COMMUNICATIVE NEEDS IN ENGLISH FOR STUDENTS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY A STUDY OF AKANU IBIAM FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC UNWANA

1.1Background of the Study

The global community of science and technology has continued to advance and hence the requirements for communication in this area has become increasingly demanding. This is in line with the saying of Chinua Achebe that when the bird learns to fly without perching, the hunter learns to shoot without missing (Chinua Achebe, ii). In the field of science and technology in today's world, the English Language has made an indelible mark on technological advancement. A relationship of interdependency exists between the two. Technology is created, expressed, interpreted and transmitted through language, and the domains of phonetics, morphology, syntax and semantics are studied and investigated through technology (Gbenga Fakuade & B. Onyemachi 217). Communication is indispensable to everyone but, specifically, in the life of every student and professional. This is because one needs it to succeed both as a student and a practitioner in the industry. For the communicative needs in English of science and technology students to be achieved, language must be effective for what it is intended.

The communicative needs in English for students of science and technology is informed by a number of reasons. Technology oriented students engage in constant reading of what has been written by others. They also listen to lectures and various types of broadcasts and also engage in series of practical assignments which they have to report using language. To ensure these communicative activities are carried out without hitches, the language and communication courses designed for them

must recognize the principles of needs analysis. Needs analysis simply means looking at communication from the target situation point of view. According to Hutchinson Waters, the need is interpreted in the “discourse types” that manifest in the target situation. The implication of this to the effect of science and technology students‟ communicative needs becomes imperative as it helps science and technology students succeed as students and also use the right English to consume their professional practices in communication. The National Board for Technical Education (N.B.T.E) designed the course contents of technological students‟ language curriculum in such a way that they constantly engage in oral talks and listen to understand what others have to tell them. All these activities demand effective communication. Hence science and technology students need to be properly guided against “misapplying their pliers” through improper communication (Lubasa, N, vi). This can be achieved by ensuring that they are exposed to the right language courses that will facilitate their communication needs (Nwogu Kelvin vii).

Science and technology students refer to learners or persons studying or undergoing courses of study in a polytechnic or monotechnic system. Polytechnic students are variously referred to as undergraduates, technological students, students of science and technology among others. The polytechnic like its monotechnic counterpart is a non-conventional institution where the medium of communication, the English language, is taught as a general course for just one year for the engineering students, and the first and graduation years for the business-oriented disciplines. These calibre of students need to be guided appropriately considering their brief period of sojourn in school. Most importantly too, they need to be effective in English, the language of communication, hence

communication can hardly be separated from technology. For this reason, they need to communicate in English to be able to develop, transfer, market and carry out sundry technological activities.

Communication is a term that is difficult to pin down to one definition. This is because the concept of communication is very broad. However, it is a term that is so indispensable to science and technology students both “here and hereafter (Obi, I.V, 16). From ones point of birth to his school years of rigorous academic activities, and finally to when one settles down in the wider world of work, one is constantly communicating. Communication is indispensable to individuals, students and practitioners in various fields of work. This probably explains why Peter Little views communication as an act as well as a process of exchange of ideas within, between and among individuals and organizations by means of previously agreed symbols(2).

A major instrument of communication is language. In the globalized context, English is the Lingua franca of most countries, as well as the language for science and technology. The language is increasingly and predominantly employed in the communication of scientific and technological information, concepts, ideas et cetera. The language has become the “de facto international language of science and technology (S&T)” (Sasidharan,8). Polytechnic students of science, engineering and technology have a task to face this fact while in school since books, papers, handbooks and journals on science and technology written in English form the bulk of their recommended study texts. The medium of communication in Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic Unwana (AIFPU) just like any other polytechnic in the country is the English Language. This is because Nigeria is an Anglophone nation that uses English as its official language of communication. According to Randolph Quirk,