International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET)
Volume 10, Issue 01, January 2019, pp. 1002–1006, Article ID: IJMET_10_01_103
Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/ijmet/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=10&IType=1
ISSN Print: 0976-6340 and ISSN Online: 0976-6359
© IAEME Publication
Scopus Indexed
ENHANCING SPEAKING SKILLS FOR
ENGINEERING STUDENTS HAILING FROM
RURAL BACKGROUND
K. A. Vilasini
Research Scholar, VIT University, Vellore, Tamilnadu, India
Dr. X. John Paul
Assistant Professor, VIT University, Vellore, Tamilnadu, India
ABSTRACT
The study aims to explore the problems and difficulties of students speaking
English language for Engineering students hailing from rural background. The study
moreover aims to explore the causes of such difficulties. The researcher designed
certain tasks based on Task based language teaching on the sample of the study.
These tasks are applied for each student to investigate speaking difficulties and the
causes of such difficulties. The results showed and indicated that there are some
difficulties in speaking English due to fear of making mistakes, anxiety, shyness and
lack of confidence. The researcher identified to provide environment support and
encourage the students to speak English frequently.
Key words: Lean service, Waste, Customer value, Value stream, Improvement.
Cite this Article: K. A. Vilasini and Dr. X. John Paul, Enhancing Speaking Skills for
Engineering Students Hailing from Rural Background, International Journal of
Mechanical Engineering and Technology 10(1), 2019, pp. 1002–1006.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJMET/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=10&IType=1
1. INTRODUCTION
In the modern scenario, the compulsion of learning English has no longer becomes political or
colonial issue but rather for scientific and technological utilities. It helps in developing the
diplomatic situations across the countries. Though English is an adapted language to many
countries it delves into the roots and has become the part and parcel of the communication
medium. It is not only the language of Great Britain and U.S but also the language of the
world.
English is considered as ligua franca because it has become an international language and
is much commonly used for business and other purposes. India gives special status to English
and number of English medium schools are commonly found in India. The premium
institutions such as IITs, IIMs and supreme court proceedings gives special priority for
English language. In Call centers and IT sectors people are given employment opportunities
for having proper communication skill in English though they are not qualified enough.
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Enhancing Speaking Skills for Engineering Students Hailing from Rural Background
People are given employment opportunities for having good communication skill in English
though they are not qualified enough. In IT sectors English language is the central figure
where all the softwares and programs are developed. The proficiency in English language
plays a phenomenal role not only in IT sectors but also in other fields.
According to the research by the British Council, "English is spoken as a native language
by around 375 million and as a second language by around 375 million speakers of the
world... Around 750 million people are believed to speak English as a foreign language. One
out of four of the world's population speaks English to some level of competence."
2. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Since English is a foreign language in our country, students from tamil medium background
are not familiar with it. Therefore, speaking English is a nightmare for them. Despite pursuing
engineering, they are unable to communicate properly in English language. Though teachers
force them to speak inside the class, they refuse to follow and they do not speak outside the
class. This is because students have limited time to learn English class and they still do not
have enough support and encouragement to practice English outside the class in order to get
familiar with English. Their living ambience and background does not support them to speak
English. This brings them a problem in communicating English. This paper helps to identify
the difficulties of the students to communicate in English and gives some solutions to
overcome the difficulties. The main aim of teaching speaking skill is communicative
efficiency. Teaching speaking skill is nothing but helping the learners to develop their ability
to interact successfully in the target language. To help students enhance their speaking skills,
the teacher must help students improve their grammar, enrich their vocabulary, and manage
the interactions in terms of who says what, to whom, when and about what. Since the students
do not have proper exposure they face difficulties in constructing the sentence, pronunciation
and choosing vocabularies.
3. DISCUSSION OF THE PROBLEM
The researcher discusses the difficulties of speaking English language by the students from
marginalised group. The designed project gives the solution for the problems which students
face with speaking English from Auxilium College. It also answers the questions like:
1) What are the errors that students commit during speaking?
2) How do they promote friendly environment?
3) How to overcome fear, anxiety and shyness of the student?
4. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY
The researcher noticed at Global Engineering college students from rural and Tamil medium
background face some difficulties in speaking while they talk about their subjects and during
discussions in the lectures of different courses. The importance of such study lies in the
following points:
1. The research formulates a list of useful techniques and procedures for students speaking
skills to overcome such problems.
2. The study will upgrade the level of students speaking skills by adopting suitable techniques
and procedures for proficiency and accuracy of speaking skills.
3. The research shall highlight and focus on the causes of such difficulties and problems and
tries to find suitable solution for the same.
4. The study will draw the attention of persons in charge and the officials to the importance of
student’s role in achieving and carrying out proficient and accurate speaking skills.
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K. A. Vilasini and Dr. X. John Paul
5. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Task based language learning is an approach based on the use of tasks as the core unit of
planning and instruction in language teaching. Some of its proponents are the part of
communicative language teaching. The activities that involve real communication are
essential for language learning and the activities in which language is used for carrying out
meaningful tasks promote learning. In this approach, the language that is meaningful to the
learner supports the learning process.
