THE NEED FOR A COURSE IN ACADEMIC WRITING FOR ESL ENGINEERING UNDERGRADUATES: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY (Pages 372-385) by Mr. Nagaraju Kakkireni in THE ENGLISH RESEARCH EXPRESS / ISSN:2321-1164 (Online); 2347-2642 (Print)

There has been a vast increase in the number of students opting for engineering in recent years both at the undergraduate and post graduate level, with the fourfold increase in the number of engineering colleges in the state of Andhra Pradesh. More than one lakh students graduate in engineering alone every year from “Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad. Around ten thousand students complete their post-graduation in engineering. English is offered as one of the subjects in the first year undergraduate engineering curriculum in the colleges affiliated to this university. A close look at the English course that is offered in the first year in this university reveals that it is more general in nature, something that is an extension of the same they have been exposed to, until their entry into the university setting. Among the four skills (Listening, Speaking, Reading & Writing), writing has been a major area of concern as the students are graded mostly for their writing. Undergraduate engineering students struggle a lot in producing a written piece of work whether it is an academic essay or project report writing. It is generally accepted that academic writing epitomizes the language of scholarship and demonstrates eligibility for higher education. The quality of an individual’s written work determines his or her scholarship and acceptance in academia. This paper tries to explore the need for a course in academic writing for the ESL undergraduate engineering students studying in the colleges affiliated to Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Key Words: argumentative structures, writing competence, academic performance, knowledge-building, competitive exams etc.