A Sociolinguistic Approach to Oral and Written Communication for Engineering Students


  •  Chamnong Kaewpet    
  •  Suphat Sukamolson    

Abstract

Engineering students are under pressure to achieve better English abilities required for international communication in the profession. This paper explores reports concerning English education for engineering and focuses on demands for oral and written communication, emphasizing oral presentations, professional conversations and report writing. A sociolinguistic picture of communicative events is examined for a general idea of English instruction. The examination indicates that incorporation of authentic communicative events into English courses has become a necessity to help students’ transition from the classroom to the workplace. Moreover, the subject contents of communication should be adequately discipline-specific to enhance the value of training. The target level of comprehensibility of communication should be close to that of native speakers to succeed in real communication. Further research is recommended as demands vary from context to context.



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