding a communicative event, a purposive domain of communication, the setting of the communication, the main communicators, the person or persons with whom the communicators have interactions, variety of English use, attitudinal tone, subject content of the communication, level of specificity of the subject content and the target level required for communication (Munby, 1978). Communication needs become more apparent when a needs analysis reflects precisely how ESP can help learners with real-world language use, and also when the needs analysis is involved with understanding the discourse practices in which the language is situated and in which the learners must operate (Long, 2005a, 2005b; Munby, 1978; Orr, 2002). Reports on a full analysis of English communication needs in engineering such as those laid out by Munby are hard to find. However, knowledge of the needs from this perspective can be found in several publications. Based on an exploration of international journals such as English for Specific Purposes, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, and research reports in Thailand, engineering students and engineers around the world may be engaged in up to 18 real-world types of communicative events. These communicative events include listening to presentations in a meeting, delivering oral presentations, engaging in professional conversations, reading professional texts and writing periodic or progress reports (e.g., Anthony & Lashkia, 2003; Boyette, 2007; Brinkman & Geest, 2003; Freeman, 2003; Levis & Levis, 2003; Pritchard & Nasr, 2004; Rujipornwasin, 2004; Torres & Barbera, 2002, see Fig. 1). Some communicative events such as reading textbooks may appear to be classroom activities; however, they are genuine real-world communicative events. Engineering students are normally assigned to read English textbooks (Mudraya, 2006) as part of their studies. Classification of the purpose of communication into two domains, that is, work and professional study (e.g., Jordan, 1997) is not always the case. Many communicative events are practised to help transition from study to work situations such as writing reports (e.g., Artemeva, Logie, & St-Martin, 1999). There are also fewer reports on English for occupational purposes than those that are linked to educational purposes. The setting of communication might be a workplace location or a classroom in an educational institution. Alternatively, the setting could be a meeting, seminar or conference room. In these various settings, engineering students may find themselves playing different roles, either that of a student, or of an engineer. Interactions in work situations can occur with bosses, managers, supervisors, and other engineers. In study situations, communicative events can take place with ESP teachers, instructors of professional courses, teaching assistants, senior students, and classmates. In the case of other communication events such as reading, interactions take place with the writers of texts (Wallace, 2001). For writing, for example, writing research papers, interactions can occur with readers in general. It can also be concluded that the attitudinal tone of communication is likely to be formal, academic, professional and not trivial.
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1. 2.
What do civil engineers/civil engineering students require English for here? If English is not required, do you have any expectations regarding the engineers’/ civil engineering students’ ability in English?
3.
Please give me details about the English.
4.
This is a list of communicative events that engineers or engineering students are likely to perform worldwide.
Please choose the degree to which Thai engineers and/or
engineering students are likely to engage in the communicative events in the Thai context. Communicative events
The degree to which Thai civil engineers and/or Thai civil engineering students are likely to perform the communicative events None/ Less Moderate Much Most Least
1. Listening to English-speaking boss’s instructions 2. Listening to presentations and discussions in a meeting, seminar or conference 3. Delivering oral presentations on project designs 4. Reporting orally on project progress 5. Reporting orally on project completion 6. Engaging in professional conversations (this includes elements of informal, casual, and/or business conversation) 7. Reading product specifications/descriptions 8. Reading textbooks 9. Reading professional texts, e.g. rules of practice, contracts 10. Reading technical papers 11. Writing proposals/ design projects 12. Writing periodic/progress reports 13. Writing completion reports 14. Writing literature reviews on professional topics 15. Writing reports on selecting materials for specific application 16. Writing reports on applying fundamentals to solve practical problems 17. Writing technical papers 18. Writing research papers
5.
A group of Thai civil engineering students in a Thai program is required to study one technical English course. The course is 10 weeks with one three-hour lesson weekly. Of the English/communicative events you specified (or the ones in the Number 2 list), which one/s or any others should be incorporated into the course? Please give reasons why you think the English/communicative events should be built into the course.
6.
Please give (or anticipate) details about the English/communicative events (if not yet described previously).
7.
Please provide other suggestions concerning civil engineering students’ needs for English.
Fig. 1. Interview schedules: communication needs of the Thai engineering students.
Concerning the variety of English used in locations where communicative events are generated, English is used either between native speakers (NSs) and non-native speakers (NNSs) or among NNSs of English. In these situations, the variety of English used in engineering can be identified as ‘international.’ In the literature on communicative events, subject content is seldom reported in detail. Examples of the few cases where students wrote reports were on the subjects of metallurgical engineering, nuclear materials, and pressure vessel reliability (Andrews, 2003). In the study by Artemeva et al. (1999), the students selected their own course of focus, for example, Introduction to Engineering Materials, and chose to write a proposal based on that content, such as methods of corrosion prevention in metals. The level of specificity of the subject content variable has been added to the framework adapted from Munby. The concern arose during the trialling of interview schedules in the context under investigation (Section
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3.2). When looking at the publications where the 18 communicative events are generated, the specificity of subject content is close to engineering and its specific disciplines, for example, electrical engineering. Drawing on data gained during the trial and online visits to ESP courses offered in Thai universities, specificity of subject content in the Thai context can be grouped into three levels: (1) science and technology, when students from all science and technology areas attend the class; (2) engineering, when only engineering students study; and (3) specific-discipline, when only civil engineering students take the course (e.g., Burapa University, 2009; Khon Kaen University, 2009; Silpakorn University, 2009). Finally, it has been determined that an advanced target level is required for communication in all 18 communicative events. Some communicative events might appear simple, such as listening to an English-speaking boss’s instructions. However, this situation might be problematic for EFL students whose listening ability is probably their weakest language skill. 2. Purpose of the study The purpose of this study was to discover the communication needs that should be incorporated in an ESP course for a group of Thai civil engineering students. It is important in needs analysis to focus on a particular group of students to provide sufficient understanding of the learners’ needs (Long, 2005b). The information presented in Section 1 has mostly been generated from outside Thailand, from both undergraduate and postgraduate environments. Some of the reports are based on only one particular branch of engineering. Information has not yet been provided with adequate explanation concerning the communication needs of Thai civil engineering students. 3. Research methods The research methods for this study included purposeful sampling in the selection of stakeholders, data collection using semi-structured interviews with individuals, and qualitative data analysis. 3.1. Stakeholders Twenty-five stakeholders participated in individual interviews to identify the communication needs of Thai engineering students. These were five people from each of the following groups: employers, civil engineers, civil engineering lecturers, former civil engineering students, and ESP teachers. Three main principles were employed in selecting these stakeholders: multiple perspectives, purposeful sampling, and having a suitable number of ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders.’ Multiple perspectives were taken into account when selecting the stakeholders. The identification of needs is dependent to some degree on individual interpretation and perception (Brindley, 1989). It was important to ensure that the teacher/researcher’s interpretations were based on all of the perspectives involved. The key stakeholders included those witnessing two main language use situations of ESP, namely, work and professional study. The employers and civil engineers were selected from eight workplaces. The civil engineering lecturers, former civil engineering students and ESP teachers came from four Thai universities. The former civil engineering students had already completed the technical English course under investigation, but were still studying other civil engineering courses. The workplaces and universities were located in the same geographical area as the university under investigation, namely, Bangkok and the neighbouring provinces. It was anticipated that knowledge of real language use at these locations would be advantageous for the students who were going to attend the course. Purposeful sampling is a technique often used in qualitative studies when a researcher wants to establish a unique case that is informative (Lynch, 1996; Neuman, 2000). Using purposeful sampling to select the stakeholders was particularly appropriate for this study because there was a concern with the proportion of ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders.’ While outsiders may provide more objective information, insiders have a better understanding of the situation (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998). The proportion of insiders was larger than outsiders in this study. Learners’ needs are unique to their context, thus, insiders should have a stronger voice than outsiders (e.g., Richterich & Chancerel, 1977). ‘Insiders’ in this study refers to those who were teaching,
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studying, or had graduated from the university under investigation; ‘outsiders’ refers to those people who were not associated with the university under investigation. To ensure varied and appropriate sources of data, information about the stakeholders was analysed before the invitations were extended. An attempt was made to create a mixture of companies from several different nations, which use English to various degrees in the workplace. The first four workplaces were Thai companies. Three of them did not have any international collaborations. The fourth workplace had close contact with an American counterpart. The next four workplaces were comprised of one European, one Japanese, one American subsidiary, and one Australian company. The bosses in the workplaces were speakers of English. At the Australian company, English was the medium of communication. Of the five key stakeholders under analysis in this study, the employer group is wholly considered to be ‘outsiders,’ because universities are usually not attached to any workplace, and graduates might be employed at any of them. The same principles used to select the employers were applied in the selection of engineers. Additionally, their levels of education and work locations were examined. Most of the engineers selected for the study held bachelor’s degrees because the needs of undergraduates were under consideration. Fewer engineers were selected from offices than engineering sites because graduates of the universities under investigation were more likely to start their working careers at engineering sites than in offices. The proportion of insiders to outsiders in this group was 3:2. While insiders’ perspectives were necessary, it would be beneficial to know the views of others. The civil engineering lecturers were drawn from departments of civil engineering. They taught the Thai language programme of civil engineering at the undergraduate level. The students who attended the technical English course were enrolled in a similar kind of programme. The lecturers were representative of those in different subject areas; they had pursued higher degrees in Thailand, English-speaking countries, and non-English-speaking countries. The same 3:2 proportion of insiders to outsiders was applied, as above. The former civil engineering students selected to participate in this research were enrolled in various years of study. It was anticipated that the students could provide useful feedback based on their exposure to the study situation. Of the student stakeholders, one was a freshman, one was a sophomore and three were juniors. It was expected that the juniors would be able to reflect on their full experiences of studying at the university and performing practical work at genuine work places. The former civil engineering students were all classified as insiders in this research. Their perspectives were regarded as useful predictors of the needs of current students who were also in a 3-year programme. The ESP teachers were invited to participate in this study because they had experience in teaching ESP to engineering students. The proportion of insiders to outsiders in the case of ESP teachers was 4:1. It was anticipated that the insider ESP teachers could provide more precise data related to learners’ needs in the context under investigation. Only one ESP teacher from the outside was invited. Her perspective could bring better understanding concerning the influence of context on the learners’ needs. 3.2. Individual interviews Interviews are a direct way of finding out what people think or do (Long, 2005a). In using structured interviews, questions that have been carefully thought out can be asked repeatedly to draw on the same concerns (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998; Lynch, 1996). In this study, questions were posed in semi-structured individual interviews. Follow-up questions were also asked to assess more thoroughly the communication needs of Thai civil engineering students. The interviews (Fig. 1) were organised in such a way that a profile of suitable communication needs (Munby, 1978) could be established. The first three questions and requests were for identifying communicative events occurring in the Thai context, without the respondent being influenced by a predetermined list of events. The list of communicative events (Section 1) mentioned in the fourth question was prepared for those stakeholders who were not familiar with the concept of ‘real language use’ situations. (The list proved to be helpful for only three of the respondents). The fifth question was designed to gather stakeholders’ thoughts concerning the selection of the most suitable communicative events to address during the actual time frame of the course. The sixth question asked the stakeholders to give reasons underlying their selection of communicative events in order to better inform the researcher in the design of the course. As in the third question, the
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seventh question was designed for generating profiles of communication needs. In the eighth question, the stakeholders were encouraged to express any other concerns in relation to the learners’ needs for English. 3.3. Data collection procedures Data collection procedures included trialling of the interview schedules (Section 3.2) and using the improved schedules to interview the stakeholders. To avoid time consuming problems arising from the interview method and to eliminate any possible ambiguity in the interview questions (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998; Neuman, 2000), the interviews were trialled with one person from each of the stakeholder groups. During the initial contact with potential stakeholders, one lecturer asked if the 45–60 min interview could be reduced to 30 min. The representative of one company also set a time limit of 30 min for a phone interview. The situation was approached in two ways. First, time was allotted as requested. It was decided that interviews, especially with employers, engineers, and lecturers, should not exceed 30 min. Second, the questions were checked and made as precise and clear as possible in order to extract the data within the time limitation. During the trial, the potential stakeholders were concerned about the specificity of the subject content to civil engineering. This concern was added to the scope of communication needs investigated in this study (Section 1). After completing the trial sessions and improving the interview questions, genuine collection commenced. All interviews with the 25 stakeholders were audio-taped, and the interviews were transcribed. 3.4. Data analysis The transcriptions were analysed qualitatively. The final evaluation made during the data analysis stage was to select suitable communicative events for incorporation into the Technical English 1 course under investigation. In employing the recommendations given by Macintyre (2000) and Lynch (1996), the data was first categorised by groups of stakeholders, and then checked for completeness and correctness. Second, the data was analysed to discover preliminary themes, incidence, patterns, and trends in communication needs. This included labelling responses and deleting irrelevant data. Third, the preliminary findings and labelling were thoroughly read to ensure accuracy, while opening for new ones. Fourth, the findings and labelling were checked again to confirm precision. Finally, the findings were interpreted and conclusions were drawn. As a result of carrying out the above steps, a list of communicative events occurring in the Thai context has been established (Section 4.1). Four communicative events were selected, and four profiles of communication needs were constructed (Section 4.2). The four communicative events, that is, talking about everyday tasks and duties, reading textbooks, reading manuals, writing daily or periodic reports, were deemed suitable for incorporation into the course because they demonstrated four important characteristics of the findings, and exhibited sound supporting reasons. The four communicative events were selected because they were most frequently identified by the respondents as truly happening in the Thai context, and most frequently recommended for incorporation into the course. Each of the four communicative events deemed suitable for the course were identified by at least one person from each of the key stakeholder groups. The selected events involved the three main language skills needed in the Thai context, that is, speaking, reading and writing, with reading being the most frequently recommended skill. Finally, more communicative events were identified in work situations than in study situations. Although ‘applying for a job’ was recommended as frequently as ‘writing daily/periodic reports,’ it was not selected because of the time constraints of the course (Section 1). Training to apply for a job would take up the entire course time, requiring numerous subsidiary skills such as reading job advertisements, writing resumes, writing job application letters, and participating in individual interviews. The stakeholders expressed reasons for support of communicative events being included in the curriculum in the form of expectations. For example, civil engineers were expected to be more confident in discussing everyday tasks and duties than currently the case (Section 4.2.1). The stakeholders generally saw the advantages and necessities of the communicative events. The ability to discuss everyday tasks and duties was believed to foster job opportunities. Reading textbooks was considered a vital communicative event. At educational institutions, a list of recommended textbooks was given to the students in every class. At workplaces
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where the main activity was specifically involved with design, engineers had to consult textbooks as well as other publications. Some stakeholders referred to the communicative events in terms of lacks, wants or musts. One former student said that he wanted to know more about what machines could do. Writing daily/periodic reports was a necessity in the companies where there was international collaboration and the bosses or the project owners were native speakers of English (Section 4.1). Two ESP teachers also supported reading textbooks, because they established a link between the communicative event and those listed in the original course description. 4. Findings This section will present two important findings of the study: (1) the communicative events identified as occurring in the Thai engineering context, and (2) profiles of communication needs of four selected communicative events.
Communicative events
Identified from or related to The study The work situation situation
Frequencies Identified as Recommended happening in to be the Thai incorporated context into the course
Reading 1. Reading English in design drawings 2. Reading written instructions/advice 3. Reading/using computer programs 4. Reading exercise/test questions 5. Reading textbooks 6. Reading abstracts of projects 7. Reading journals/publications 8. Reading manuals 9. Reading project documents 10. Searching the Internet English resources 11. Reading office documents 12. Reading safety signs 13. Reading professional texts
X
X X
X X X
1 2 2 5 8 1 2 8 8 1 2 -
1 11 2 1 5 2 2 3 1
X
2
-
X X X X X X X
1 3 3 6 3 3 3 2
3 6 2 1 3
X X
-
1 1
X X X X
1 3 2 10
2 1 20
X
2
3
X X
3 1
3 -
X
8
1
X 13 28 Other occasions X X X X
6 29
6 23
2 2 2 2
1
X X X X
X X X X
X X X X Writing
14. Recording/completing equipment and safety checklists/forms 15. Writing English in design drawings 16. Communicating through emails 17. Writing minutes of meetings 18. Writing daily/periodic reports 19. Writing completion reports 20. Writing study reports 21. Writing abstracts for projects 22. Writing documents for projects (e.g., proposals, lists of building materials) 23. Writing resume 24. Writing business letters
X
X
Speaking 25. 26. 27. 28.
Delivering oral presentation Attending meetings/seminars Attending to occasional visits Talking about everyday tasks and duties (e.g., coordinating work, talking/conversing in the professional context) 29. Talking in daily life situations Listening 30. Receiving spoken instructions/advice 31. Listening in international seminars/ conferences
X Multi-skills
32. Using technical terms in professional Thai conversations 33. Applying for a job Total 34. 35. 36. 37.
Doing postgraduate studies Joining field trips abroad Training abroad Using office documents
X
Fig. 2. Communicative events occurring in the Thai engineering context.
