Strategies for Developing Speaking Skills of Technical Students

Abstract

Today, English is the most widely studied foreign language, the world over, after the globalization. English language learning and teaching in Engineering institutions in Tamil Nadu has become a medium of instruction. Most of the entrants of engineering education are second language learners, who were taught English language as a subject, not as a skill at primary and secondary levels. They are unable to cope with the burden of technical subjects especially at the entry level, due to the medium of instruction and method of teaching and learning. The syllabus and the text books prescribed by Anna University for the engineering students aim at developing language skills still the students have not developed spoken skills. Due to that, now-a- days, there is a wide gap among the learners in the acquisition of spoken skills of the language both in general and technical contexts. This condition of the learners prevents them from employability. On the other hand, the language teacher is also professionally liable for the learner’s communicative constraints especially spoken skills. It is a challenge for English language teacher to teach heterogeneous group of learners in abnormal ratio.