Communicative Competence Requirement in Technical Oral Presentation in Engineering Education: Stakeholder Perceptions in a Malaysian Context

The awareness that engineers operate and cooperate in interdisciplinary arenas necessitates the understanding of the significance of social skills required in the globalizing engineering communities where the members represent different educational backgrounds, cultures, and nationalities. In this light, engineers of the 21st century need to possess an adequate knowledge and understanding of stakeholders (members of the academic and professional engineering community) perception of effective communicative competence requirements in presentation skills and attributes required in Technical Oral Presentation (TOP). Technical oral presentations are a frequently practiced workplace communicative requirement. The Situated Learning Theory advocates that perceptions of selected stakeholders or participants in a Community of Practice (COP) reflect the participants legitimate peripheral participation in a said discourse community. The study is based upon the final year engineering project (technical presentation) at a Malaysian university, which seeks to identify the presentation skills and attribute requirements as constructed by various selected stakeholders in TOP in engineering education. Both quantitative and qualitative findings are presented and described in the study. The study also discusses the pedagogical implications toward effective participation in the discourse community from an engineering education perspective.