In the literature on TBLT, several attempts have been made to group tasks into categories,
as a basis for task design and description. The six task types is built on more or less traditional
knowledge.
1. Listing 2. Ordering 3. Comparing 4. Problem solving 5. Sharing personal experiences
6.Creative tasks.
Pica, Kanagy, and Falodun classified tasks according to the type of interaction that occurs
in task accomplishment.
1. Jigsaw tasks: These involve learners combining different pieces of information to form a
whole.
2. Information-gap tasks: One student or group of students has one set of information and
another student or group has a complementary set of information. Therefore in this, they must
negotiate and find out what the other party's information is in order to complete an activity.
3. Problem-solving tasks: Students are given a problem and a set of information. They must
arrive at a solution to the problem.
4. Decision-making tasks: Students are given a problem for which there are a number of
possible outcomes and they must choose one through negotiation and discussion.
5. Opinion exchange tasks: Learners engage in discussion and exchange of ideas.
6. RESEARCH QUESTIONS (OR) HYPOTHESIS
1) What are the errors that students commit while speaking in English?
2) Does the development of fluency in English will compensate unawareness of importance of
English?
3) Does the speaking skill promote the sustainability of the students?
7. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The researcher followed the analytical descriptive method in this study.
A) Population
The population of study from rural background who studies Mechanical Engineering from
Global Engineering College, Vellore for the academic year 2017-2018. The participants
consists of 120 first year students to find out related difficulties they face in speaking skills.
B) Sample of Study
The researcher chose a random sample from the population of study composed of 120
students who study English Language.
C) Instrument of the Study
The researcher will hold an interview with the student and let them talk about certain subject,
then he/she will analyze their speech. Such analysis is based on i) pronunciation ii) grammar
ii) proficiency in order to show the difficulties of speaking.
The researcher used the Statistical Methods in the Study to analyze data.
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Enhancing Speaking Skills for Engineering Students Hailing from Rural Background
Techniques of Collecting Data
The study employed three techniques of collecting data namely observations and interview
and questionnaire. The observation was carried out to find out students’ participation, errors
in grammar and pronunciation and the fluency in speaking skill activity. The interview was
conducted to know students’ participations, difficulty in grammar, pronunciation and the
fluency in speaking skill, factors that hinder students from speaking and the causes of such
factors as well as the solutions to overcome these factors. The questionnaire is given to
understand the level of the students and their psychology towards speaking English.
Answering the questions, Discussion and Results
Answering the first question: What is the major difficulty in speaking English who belong
to marginalised community from Auxilium College students? To answer such question the
researcher computed means, standard deviation and relative weight of the scores of the study
sample on each domain and total degree of speaking English language skill interview.
8. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main objectives of the research of "Enhancing speaking skills for the students hailing
from rural background" are:1) Improving and developing the skills and techniques of the students
2) To enrich and assist the students's ability of speaking skills.
3) Adopting suitable speaking skills strategies.
4) To enable the students to learn a wide range of speaking skills which includes how to speak
accurately and proficiently.
5) To bring the students to a level of practical proficiency that will enable them to be
linguistically equipped and increase their confidence in practicing speaking skills.
9. UNIVERSE OF THE STUDY
In pursuance of the objectives formulated, the investigators selected Auxilium College in
Vellore district, Tamil Nadu since it is considered as the minority institution managed by
Salesian sisters. The students hailing from rural areas struggle harder and face many
challenges with speaking English when compared to other students.
10. IMPLICATIONS
Thus the new methodology is identified for the development of speaking skills of the
marginalised group with task based language learning approach.
11. MAJOR SOLUTIONS
1. The first cause that makes the students difficult in speaking English is that the environment
does not support the students to speak English frequently.
2. The second solution is for the students themselves. They can have an English conversation
club that consists of their own classmates. They can share and talk about anything in English
during that time. In this club, they can learn together. Students can correct each other without
feeling embarrassed.
3. The teacher should create a comfortable environment by strengthening the confidence of
English language learners.
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K. A. Vilasini and Dr. X. John Paul
4. The teacher should not try to correct the local errors of students when they struggle to get
their meanings across. Instructors can also speak to the students privately to eliminate any
embarrassment.
5. The teacher should not insist on the errors of the student while they are speaking.
6. The teacher should create a suitable and friendly environment while they are speaking.
7. The teacher should encourage all students to speak with them in English.
Suggestions The researcher suggested carrying out more studies and researches about
speaking difficulties encountered by English language students .
REFERENCES
[1]
Aftat, Mokhtar. Motivation and Genuine learning. (2008).
<http://www.englishteacher1.com/motivation.html> (March 15, 2017)
[2]
Babu, Ramesh. Teaching Spoken English for Non-native Students: Problems, Solutions
andTechniques. 2010.
[3]
<http://www.eltweekly.com/elt-newsletter/2010/06/60-article-teaching- spoken- Englishfor-non-native-students-problems-solutions-and-techniques-by-a-ramesh-babu/>. (March
15, 2017)
[4]
Baldwin, Caroline. How to Overcome Shyness During an Oral Presentation.
(2011).<http://www.ehow.com/how_7852354_overcome-shyness-during-oralpresentation.html>
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