A Study to evaluate the entry level English language skills of engineering students from mother tongue medium schools in anna university chennai

Abstract

The main objectives of the present study are firstly to study the suitability of the ESL course in the engineering colleges for the students coming from the mother tongue medium of instruction and secondly to study the specific language gains if any, in English, by the ELLs, from the English Language course in the first year of their engineering programme. The main premise of the study is that the English course should include elements that will enable the learners coming from the mother tongue medium of instruction to develop their communicative fluency in English that will directly aid in their all-round development and career. newline newlineSome of the major findings of the present study are the quantum of language learnt by the learners during their 12 years at school is very minimal as most of them could not listen, understand and comprehend instructions given to them in English during the first two semesters. They had difficulty and trouble in comprehending and responding to simple, basic questions in English. Even the minimal amount of language learnt by some of the learners could not be used by them in different contexts and this is evident from their performance of the various skills in the first two semesters. The one size fits all belief of curriculum planners and syllabus designers at the tertiary level has meant that there has been no effort made at damage control. The rather ambiguous learning that started at the school level is continued and sustained at the tertiary level. The ESL courses in tertiary institutions are designed and planned without much understanding of the real language needs of learners. This lack of understanding mirrors the apathy and indifference that are displayed by syllabus designers at the school level and compounds the already inadequate and faulty learning of English at the school level. Language anxiety is also one of the major obstacles in learning the English language. newline newline newline