Examining English As A Second Language (ESL) Engineering Students’ Attitudes Towards Writing In English

Writing, a productive language skill, is an integral part of language. English as Second Language (ESL) writing is an output process where the words are composed, knowledge and ideas are organized and weaved to put together a meaningful body of text, where English is the second language of the learners. Engineering students, whose learning and training are primarily on concepts and calculations, have been known to not focus on writing skills as much as their core subjects. This has been proven by criticisms by employers and industry players on engineering graduates’ communicative written skills. The purpose of this study is to examine engineering students’ attitudes towards ESL writing. Through random sampling, 30 engineering students at undergraduate level from a private engineering and technology university in Perak were selected as participants in the survey. The instrument is adapted from Podsen’s (1997) writing attitude survey. The study will help to understand engineering students towards ESL writing from their point of view thus help educators to shift any curriculum needed in the effort towards producing engineering graduates with proficient writing skills. Findings found the respondents’ attitudes is equally divided into moderate and high, indicating positive attitude.