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4.1. Communicative events Overall, 33 communicative events were identified as occurring in the Thai context (Fig. 2). All four language skills were necessary, with reading being named as the most essential. Reading and writing together comprised the majority of responses. There were fewer English communicative events occurring in the study situation than in the work situation. All of the lecturers, former students and ESP teachers identified communicative events outside the study situation without being asked. In the study situation, students had to use machines imported from abroad that had English manuals. They also had to complete major projects in their final year. While the project reports were in Thai, the abstracts of the reports had to be in English. Further, English was used for communication in all workplaces. The manner in which communicative events occurred, the type of communication and the required level of English varied between situations. Their occurrence was influenced by the nationality of people in the workplaces and availability of international collaboration. Only one communicative event was identified as occurring at each of the first three workplaces under investigation. At the first workplace, the event involved using technical terms in professional Thai conversations. At the second workplace it was reading project documents in English that had been received work from a larger company. At the third workplace the need for reading manuals occurred when the stakeholder engineer wanted to know more about an imported machine. More communicative events were identified at the fourth workplace than at the first three. These involved reading textbooks, journals or publications. English communicative events were predictable at the next four workplaces, as they had native English bosses. One of the communicative events which regularly took place at the first three of the four workplaces was writing daily or periodic reports. At the last workplace, all four language skills in English were necessary. Both conversational English and professional English were regularly used. For example, the stakeholder engineer had interviewed for his job with the Australian team leader. He also received spoken instructions via face-to-face conversations with the boss. The communications sometimes broke down, in which case the boss had to repeat instructions or questions via email. The engineer also found it necessary to repeat answers or explanations applying the same method. The stakeholder engineer had to attend monthly meetings employing a casual style of English. A total of 13 communicative events were identified at this company. 4.2. Profiles of communication needs Four communicative events were selected for incorporation in the Technical English 1 course based on the stakeholders’ recommendations (Section 3.4), and four profiles of communication needs were constructed. 4.2.1. Talking about everyday tasks and duties Talking about everyday tasks and duties was identified as a communicative event taking place in the work situation. Therefore, this skill has an occupational purpose. It ensued at two main settings in the work situation, that is, offices and construction sites, and on both expected and unexpected occasions. It was expected and occurred in both formal and informal styles at the offices of companies in which English was a medium of communication. It also happened unexpectedly, for example, at the office of the company that generally did not have international collaboration, but received an English-speaking visitor. There might also be an occasion when an English-speaking customer or a project owner wanted to follow up work or make a change to previously-agreed plans. Such a situation was rather unexpected for new engineers even at international companies. This is because companies usually had someone else to do it, such as senior engineers responsible for international coordination. A few other stakeholders also confirmed that it was quite likely for English-speaking bosses, especially of small companies, to visit construction sites where new civil engineers would have to talk them in person. Whenever the communicative events took place, civil engineers talked with bosses, customers or project owners. Since these events involved collaboration involving either native or non-native speakers of English, international English was spoken. The interaction in the Thai context could be with Americans, Australians, British, Chinese, Germans, Indians, Japanese, Jordanians, Swedish, and Taiwanese. The contents of communication might concern work completed, work in progress, problems occurring and problem-solving methods, as well as other relevant issues such as weather conditions. Other content included
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information about projects; for instance, project specifications, working procedures, duration of construction, and the use of machines. Civil engineers required English to discuss everyday tasks and duties at various levels. If possible, everyone wanted to speak both general and professional English at the same level as their mother language. In real situations, senior engineers who worked with an English-speaking leader had to be able to speak as much as possible like native speakers. Newly-graduated engineers were only expected to communicate at a comprehensible and confident level. The companies that required English provided supporting policies such as in-service training or funds for those needing help with English. 4.2.2. Reading textbooks Reading textbooks was identified as an English skill that was required in both work and study situations. Therefore, it was required for both occupational and educational purposes. This communicative event was identified as arising in both work and study situations, including at a library, a reading area, or a private study or work area. A participant was classified as a reader, whether they were a civil engineering student or an engineer. The interaction of the readers was obviously with the authors of textbooks. Textbooks referred to in this study were those marketed worldwide. The variety of English use could generally be called international. Because the textbooks were related to civil engineering or engineering, the content was considered academic and formal. Most stakeholders did not recommend any specific content because they considered all types of subject content to be important. However, if something had to be chosen, one of the lecturers suggested three types: one was introductory chapters, since they provided an overview of the complete work; the second was content concerning problem-solving methods; and the third, although not specific to civil engineering, was reading strategies/techniques that could help students to cope with difficulties in reading textbooks. Most ESP teachers thought that the subject content could be anything assigned in technical classes. The former students did not specify any subject content. They looked at textbooks only to find test questions and sample calculations. Target level in reading textbooks was referred to in two ways. In one case, the stakeholders specified clearly what the students or engineers should be able to do. This included abilities at a micro level, for example, identifying language patterns and pronouncing technical terms correctly; comprehension level, e.g., answering questions and getting the gist of reading; and productive level, e.g., writing to show comprehension and translating the content into Thai. 4.2.3. Reading manuals Reading manuals was identified as a requirement in both work and study situations. Therefore, it was for both occupational and educational purposes. Because manuals could be in the form of hard copy or computer software, the setting could be a place where a machine or a computer was located, a library or private study/ work area where the hard copies and the computer software were kept. A participant or a language user was classified a reader who was either a civil engineering student or an engineer, and the interaction was with the writer of the manuals. Because the manuals were imported from overseas and marketed worldwide, the variety of English use was considered international. The content of the manuals included information or instructions for using machines in the field of civil engineering or engineering, software designed to be used with the machines, or other computer software that had not been designed to be specifically used with any machine). This included design manuals that contained content such as codes of practice or engineering laws. Consequently, the content of manuals was particularly technical. The stakeholders expected civil engineering students and civil engineers to be able to read manuals at a level that enabled them to use the machines correctly, apply the information in design projects, and install computer software correctly. 4.2.4. Writing daily/periodic reports Writing daily/periodic reports was identified as an English skill required in work situations for occupational purposes. It took place mainly at construction sites. The participant or writer was usually a civil engineer. In most cases, the responsible site engineer was the person who wrote daily/periodic reports. However, there was the occasion that a report would be written collaboratively by an engineer and a person from another company who was managing the construction site. The communication took place between the report writer/s and the project engineers or project owners. This communicative event occurred when a project owner was a native speaker of English, or when a project involved international collaboration. It arose at workplaces employing
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people with a diversity of nationalities. Therefore, the variety of English can accurately be described as international. The main subject content included quantity of finished work; work progress, and day-to-day problems such as a power crane not working. The attitudinal tone of the daily/periodic reports was formal, factual and brief. Some subject content such as work progress was found to be similar to the content of everyday tasks and duties. The level of English required in writing the reports was not very high. The simplest level required only a few words, including both technical and non-technical terms. The more complex level was said to consist of only two or three lines of text. 5. Discussion This section presents a consideration of the applicability of the findings to the case in which this study originated, as well as to the wider Thai community. The ideas offered are intended as an additional, rather than the exclusive, option for assessing the communication needs of Thai engineering students. As explained in Section 3.1, this study was geared towards the context under investigation by including more insiders than outsiders. However, it is anticipated that the ideas offered in this section might be beneficial in a wider array of contexts in Thailand. 5.1. The context under investigation: An initial consideration Prior to the data collection, the major concern of this research was with updating the course content by investigating authentic language use. However, two of the insider ESP teachers’ also expressed interest in how the findings of this study could be related to the original course description (see Section 1). As far as the course description was concerned, the communicative events did not match the original content very well. There was only a minor relationship between them. Talking about everyday tasks and duties was related to conversing in the target disciplines, whereas reading textbooks was in the course description. Reading manuals could be classified under the domain of reading skills, while writing periodic or progress reports was clearly categorised under the topic of writing reports in the course description. As the new content would be based on real language use situations, it can be stated that the new course content would be based on the ‘social and economic efficiency’ philosophy of curriculum development. This philosophy argues that a curriculum ‘‘should above all focus on knowledge and skills that are relevant to the learners’ everyday life needs and that curriculum should be planned to meet the practical needs. . .” (Richards, 2001, p. 117). Berwick (1989) points out that a curriculum that is designed around the needs and interests of learners constitutes a sound foundation for instruction. When looking at the communication needs identified by the present research in conjunction with the four communicative events, the teacher could be selective in choosing which communication needs most needed attention. For example, it was possible to train students to a level that could be further improved, but not so that the students could discuss their everyday tasks and duties like native speakers (Section 4.2.1). For reading textbooks (Section 4.2.2), two types of subject content were deemed to be inappropriate for the course: test questions and sample calculations. After surveying these, the content was found to be highly technical and very difficult to manage. It is recommended in ESP that the teachers’ main task is not to teach specialised content, but to strengthen the students’ English ability associated with the specialised content that they already have (e.g., Hutchinson & Waters, 1987). Teachers are recommended to teach supplementary content that is equally useful. Teachers are advised not to teach students to translate the textbooks that they read into Thai, as was recommended by some stakeholders. The students in the Thai context were expected to be able to ‘comprehend,’ rather than produce, a translated version of textbooks. Other types of recommended training were found to be more important, such as reading for gist. In the case of reading manuals (Section 4.2.3), using instructions as course content is preferred. Instructions are a major language feature of manuals. Some of the stakeholders recommended ‘reading instructions’ as a separate communicative event. Moreover, instruction texts appeared to be comprehensible to both teachers and students. Two of the specified target levels did not appear suitable, that is, ‘use machines correctly’ and ‘apply the knowledge in design projects.’ These topics were more suited to a course conducted in the environment, for example, ‘situated learning’ (Artemeva, 1998), where there was collaboration between the Eng-
