English for Specific Purposes
Wrld

Gunadevi K. Jeevi Subramaniam. The ability of the polytechnics marketing student in using good English oral communication skills during industrial training

Abstract

The main aim of this study is to identify the perception of employers concerning the use of English oral  communication skills by the marketing students in polytechnics and the trainees' perception of the skills that they have learned in their proficiency courses before going out for the industrial training.  Data are collected through two different sets of questionnaires intended to gauge employers' and trainees' perceptions. We conducted a series of interviews with the employers and on-going observations before the students go for their five months industrial training. The results of this study revealed that employers found that the trainees needed more practice in public speaking in particular when dealing with customers. Moreover, trainees and employers placed similar importance in terms of the ranking of the communicative skills, where both employers and trainees put emphasis on the importance of communicating with customers in English. The results of this study also suggest that more training needs to be given in public speaking before the trainees go out for their industrial training.  Learning oral communication and having good proficiency has to be a priority for these marketing students/interns; since they are in a lot of teamwork collaboration with other English-speaking customers at their workplace.

Key words: readiness, training needs, English communication skills.

PDF-file