Imparting Second Language Communication Skills to Technical Students at the Tertiary Level.

Having found that Engineering students struggle in striking a balance between knowledge (tacit) and use (Hymes, 1971)as far as conveying technical information in second language (L[sub 2]) is concerned, this paper will suggest situational speaking tasks to develop specific language and strategic competence in classroom environment. There is a gap between knowing and executing in language for expression. Language ability is judged based on sound language knowledge and strategic competence of the learner. Despite having enough knowledge, most of the learners fail to communicate effectively in second language. The paper reports a study in which 34 Engineering students, in two groups, were made to undergo language activities based on concrete needs analysis. Results revealed that there was a significant difference between the two groups with students in the experimental group outperforming those in the control group on both specific speaking and writing tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]