Report Eae Complete.docx

INTRODUCTION ARTICLE 1 A summary of the articles shows that the first one, “University graduates workplace language needs as perceived by employers” by Tuula Lehtonan and Sinikka Karjalainen,(2007) discusses the issues of workplace language needs as perceived by employers. This article focuses on the language needs of university graduates at today’s workplace as seen through the eyes of their employers. The researcher cites that Literature on Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has found that individuals working in specific contexts have specific needs or are expected to have specialized skills in a particular language, and languages used in the workplace are often from used in other contexts. Besides that, language teaching courses in LSP / ESP are targeted at specific groups with specific needs but it is not very clear because the language centers of the university does not know enough about future careers and language skills required at work. Not only that, the research focus on the 'core' of the workplace to help teachers plan courses for students from many disciplines. They also find that current international teaching assessment (Horppu and Niskanen, 2004) at the University of Helsinki is proposed in this assessment that Language Center to identify the language needs of the workplace to bridge the gap between language teaching and linguistic needs at work. The researches purpose this article is to focus on the needs of university graduates in the workplace today in the view of their employer. Although, they also use the interview data to highlight language trends related to a particular language in the workplace of graduates of Finnish universities from developed countries. Otherwise, they also assume that the languages needed are not a specific language and specific usage. In addition, they always pay attention to the cultural aspects related to the workplace in the multicultural / multilingual world today. Lastly, the research hope that purpose of this study is to assist LSP / ESP teachers and curriculum planners at university language centers or other similar institutions to plan their language program even in cases where the future work of the student is somewhat uncertain. Furthermore, they also hope that this research will assist practitioners in setting goals for workrelated goals, particularly on the Joint European Reference (CEFR) (Council of Europe, 2001).

ARTICLE 2

The second article, “Communicating in the Workplace: Self-Reports by New UWI Electrical and Computer Engineering Graduates” by Crista Mohammed also focuses on the importance of communication to job performance and career advancement. This article shows that technical writing instruction from Connors (2004, p.4), cites "a series of critics of illiterate engineering graduate articles" which began to appear in 1903 and the complaints continues few years later. From the research the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) (2008, p.182) found that although UK employers "were not critical of engineering knowledge and graduate understanding led to their first job", they were unhappy with "lack of major skills possessed by graduates such as interpersonal skills, collaborative and weak writing. Simultaneously, Trinidad and Tobago industry, Shrivastava (2004) complained that there was "deep stamina and broadening efficiency", especially in writing skills and technical communications.

Therefore, from that the Engineering schools around the world are responding to this efficiency gap in various ways (Reave 2004). Russel (2001, p.261) argues that regardless of the curriculum allocation that addresses this deficit, it is necessary to understand "where the student is headed", so that we can assess the "schooling way of helping or preventing them from going there". But, in the United States in particular, have different advantages because their curriculum can attract a number of workplace studies that describe the context of communication where graduates will work. So, the research also discussed about the gap from United States by explaining, in terms of broad quantitative, communication requests made by beginner engineers working in Trinidad and Tobago.

METHODOLOGY

These two journal articles contain different methodology about communicating and language skills at the workplace for the fresh graduates. The methodology uses in the first journal articles about by Communicating in the Workplace: Self-Reports by New UWI Electrical and Computer Engineering Graduates by reporting quantitative data gathered by means of a questionnaire while the second journal articles about University Graduates’ Workplace Language Needs as Perceived by Employers are using interview data from the representatives of 15 Finnish employers.

ARTICLE 1

On the first journal article by Crista Mohammed, quantitative data were collected by means of a questionnaire. Alumni of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UWI (DECE), who are employed in local industry, were polled. They were drawn from the three graduating cohorts—2010/2011, 2011/2012, 2012/2013. The questionnaire was piloted using a test-retest method. The questionnaire was administered twice to five graduates from a cohort other than those investigated. The coefficient of stability was found to be 0.71, which is acceptable according to Frey, Botan and Kreps (2010). The questionnaire was distributed electronically to all 155 graduates for the 2010/2011; 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 cohorts. The questionnaire was mailed twice, with a three-week interval between mailings and posted twice in a closed Facebook group for the DECE. Based on those completing the questionnaire, Crista Mohammed mentioned that seven were unemployed, five were in fields outside of engineering, and nine were working abroad. Therefore, 58 responses (n=58) were usable.

