An examination of the difficulties faced by ESL instructors and students in the fields of engineering and technology

Abstract

It is an endeavour by Malaysian technical and engineering tertiary institutions to resuscitate the pedagogical approaches of ESL learning and communication skills at these universities. Examining the ESL practitioners' setting has shown that there is a crucial gap between the diverse needs of skills and solid pedagogical models to assess the quality of the practitioners' teaching. This research intends to analyse and investigate the problems experienced by practitioners in enabling the method in order to comprehend the need of the approach. 14 ESL specialists were interviewed in semi-structured interviews, and 42 ESL practitioners in technical and engineering domains were surveyed online. In order to get a better understanding of the obstacles and abilities needed to solve them, interview questions were devised for specialists. There were five-point Likert scales used to measure the significance of the competences in the method. The data was analysed using frequencies and percentages, as well as Braun and Clarke's (2006) six-stage thematic analysis technique. As a result of the findings of both investigations, it became clear that practitioners needed to have a deeper grasp of the strategy and specialised abilities to overcome the problems. The proficiency of practitioners was crucial because it may impact the desire of their students in acquiring the skills and comprehending the subject matter.