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lish and the technical departments. As stated earlier, this study was conducted separately from the technical department because it was the normal practice of the university under investigation during the time of investigation. In addition, no problems were foreseen to be arising from incorporating writing daily or periodic reports (Section 4.2.4) into the course. 5.2. Wider applicability Based on the findings of this study, several issues concerning the communication needs of Thai engineering students in certain contexts merit further consideration. In considering communicative events that should be incorporated into ESP courses, it was learned from the real-life data that there were important concerns other than those contained in the courses which the learners would use in authentic situations. For example, the stakeholders in this study reasoned that there was an expectation of having some communicative events, even when said events were infrequent. These reasons supported the recommended selection of communicative events for the Technical English course, which also encouraged ESP teachers to address learners’ needs as they were perceived in their own contexts. As seen in the research literature (Section 1), training in writing skills is being emphasised for engineering students and engineers in the present international community. For civil engineering in the Thai context, training in reading and writing communicative events should be further promoted, as they have been determined to be the most frequently needed skills. As in previous publications, the findings of this study also suggest that English is required more for occupational than educational purposes. The findings were obtained more from stakeholders in the professional study and learning situations (lecturers, former students, and ESP teachers) than from work situations (employers and engineers). ESP course design in the Thai context should be oriented in the suggested direction. Settings of communication, roles of communicators and people with whom communicators have interaction in the Thai context are likely to be the same as those identified from among the 18 communicative events. What distinguishes the communicative events found in the Thai context from those in the existing list lies in the variety of English use, attitudinal tone and the target levels required for communication. In this study, pure standard English was not always needed in the Thai context. The use of technical terms in professional Thai conversations was a very likely scenario. As such, ESP lesson preparation should consider the style of English used in local situations among locals and that used by native speakers when conversing with non-native speakers. The attitudinal tone of communication required in the identified communicative events in both Thai and international contexts is generally formal, academic, and professional. ESP course designs should be made congruent with the findings. However, they should be more relaxed, as indicated by the attitudinal tone of communication in the Thai context. In addition, it was found that a less advanced level of English communication was needed in Thailand, such as when looking at recordings, or completing equipment and safety checklists and forms. In international situations, engineers write technical papers. When considering several factors together, the appropriate target level that should be set for the first ESP course should be intermediate. The students are likely to have learned some English before entering university. The majority of them have disadvantages in English ability. They are also facing authentic English use situations. It is important to note here, however, that a target level set in the sociolinguistic perspective is meant to be a determinant rather than a requirement (Munby, 1978). As most language teachers are aware, all students cannot be expected to achieve the same things even though they have been taught at the same time (Holliday, 1994; Hutchinson & Waters, 1987). It has also become clear that the subject content of communication in both the Thai and international engineering contexts are primarily specialised. Other content such as that needed in business were also identified in the context of this study. However, these have not been strongly recommended for incorporation into the course. This can mean that the content of ESP courses should be closely related to a particular engineering focus because the courses can be organised to be useful for a specialised field. 6. Conclusion The findings of this study have highlighted the increasing demand for English in engineering in Thailand, and the diversity of English required in various locations. It has been suggested that engineering programmes
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should consist of more than one or two ESP courses. More research should be conducted to identify the communication needs in the engineering field and to address those needs within ESP courses as much as possible. In the Thai EFL environment, English classes are likely to be the only opportunity for the majority of students to become acquainted with professional English. To address learners’ specific needs, it might also be necessary to design a new set of instructional materials. The learners should be personally exposed to professional English that is specifically useful for their context. When preparing instructional materials alongside their class activities, classes could benefit from learning vocabulary and reading strategies, as recommended in both the literature and by the stakeholders (e.g., Mudraya, 2006; lecturer in Section 4.2.3). Much of technical language is lexical, thus reading strategies and vocabulary would help students handle the specialised content. Other considerations are also significant for addressing communication needs in ESP courses. Firstly, learning needs and communication needs should be undertaken simultaneously. Focusing on communication needs alone might not provide sufficient understanding of learner needs. For example, some target levels required in communication might not be suitable in real teaching and learning contexts. Teaching and learning are also influenced by learning needs such as learners’ background knowledge of the specialised contents, knowledge of the English language, preferred teaching and learning styles (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987). Secondly, communication needs and learning needs should be incorporated in ESP courses through the process of curriculum development. A curriculum should be designed based on identified needs. It should then be implemented and evaluated to determine whether or not it has met the learner’s needs in real teaching and learning (e.g., Brown, 1995; Richards, 2001). Allwright (1988) and Holliday (1994) recommend studying what actually happens in real classrooms, as knowledge about real classrooms is not only insufficient, but also lacking. References Allwright, R. L. (1988). Observation in the language classroom. London: Longman. Andrews, D. C. (2003). An interdisciplinary course in technical communication. Technical communication online, 50. Retrieved 05.01.09. Dudley-Evans, T., & St John, M. J. (1998). Developments in ESP: A multi-disciplinary approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Faculty of Liberal Arts, Rajamangala Institute of Technology. (1996). Unpublished undergraduate English curriculum (in Thai). Freeman, J. (2003). The science of conversation: Training in dialogue for NNS in engineering. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 46, 157–167. Holliday, A. (1994). Appropriate methodology and social context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A. (1987). English for specific purposes: A learning-centred approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Jordan, R. R. (1997). English for academic purposes: A guide and resource book for teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Khon Kaen University. (2009). 11107 English for science and technology I. Retrieved 01.01.09. Levis, J. M., & Levis, G. M. (2003). A project-based approach to teaching writing to teaching research writing to non-native writers. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 46, 210–220.
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Long, M. H. (2005a). Methodological issues in learner needs analysis. In M. H. Long (Ed.), Second language needs analysis (pp. 19–76). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Long, M. H. (2005b). Overview: A rationale for needs analysis and needs analysis research. In M. H. Long (Ed.), Second language needs analysis (pp. 1–16). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lynch, B. K. (1996). Language program evaluation: Theory and practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Macintyre, C. (2000). The art of action research in the classroom. London: David Fulton Publishers. Mudraya, O. (2006). Engineering English: A lexical frequency instructional model. English for Specific Purposes, 25, 235–256. Munby, J. (1978). Communicative syllabus design: A sociolinguistic model for defining the content of purpose-specific language programmes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Neuman, W. L. (2000). Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Orr, T. (2002). The nature of English for specific purposes. In T. Orr (Ed.), English for specific purposes (pp. 1–3). Alexandria, Virginia: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Pritchard, R. M. O., & Nasr, A. (2004). Improving reading performance among Egyptian engineering students: Principles and practice. English for Specific Purposes, 23, 425–445. Richards, J. C. (2001). Curriculum development in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Richterich, R., & Chancerel, J. L. (1977). Identifying the needs of adults learning a foreign language. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Rujipornwasin, L. (2004). Thai university engineering students’ perception of the importance of spoken English: A comparison of the attitudes of the two groups of second-year students. Unpublished master’s thesis, Mahidol University. Silpakorn University. (2009). Study program: Technical English for chemical process engineers III. Retrieved 01.01.09. Torres, E. L., & Barbera, M. D. P. (2002). An ESP program for students of shipbuilding. In T. Orr (Ed.), English for specific purposes (pp. 71–88). Alexandria, Virginia: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Wallace, C. (2001). Reading. In R. Carter & D. Nunan (Eds.), The Cambridge guide to teaching English to speakers of other languages (pp. 21–27). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. West, R. (1994). Needs analysis in language teaching. Language Teaching, 27, 1–19.
