Self-Assessment of Engineering Learners’ Perception of Usefulness of Pre-Writing Strategies

Abstract

The engineering undergraduate students at premiere institutions give more importance to core subjects often neglecting the English language. Specifically, these students consider academic writing less important than other language skills such as speaking, reading, and listening. As a result, these students are at a big disadvantage in the industry and while applying for higher education. Hence, the present study has attempted to understand the students’ perceptions of usefulness of pre-writing strategies. For this purpose, 439 engineering undergraduate students (357-males and 82-females) have been administered a self-assessment questionnaire of pre-writing strategies. The main research tools used in this study were a structured self-assessment questionnaire and informal interviews with the students. The quantitative data was analyzed through statistical procedures in SPSS-26 software. The analysis of the students’ interviews was described. The findings showed that the majority of the engineering students have positive perception towards the usefulness of pre-writing strategies. The results revealed that there was no significant difference between the male and female students’ perceptions of usefulness of pre-writing strategies. The study recommends improving engineering students’ pre-writing strategies and also proposes remedial teaching for fostering basic ESL writing requirements of students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds.