Needs assessment of workplace English and Saudi graduates’ English language competency

Abstract EN

Communication skills in English have been identified as essential workplace tools for success in business and have been correlated with career success and increased in financial rewards, hi Saudi Arabia there is a concern regarding the widening gap between the communication skills in.

English of job applicants and the English language competency required for employment.

This paper presents the findings of a sftidy to investigate the importance of English competency for employment and employers’ needs.

Data for the study were gathered from (ARAMCO and SABEC) companies repre$enting die field of Industry sectors using a survey questionnaire, focusing on group discussion and ' interviews.

The findings of the study indicate that many young Saudi graduates have no sufficient ability of English language to conduct tlieir طهز$ effectively.

This causes many companies and work facilities to avoid hiring young Saudi graduates in different fields of work.

To overcome this problem, many institutions are providing ES? courses at the college level for students from different specialties to enable them 0؛ conduet their future careers effectively.

However, customizing ESP programs to suit the Saudi work environment falls short in defining the ES? objectives since there has never been a study conducted to define the English needs of Saudi Engineering professionals that might seive as the basis for an ES? curriculum.

At present, instructors intl'oduce the ES? program for the English language courses shnply by selecting materials from available commercial texts for teaching English for Engineering purposes along with