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ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES www.elsevier.com/locate/esp
Communication needs of Thai civil engineering students Chamnong Kaewpet * Rajamangala University of Technology Krungthep, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Department of Western Languages, 2 Nanglinchi Road, Tungmahamek, South Sathorn, Bangkok 10120, Thailand
Abstract This article reports on an examination of the communication needs of a group of Thai civil engineering students. Twenty-five stakeholders helped identify the communication needs of the students by participating in individual interviews. These included employers, civil engineers, civil engineering lecturers, ex-civil engineering students of the technical English course, and ESP teachers. Based on the stakeholders’ recommendations, the teacher/researcher determined that four communicative events should be incorporated into the course, namely, talking about daily tasks and duties, reading textbooks, reading manuals, and writing periodic/progress reports. The findings highlight the increasing demand for professional English in the engineering field and the degree to which English is required in various circumstances throughout Thailand. It is crucial to add more professional English courses to engineering programmes and to conduct further research to predict learners’ needs as specifically as possible. Those needs can then be more efficiently satisfied in the ESP courses. Ó 2009 The American University. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction The most important aspect to keep in mind when running ESP courses is that the course content should consist of material that the learner can authentically use outside class (e.g., Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998). The focus of this article is on stand-alone courses, for other forms of course design are likely to be approached in a different manner; for instance, when courses are taught collaboratively by both teachers of English and technical departments (e.g., Andrews, 2003). For this study, the Department of Civil Engineering selected a technical English course, Technical English 1, by reviewing the university’s English curriculum offerings through the Department of Western Languages. There was normally no contact between the technical and language departments. At the end of each semester, the English teacher reported the students’ results to the registrar’s office. A group of civil engineering students in a 3-year program was going to attend the course. These students had finished diplomas in areas such as construction before commencing their study at the university. The 2-year diploma course was comparable to the first two years of the university’s undergraduate degree. Therefore, the students were not required to repeat two fundamental English courses that they had already *
Tel./fax: +66 2 286 4165. E-mail address: [email protected]
0889-4906/$36.00 Ó 2009 The American University. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.esp.2009.05.002
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completed in their technical colleges. The technical English course would consist of 12 lessons of 3 hours per week. Instruction would be completed in 10 lessons, while the sixth and twelfth classes were for official midterm and final examinations. The course was designed approximately 10 years ago while the university was a campus of an institute of technology (Faculty of Liberal Arts, 1996). The ‘communicative events’ (Munby, 1978) listed in the course description included reading articles, documents, periodicals, textbooks related to students’ fields of study, writing descriptions and reports, conversing in the target disciplines, and giving oral presentations on topics related to the profession. Listening was categorised under ‘study skills’ (Jordan, 1997), that is, listening for gist, interpretation and summarising. The purpose of the course was clearly to support the need for professional English. As a teacher of the course, the researcher questioned whether or not those communicative events continued to be significant for civil engineering students in the current situation. It was determined that an update of the course should be carried out. If the communicative events were up-to-date, there was still strong motivation to establish more thorough knowledge concerning the communicative events such as types of reports, their content and length, who wrote them, and who read them. This led to the idea of creating a profile of communication needs as recommended in Munby’s (1978) sociolinguistic model for defining the content of purpose-specific language programmes. The model has been criticised for its complex and time-consuming procedures (West, 1994). However, its framework comprehensively embraced the interests of the research in terms of the content of reports, as stated above. Adapting Munby’s model, a profile of communication needs would be comprised of information regarding a communicative event, a purposive domain of communication, the setting of the communication, the main communicators, the person or persons with whom the communicators have interactions, variety of English use, attitudinal tone, subject content of the communication, level of specificity of the subject content and the target level required for communication (Munby, 1978). Communication needs become more apparent when a needs analysis reflects precisely how ESP can help learners with real-world language use, and also when the needs analysis is involved with understanding the discourse practices in which the language is situated and in which the learners must operate (Long, 2005a, 2005b; Munby, 1978; Orr, 2002). Reports on a full analysis of English communication needs in engineering such as those laid out by Munby are hard to find. However, knowledge of the needs from this perspective can be found in several publications. Based on an exploration of international journals such as English for Specific Purposes, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, and research reports in Thailand, engineering students and engineers around the world may be engaged in up to 18 real-world types of communicative events. These communicative events include listening to presentations in a meeting, delivering oral presentations, engaging in professional conversations, reading professional texts and writing periodic or progress reports (e.g., Anthony & Lashkia, 2003; Boyette, 2007; Brinkman & Geest, 2003; Freeman, 2003; Levis & Levis, 2003; Pritchard & Nasr, 2004; Rujipornwasin, 2004; Torres & Barbera, 2002, see Fig. 1). Some communicative events such as reading textbooks may appear to be classroom activities; however, they are genuine real-world communicative events. Engineering students are normally assigned to read English textbooks (Mudraya, 2006) as part of their studies. Classification of the purpose of communication into two domains, that is, work and professional study (e.g., Jordan, 1997) is not always the case. Many communicative events are practised to help transition from study to work situations such as writing reports (e.g., Artemeva, Logie, & St-Martin, 1999). There are also fewer reports on English for occupational purposes than those that are linked to educational purposes. The setting of communication might be a workplace location or a classroom in an educational institution. Alternatively, the setting could be a meeting, seminar or conference room. In these various settings, engineering students may find themselves playing different roles, either that of a student, or of an engineer. Interactions in work situations can occur with bosses, managers, supervisors, and other engineers. In study situations, communicative events can take place with ESP teachers, instructors of professional courses, teaching assistants, senior students, and classmates. In the case of other communication events such as reading, interactions take place with the writers of texts (Wallace, 2001). For writing, for example, writing research papers, interactions can occur with readers in general. It can also be concluded that the attitudinal tone of communication is likely to be formal, academic, professional and not trivial.
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1. 2.
What do civil engineers/civil engineering students require English for here? If English is not required, do you have any expectations regarding the engineers’/ civil engineering students’ ability in English?
3.
Please give me details about the English.
4.
This is a list of communicative events that engineers or engineering students are likely to perform worldwide.
Please choose the degree to which Thai engineers and/or
engineering students are likely to engage in the communicative events in the Thai context. Communicative events
The degree to which Thai civil engineers and/or Thai civil engineering students are likely to perform the communicative events None/ Less Moderate Much Most Least
1. Listening to English-speaking boss’s instructions 2. Listening to presentations and discussions in a meeting, seminar or conference 3. Delivering oral presentations on project designs 4. Reporting orally on project progress 5. Reporting orally on project completion 6. Engaging in professional conversations (this includes elements of informal, casual, and/or business conversation) 7. Reading product specifications/descriptions 8. Reading textbooks 9. Reading professional texts, e.g. rules of practice, contracts 10. Reading technical papers 11. Writing proposals/ design projects 12. Writing periodic/progress reports 13. Writing completion reports 14. Writing literature reviews on professional topics 15. Writing reports on selecting materials for specific application 16. Writing reports on applying fundamentals to solve practical problems 17. Writing technical papers 18. Writing research papers
5.
A group of Thai civil engineering students in a Thai program is required to study one technical English course. The course is 10 weeks with one three-hour lesson weekly. Of the English/communicative events you specified (or the ones in the Number 2 list), which one/s or any others should be incorporated into the course? Please give reasons why you think the English/communicative events should be built into the course.
6.
Please give (or anticipate) details about the English/communicative events (if not yet described previously).
7.
Please provide other suggestions concerning civil engineering students’ needs for English.
Fig. 1. Interview schedules: communication needs of the Thai engineering students.
Concerning the variety of English used in locations where communicative events are generated, English is used either between native speakers (NSs) and non-native speakers (NNSs) or among NNSs of English. In these situations, the variety of English used in engineering can be identified as ‘international.’ In the literature on communicative events, subject content is seldom reported in detail. Examples of the few cases where students wrote reports were on the subjects of metallurgical engineering, nuclear materials, and pressure vessel reliability (Andrews, 2003). In the study by Artemeva et al. (1999), the students selected their own course of focus, for example, Introduction to Engineering Materials, and chose to write a proposal based on that content, such as methods of corrosion prevention in metals. The level of specificity of the subject content variable has been added to the framework adapted from Munby. The concern arose during the trialling of interview schedules in the context under investigation (Section
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3.2). When looking at the publications where the 18 communicative events are generated, the specificity of subject content is close to engineering and its specific disciplines, for example, electrical engineering. Drawing on data gained during the trial and online visits to ESP courses offered in Thai universities, specificity of subject content in the Thai context can be grouped into three levels: (1) science and technology, when students from all science and technology areas attend the class; (2) engineering, when only engineering students study; and (3) specific-discipline, when only civil engineering students take the course (e.g., Burapa University, 2009; Khon Kaen University, 2009; Silpakorn University, 2009). Finally, it has been determined that an advanced target level is required for communication in all 18 communicative events. Some communicative events might appear simple, such as listening to an English-speaking boss’s instructions. However, this situation might be problematic for EFL students whose listening ability is probably their weakest language skill. 2. Purpose of the study The purpose of this study was to discover the communication needs that should be incorporated in an ESP course for a group of Thai civil engineering students. It is important in needs analysis to focus on a particular group of students to provide sufficient understanding of the learners’ needs (Long, 2005b). The information presented in Section 1 has mostly been generated from outside Thailand, from both undergraduate and postgraduate environments. Some of the reports are based on only one particular branch of engineering. Information has not yet been provided with adequate explanation concerning the communication needs of Thai civil engineering students. 3. Research methods The research methods for this study included purposeful sampling in the selection of stakeholders, data collection using semi-structured interviews with individuals, and qualitative data analysis. 3.1. Stakeholders Twenty-five stakeholders participated in individual interviews to identify the communication needs of Thai engineering students. These were five people from each of the following groups: employers, civil engineers, civil engineering lecturers, former civil engineering students, and ESP teachers. Three main principles were employed in selecting these stakeholders: multiple perspectives, purposeful sampling, and having a suitable number of ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders.’ Multiple perspectives were taken into account when selecting the stakeholders. The identification of needs is dependent to some degree on individual interpretation and perception (Brindley, 1989). It was important to ensure that the teacher/researcher’s interpretations were based on all of the perspectives involved. The key stakeholders included those witnessing two main language use situations of ESP, namely, work and professional study. The employers and civil engineers were selected from eight workplaces. The civil engineering lecturers, former civil engineering students and ESP teachers came from four Thai universities. The former civil engineering students had already completed the technical English course under investigation, but were still studying other civil engineering courses. The workplaces and universities were located in the same geographical area as the university under investigation, namely, Bangkok and the neighbouring provinces. It was anticipated that knowledge of real language use at these locations would be advantageous for the students who were going to attend the course. Purposeful sampling is a technique often used in qualitative studies when a researcher wants to establish a unique case that is informative (Lynch, 1996; Neuman, 2000). Using purposeful sampling to select the stakeholders was particularly appropriate for this study because there was a concern with the proportion of ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders.’ While outsiders may provide more objective information, insiders have a better understanding of the situation (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998). The proportion of insiders was larger than outsiders in this study. Learners’ needs are unique to their context, thus, insiders should have a stronger voice than outsiders (e.g., Richterich & Chancerel, 1977). ‘Insiders’ in this study refers to those who were teaching,
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studying, or had graduated from the university under investigation; ‘outsiders’ refers to those people who were not associated with the university under investigation. To ensure varied and appropriate sources of data, information about the stakeholders was analysed before the invitations were extended. An attempt was made to create a mixture of companies from several different nations, which use English to various degrees in the workplace. The first four workplaces were Thai companies. Three of them did not have any international collaborations. The fourth workplace had close contact with an American counterpart. The next four workplaces were comprised of one European, one Japanese, one American subsidiary, and one Australian company. The bosses in the workplaces were speakers of English. At the Australian company, English was the medium of communication. Of the five key stakeholders under analysis in this study, the employer group is wholly considered to be ‘outsiders,’ because universities are usually not attached to any workplace, and graduates might be employed at any of them. The same principles used to select the employers were applied in the selection of engineers. Additionally, their levels of education and work locations were examined. Most of the engineers selected for the study held bachelor’s degrees because the needs of undergraduates were under consideration. Fewer engineers were selected from offices than engineering sites because graduates of the universities under investigation were more likely to start their working careers at engineering sites than in offices. The proportion of insiders to outsiders in this group was 3:2. While insiders’ perspectives were necessary, it would be beneficial to know the views of others. The civil engineering lecturers were drawn from departments of civil engineering. They taught the Thai language programme of civil engineering at the undergraduate level. The students who attended the technical English course were enrolled in a similar kind of programme. The lecturers were representative of those in different subject areas; they had pursued higher degrees in Thailand, English-speaking countries, and non-English-speaking countries. The same 3:2 proportion of insiders to outsiders was applied, as above. The former civil engineering students selected to participate in this research were enrolled in various years of study. It was anticipated that the students could provide useful feedback based on their exposure to the study situation. Of the student stakeholders, one was a freshman, one was a sophomore and three were juniors. It was expected that the juniors would be able to reflect on their full experiences of studying at the university and performing practical work at genuine work places. The former civil engineering students were all classified as insiders in this research. Their perspectives were regarded as useful predictors of the needs of current students who were also in a 3-year programme. The ESP teachers were invited to participate in this study because they had experience in teaching ESP to engineering students. The proportion of insiders to outsiders in the case of ESP teachers was 4:1. It was anticipated that the insider ESP teachers could provide more precise data related to learners’ needs in the context under investigation. Only one ESP teacher from the outside was invited. Her perspective could bring better understanding concerning the influence of context on the learners’ needs. 3.2. Individual interviews Interviews are a direct way of finding out what people think or do (Long, 2005a). In using structured interviews, questions that have been carefully thought out can be asked repeatedly to draw on the same concerns (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998; Lynch, 1996). In this study, questions were posed in semi-structured individual interviews. Follow-up questions were also asked to assess more thoroughly the communication needs of Thai civil engineering students. The interviews (Fig. 1) were organised in such a way that a profile of suitable communication needs (Munby, 1978) could be established. The first three questions and requests were for identifying communicative events occurring in the Thai context, without the respondent being influenced by a predetermined list of events. The list of communicative events (Section 1) mentioned in the fourth question was prepared for those stakeholders who were not familiar with the concept of ‘real language use’ situations. (The list proved to be helpful for only three of the respondents). The fifth question was designed to gather stakeholders’ thoughts concerning the selection of the most suitable communicative events to address during the actual time frame of the course. The sixth question asked the stakeholders to give reasons underlying their selection of communicative events in order to better inform the researcher in the design of the course. As in the third question, the
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seventh question was designed for generating profiles of communication needs. In the eighth question, the stakeholders were encouraged to express any other concerns in relation to the learners’ needs for English. 3.3. Data collection procedures Data collection procedures included trialling of the interview schedules (Section 3.2) and using the improved schedules to interview the stakeholders. To avoid time consuming problems arising from the interview method and to eliminate any possible ambiguity in the interview questions (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998; Neuman, 2000), the interviews were trialled with one person from each of the stakeholder groups. During the initial contact with potential stakeholders, one lecturer asked if the 45–60 min interview could be reduced to 30 min. The representative of one company also set a time limit of 30 min for a phone interview. The situation was approached in two ways. First, time was allotted as requested. It was decided that interviews, especially with employers, engineers, and lecturers, should not exceed 30 min. Second, the questions were checked and made as precise and clear as possible in order to extract the data within the time limitation. During the trial, the potential stakeholders were concerned about the specificity of the subject content to civil engineering. This concern was added to the scope of communication needs investigated in this study (Section 1). After completing the trial sessions and improving the interview questions, genuine collection commenced. All interviews with the 25 stakeholders were audio-taped, and the interviews were transcribed. 3.4. Data analysis The transcriptions were analysed qualitatively. The final evaluation made during the data analysis stage was to select suitable communicative events for incorporation into the Technical English 1 course under investigation. In employing the recommendations given by Macintyre (2000) and Lynch (1996), the data was first categorised by groups of stakeholders, and then checked for completeness and correctness. Second, the data was analysed to discover preliminary themes, incidence, patterns, and trends in communication needs. This included labelling responses and deleting irrelevant data. Third, the preliminary findings and labelling were thoroughly read to ensure accuracy, while opening for new ones. Fourth, the findings and labelling were checked again to confirm precision. Finally, the findings were interpreted and conclusions were drawn. As a result of carrying out the above steps, a list of communicative events occurring in the Thai context has been established (Section 4.1). Four communicative events were selected, and four profiles of communication needs were constructed (Section 4.2). The four communicative events, that is, talking about everyday tasks and duties, reading textbooks, reading manuals, writing daily or periodic reports, were deemed suitable for incorporation into the course because they demonstrated four important characteristics of the findings, and exhibited sound supporting reasons. The four communicative events were selected because they were most frequently identified by the respondents as truly happening in the Thai context, and most frequently recommended for incorporation into the course. Each of the four communicative events deemed suitable for the course were identified by at least one person from each of the key stakeholder groups. The selected events involved the three main language skills needed in the Thai context, that is, speaking, reading and writing, with reading being the most frequently recommended skill. Finally, more communicative events were identified in work situations than in study situations. Although ‘applying for a job’ was recommended as frequently as ‘writing daily/periodic reports,’ it was not selected because of the time constraints of the course (Section 1). Training to apply for a job would take up the entire course time, requiring numerous subsidiary skills such as reading job advertisements, writing resumes, writing job application letters, and participating in individual interviews. The stakeholders expressed reasons for support of communicative events being included in the curriculum in the form of expectations. For example, civil engineers were expected to be more confident in discussing everyday tasks and duties than currently the case (Section 4.2.1). The stakeholders generally saw the advantages and necessities of the communicative events. The ability to discuss everyday tasks and duties was believed to foster job opportunities. Reading textbooks was considered a vital communicative event. At educational institutions, a list of recommended textbooks was given to the students in every class. At workplaces
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where the main activity was specifically involved with design, engineers had to consult textbooks as well as other publications. Some stakeholders referred to the communicative events in terms of lacks, wants or musts. One former student said that he wanted to know more about what machines could do. Writing daily/periodic reports was a necessity in the companies where there was international collaboration and the bosses or the project owners were native speakers of English (Section 4.1). Two ESP teachers also supported reading textbooks, because they established a link between the communicative event and those listed in the original course description. 4. Findings This section will present two important findings of the study: (1) the communicative events identified as occurring in the Thai engineering context, and (2) profiles of communication needs of four selected communicative events.