ARTICLE 2 On the second journal article by Lehtonen and Karjalainen (2008), University Helsinki launched a project called Language Needs at the Workplace in 2003. This project consisted of two parts, a postal survey to employees and interviews with employers. First, Horppu (2005) carried out a postal survey on the actual use of languages at work. The respondents represented all faculties, and the response rate was highest among those who graduated from the faculties of Science (52%), Behavioural Sciences (51%) and Arts (50%). Based on the result’s, the Finnish language is the highest percentage that is 90% people are using in workplace, followed by English (37%) as the second highest language people are using in workplace every day. Horppu’s findings suggest that English is needed on a regular basis, and about a third of the Finnish-speaking respondents use Swedish regularly. In addition, the respondents suggested that they would need to improve their vocabulary knowledge in all the languages they reported on. Based on this data, most of people in Finland are using Finnish and English language at workplace. Horppu and Lehtonen, (2003) mentioned that (90%) graduates from 1999 and 2001 had fulfilled the degree requirement in English.

RESULTS

ARTICLE 1

From the first journal one, the aim of the project was to investigate the actual language use of employees with an academic degree and to interview representatives of employers and also to interview representatives of employers about issues related to language use. There was two part of project which are a postal survey and employer interview. The first part of the project, a postal survey which is a structured questionnaire. The survey was sent to 2474 and returned by 1190 graduates, from the University of Helsinki. The respondent represented from all faculties which are, science (52%), behavioural sciences (51%) and arts (50%), as shown on Table 1. From the second part, they make a survey from the employer by interviewing them. The interview was collected in Helsinki, Finland. 19 staff members was involved. The interview was about various matters that related with foreign language the use and need at work. From the survey, we notice that the language skills are important in professions and these skills are often regarded as self-evident, and job applicants with a poor knowledge of language are not even considered. The interview also shows that both national language, Finnish and Swedish, play a role at the workplace.

ARTICLE 2

In article two, this article shows that technical writing instruction from Connors (2004), cites "a series of critics of illiterate engineering graduate articles". They use questionnaires as their survey method. 155 Electrical and computer engineering graduates as their respondents. The questionnaire was piloted using a test-retest method. 79 graduates complete the survey. From the survey seven of them unemployed, five from them in fields outside of engineering and nine working abroad. The respondent result by using the gender, the number of male is more than female, as shown in Table 2. For the year of working experience, most of the respondent are less than one year of working. Result that get from the survey are “Less than one year” (52%), “one year to three years (38%) and 10% for “more than three years. Most of the novice engineers, 48% spent 21-40% of their workday with writing and 22% from them 41-60% taking time spent writing per day, besides, spent time on greater than 60% is 14%. Data on time spent on communication in relation to the number of thematic areas in which respondent practiced. 43% respondent that practicing in 1 area, 48% practicing in 2 thematic area, 3% practicing in 3 thematic areas and 5% practicing in 4 or more thematic areas. They report that in the recruitment process, proficiency in technical writing and interpersonal skills are deemed the most valuable. All communication skills and in particular strong presentation skills are needed for promotion.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This review has considered two different journal articles. Each journal article focuses on the issue of “University graduates workplace language needs as perceived by employers” and “Communicating in the Workplace: Self-Reports by New UWI Electrical and Computer Engineering Graduates”. Both articles related on university graduates needs a good language and communication skills at workplace. The first journal article by Lehtonen and Karjalainen (2008), confirmed that foreign language skills are an increasingly important basic component of professional academic skills, particularly in a country like Finland. Close co-operation with employers in planning language Centre courses like ESP/LSP is thus needed in order to tailor language teaching to adequately meet the needs of the future academic workforce. Author mentioned that findings may be generalized to other countries with a similar language situation like Malaysia. Based on journal article two, Crista Mohammed mentioned that engineering students believed “maths” and “language” are two unrelated disciplines. It can be argued that for the entrylevel engineer the biggest impediment to getting the job done and done well is their uninformed belief that they will not be required to write and speak formally and they therefore are not mentally prepared for these tasks. The author also said that if over half of the workday is absorbed by communication tasks, then employers are expending a large part of salaries for the communication artefacts needed for and generated by their business process.