Communicative events
Identified from or related to The study The work situation situation
Frequencies Identified as Recommended happening in to be the Thai incorporated context into the course
Reading 1. Reading English in design drawings 2. Reading written instructions/advice 3. Reading/using computer programs 4. Reading exercise/test questions 5. Reading textbooks 6. Reading abstracts of projects 7. Reading journals/publications 8. Reading manuals 9. Reading project documents 10. Searching the Internet English resources 11. Reading office documents 12. Reading safety signs 13. Reading professional texts
X
X X
X X X
1 2 2 5 8 1 2 8 8 1 2 -
1 11 2 1 5 2 2 3 1
X
2
-
X X X X X X X
1 3 3 6 3 3 3 2
3 6 2 1 3
X X
-
1 1
X X X X
1 3 2 10
2 1 20
X
2
3
X X
3 1
3 -
X
8
1
X 13 28 Other occasions X X X X
6 29
6 23
2 2 2 2
1
X X X X
X X X X
X X X X Writing
14. Recording/completing equipment and safety checklists/forms 15. Writing English in design drawings 16. Communicating through emails 17. Writing minutes of meetings 18. Writing daily/periodic reports 19. Writing completion reports 20. Writing study reports 21. Writing abstracts for projects 22. Writing documents for projects (e.g., proposals, lists of building materials) 23. Writing resume 24. Writing business letters
X
X
Speaking 25. 26. 27. 28.
Delivering oral presentation Attending meetings/seminars Attending to occasional visits Talking about everyday tasks and duties (e.g., coordinating work, talking/conversing in the professional context) 29. Talking in daily life situations Listening 30. Receiving spoken instructions/advice 31. Listening in international seminars/ conferences
X Multi-skills
32. Using technical terms in professional Thai conversations 33. Applying for a job Total 34. 35. 36. 37.
Doing postgraduate studies Joining field trips abroad Training abroad Using office documents
X
Fig. 2. Communicative events occurring in the Thai engineering context.
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4.1. Communicative events Overall, 33 communicative events were identified as occurring in the Thai context (Fig. 2). All four language skills were necessary, with reading being named as the most essential. Reading and writing together comprised the majority of responses. There were fewer English communicative events occurring in the study situation than in the work situation. All of the lecturers, former students and ESP teachers identified communicative events outside the study situation without being asked. In the study situation, students had to use machines imported from abroad that had English manuals. They also had to complete major projects in their final year. While the project reports were in Thai, the abstracts of the reports had to be in English. Further, English was used for communication in all workplaces. The manner in which communicative events occurred, the type of communication and the required level of English varied between situations. Their occurrence was influenced by the nationality of people in the workplaces and availability of international collaboration. Only one communicative event was identified as occurring at each of the first three workplaces under investigation. At the first workplace, the event involved using technical terms in professional Thai conversations. At the second workplace it was reading project documents in English that had been received work from a larger company. At the third workplace the need for reading manuals occurred when the stakeholder engineer wanted to know more about an imported machine. More communicative events were identified at the fourth workplace than at the first three. These involved reading textbooks, journals or publications. English communicative events were predictable at the next four workplaces, as they had native English bosses. One of the communicative events which regularly took place at the first three of the four workplaces was writing daily or periodic reports. At the last workplace, all four language skills in English were necessary. Both conversational English and professional English were regularly used. For example, the stakeholder engineer had interviewed for his job with the Australian team leader. He also received spoken instructions via face-to-face conversations with the boss. The communications sometimes broke down, in which case the boss had to repeat instructions or questions via email. The engineer also found it necessary to repeat answers or explanations applying the same method. The stakeholder engineer had to attend monthly meetings employing a casual style of English. A total of 13 communicative events were identified at this company. 4.2. Profiles of communication needs Four communicative events were selected for incorporation in the Technical English 1 course based on the stakeholders’ recommendations (Section 3.4), and four profiles of communication needs were constructed. 4.2.1. Talking about everyday tasks and duties Talking about everyday tasks and duties was identified as a communicative event taking place in the work situation. Therefore, this skill has an occupational purpose. It ensued at two main settings in the work situation, that is, offices and construction sites, and on both expected and unexpected occasions. It was expected and occurred in both formal and informal styles at the offices of companies in which English was a medium of communication. It also happened unexpectedly, for example, at the office of the company that generally did not have international collaboration, but received an English-speaking visitor. There might also be an occasion when an English-speaking customer or a project owner wanted to follow up work or make a change to previously-agreed plans. Such a situation was rather unexpected for new engineers even at international companies. This is because companies usually had someone else to do it, such as senior engineers responsible for international coordination. A few other stakeholders also confirmed that it was quite likely for English-speaking bosses, especially of small companies, to visit construction sites where new civil engineers would have to talk them in person. Whenever the communicative events took place, civil engineers talked with bosses, customers or project owners. Since these events involved collaboration involving either native or non-native speakers of English, international English was spoken. The interaction in the Thai context could be with Americans, Australians, British, Chinese, Germans, Indians, Japanese, Jordanians, Swedish, and Taiwanese. The contents of communication might concern work completed, work in progress, problems occurring and problem-solving methods, as well as other relevant issues such as weather conditions. Other content included
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information about projects; for instance, project specifications, working procedures, duration of construction, and the use of machines. Civil engineers required English to discuss everyday tasks and duties at various levels. If possible, everyone wanted to speak both general and professional English at the same level as their mother language. In real situations, senior engineers who worked with an English-speaking leader had to be able to speak as much as possible like native speakers. Newly-graduated engineers were only expected to communicate at a comprehensible and confident level. The companies that required English provided supporting policies such as in-service training or funds for those needing help with English. 4.2.2. Reading textbooks Reading textbooks was identified as an English skill that was required in both work and study situations. Therefore, it was required for both occupational and educational purposes. This communicative event was identified as arising in both work and study situations, including at a library, a reading area, or a private study or work area. A participant was classified as a reader, whether they were a civil engineering student or an engineer. The interaction of the readers was obviously with the authors of textbooks. Textbooks referred to in this study were those marketed worldwide. The variety of English use could generally be called international. Because the textbooks were related to civil engineering or engineering, the content was considered academic and formal. Most stakeholders did not recommend any specific content because they considered all types of subject content to be important. However, if something had to be chosen, one of the lecturers suggested three types: one was introductory chapters, since they provided an overview of the complete work; the second was content concerning problem-solving methods; and the third, although not specific to civil engineering, was reading strategies/techniques that could help students to cope with difficulties in reading textbooks. Most ESP teachers thought that the subject content could be anything assigned in technical classes. The former students did not specify any subject content. They looked at textbooks only to find test questions and sample calculations. Target level in reading textbooks was referred to in two ways. In one case, the stakeholders specified clearly what the students or engineers should be able to do. This included abilities at a micro level, for example, identifying language patterns and pronouncing technical terms correctly; comprehension level, e.g., answering questions and getting the gist of reading; and productive level, e.g., writing to show comprehension and translating the content into Thai. 4.2.3. Reading manuals Reading manuals was identified as a requirement in both work and study situations. Therefore, it was for both occupational and educational purposes. Because manuals could be in the form of hard copy or computer software, the setting could be a place where a machine or a computer was located, a library or private study/ work area where the hard copies and the computer software were kept. A participant or a language user was classified a reader who was either a civil engineering student or an engineer, and the interaction was with the writer of the manuals. Because the manuals were imported from overseas and marketed worldwide, the variety of English use was considered international. The content of the manuals included information or instructions for using machines in the field of civil engineering or engineering, software designed to be used with the machines, or other computer software that had not been designed to be specifically used with any machine). This included design manuals that contained content such as codes of practice or engineering laws. Consequently, the content of manuals was particularly technical. The stakeholders expected civil engineering students and civil engineers to be able to read manuals at a level that enabled them to use the machines correctly, apply the information in design projects, and install computer software correctly. 4.2.4. Writing daily/periodic reports Writing daily/periodic reports was identified as an English skill required in work situations for occupational purposes. It took place mainly at construction sites. The participant or writer was usually a civil engineer. In most cases, the responsible site engineer was the person who wrote daily/periodic reports. However, there was the occasion that a report would be written collaboratively by an engineer and a person from another company who was managing the construction site. The communication took place between the report writer/s and the project engineers or project owners. This communicative event occurred when a project owner was a native speaker of English, or when a project involved international collaboration. It arose at workplaces employing
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people with a diversity of nationalities. Therefore, the variety of English can accurately be described as international. The main subject content included quantity of finished work; work progress, and day-to-day problems such as a power crane not working. The attitudinal tone of the daily/periodic reports was formal, factual and brief. Some subject content such as work progress was found to be similar to the content of everyday tasks and duties. The level of English required in writing the reports was not very high. The simplest level required only a few words, including both technical and non-technical terms. The more complex level was said to consist of only two or three lines of text. 5. Discussion This section presents a consideration of the applicability of the findings to the case in which this study originated, as well as to the wider Thai community. The ideas offered are intended as an additional, rather than the exclusive, option for assessing the communication needs of Thai engineering students. As explained in Section 3.1, this study was geared towards the context under investigation by including more insiders than outsiders. However, it is anticipated that the ideas offered in this section might be beneficial in a wider array of contexts in Thailand. 5.1. The context under investigation: An initial consideration Prior to the data collection, the major concern of this research was with updating the course content by investigating authentic language use. However, two of the insider ESP teachers’ also expressed interest in how the findings of this study could be related to the original course description (see Section 1). As far as the course description was concerned, the communicative events did not match the original content very well. There was only a minor relationship between them. Talking about everyday tasks and duties was related to conversing in the target disciplines, whereas reading textbooks was in the course description. Reading manuals could be classified under the domain of reading skills, while writing periodic or progress reports was clearly categorised under the topic of writing reports in the course description. As the new content would be based on real language use situations, it can be stated that the new course content would be based on the ‘social and economic efficiency’ philosophy of curriculum development. This philosophy argues that a curriculum ‘‘should above all focus on knowledge and skills that are relevant to the learners’ everyday life needs and that curriculum should be planned to meet the practical needs. . .” (Richards, 2001, p. 117). Berwick (1989) points out that a curriculum that is designed around the needs and interests of learners constitutes a sound foundation for instruction. When looking at the communication needs identified by the present research in conjunction with the four communicative events, the teacher could be selective in choosing which communication needs most needed attention. For example, it was possible to train students to a level that could be further improved, but not so that the students could discuss their everyday tasks and duties like native speakers (Section 4.2.1). For reading textbooks (Section 4.2.2), two types of subject content were deemed to be inappropriate for the course: test questions and sample calculations. After surveying these, the content was found to be highly technical and very difficult to manage. It is recommended in ESP that the teachers’ main task is not to teach specialised content, but to strengthen the students’ English ability associated with the specialised content that they already have (e.g., Hutchinson & Waters, 1987). Teachers are recommended to teach supplementary content that is equally useful. Teachers are advised not to teach students to translate the textbooks that they read into Thai, as was recommended by some stakeholders. The students in the Thai context were expected to be able to ‘comprehend,’ rather than produce, a translated version of textbooks. Other types of recommended training were found to be more important, such as reading for gist. In the case of reading manuals (Section 4.2.3), using instructions as course content is preferred. Instructions are a major language feature of manuals. Some of the stakeholders recommended ‘reading instructions’ as a separate communicative event. Moreover, instruction texts appeared to be comprehensible to both teachers and students. Two of the specified target levels did not appear suitable, that is, ‘use machines correctly’ and ‘apply the knowledge in design projects.’ These topics were more suited to a course conducted in the environment, for example, ‘situated learning’ (Artemeva, 1998), where there was collaboration between the Eng-
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lish and the technical departments. As stated earlier, this study was conducted separately from the technical department because it was the normal practice of the university under investigation during the time of investigation. In addition, no problems were foreseen to be arising from incorporating writing daily or periodic reports (Section 4.2.4) into the course. 5.2. Wider applicability Based on the findings of this study, several issues concerning the communication needs of Thai engineering students in certain contexts merit further consideration. In considering communicative events that should be incorporated into ESP courses, it was learned from the real-life data that there were important concerns other than those contained in the courses which the learners would use in authentic situations. For example, the stakeholders in this study reasoned that there was an expectation of having some communicative events, even when said events were infrequent. These reasons supported the recommended selection of communicative events for the Technical English course, which also encouraged ESP teachers to address learners’ needs as they were perceived in their own contexts. As seen in the research literature (Section 1), training in writing skills is being emphasised for engineering students and engineers in the present international community. For civil engineering in the Thai context, training in reading and writing communicative events should be further promoted, as they have been determined to be the most frequently needed skills. As in previous publications, the findings of this study also suggest that English is required more for occupational than educational purposes. The findings were obtained more from stakeholders in the professional study and learning situations (lecturers, former students, and ESP teachers) than from work situations (employers and engineers). ESP course design in the Thai context should be oriented in the suggested direction. Settings of communication, roles of communicators and people with whom communicators have interaction in the Thai context are likely to be the same as those identified from among the 18 communicative events. What distinguishes the communicative events found in the Thai context from those in the existing list lies in the variety of English use, attitudinal tone and the target levels required for communication. In this study, pure standard English was not always needed in the Thai context. The use of technical terms in professional Thai conversations was a very likely scenario. As such, ESP lesson preparation should consider the style of English used in local situations among locals and that used by native speakers when conversing with non-native speakers. The attitudinal tone of communication required in the identified communicative events in both Thai and international contexts is generally formal, academic, and professional. ESP course designs should be made congruent with the findings. However, they should be more relaxed, as indicated by the attitudinal tone of communication in the Thai context. In addition, it was found that a less advanced level of English communication was needed in Thailand, such as when looking at recordings, or completing equipment and safety checklists and forms. In international situations, engineers write technical papers. When considering several factors together, the appropriate target level that should be set for the first ESP course should be intermediate. The students are likely to have learned some English before entering university. The majority of them have disadvantages in English ability. They are also facing authentic English use situations. It is important to note here, however, that a target level set in the sociolinguistic perspective is meant to be a determinant rather than a requirement (Munby, 1978). As most language teachers are aware, all students cannot be expected to achieve the same things even though they have been taught at the same time (Holliday, 1994; Hutchinson & Waters, 1987). It has also become clear that the subject content of communication in both the Thai and international engineering contexts are primarily specialised. Other content such as that needed in business were also identified in the context of this study. However, these have not been strongly recommended for incorporation into the course. This can mean that the content of ESP courses should be closely related to a particular engineering focus because the courses can be organised to be useful for a specialised field. 6. Conclusion The findings of this study have highlighted the increasing demand for English in engineering in Thailand, and the diversity of English required in various locations. It has been suggested that engineering programmes
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should consist of more than one or two ESP courses. More research should be conducted to identify the communication needs in the engineering field and to address those needs within ESP courses as much as possible. In the Thai EFL environment, English classes are likely to be the only opportunity for the majority of students to become acquainted with professional English. To address learners’ specific needs, it might also be necessary to design a new set of instructional materials. The learners should be personally exposed to professional English that is specifically useful for their context. When preparing instructional materials alongside their class activities, classes could benefit from learning vocabulary and reading strategies, as recommended in both the literature and by the stakeholders (e.g., Mudraya, 2006; lecturer in Section 4.2.3). Much of technical language is lexical, thus reading strategies and vocabulary would help students handle the specialised content. Other considerations are also significant for addressing communication needs in ESP courses. Firstly, learning needs and communication needs should be undertaken simultaneously. Focusing on communication needs alone might not provide sufficient understanding of learner needs. For example, some target levels required in communication might not be suitable in real teaching and learning contexts. Teaching and learning are also influenced by learning needs such as learners’ background knowledge of the specialised contents, knowledge of the English language, preferred teaching and learning styles (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987). Secondly, communication needs and learning needs should be incorporated in ESP courses through the process of curriculum development. A curriculum should be designed based on identified needs. It should then be implemented and evaluated to determine whether or not it has met the learner’s needs in real teaching and learning (e.g., Brown, 1995; Richards, 2001). Allwright (1988) and Holliday (1994) recommend studying what actually happens in real classrooms, as knowledge about real classrooms is not only insufficient, but also lacking. References Allwright, R. L. (1988). Observation in the language classroom. London: Longman. Andrews, D. C. (2003). An interdisciplinary course in technical communication. Technical communication online, 50.
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