Employers' Perception of Language Proficiency of MA English Graduates

Abstract

In Pakistan, MA English has become one of the degrees with larger scope in the job market, mainly because of the increasing demand of proficiency in English language. The higher number of failures in English subject in Bachelors’ results shows that the students reaching this level still need to develop their language proficiency in English. This leads many students to take MA English program as an instrument in getting their future dream job by enhancing their language proficiency. This descriptive research is an attempt to study what language proficiency demands and expectations the potential employers have from MA English graduates, and how these expectations are addressed in MA English programs in Pakistan, with a special focus on scope of assessment of high order thinking skills including language in the existing assessment tools and practices at this level. The research is delimited to two potential employers- call centres and private schools in Rawalpindi/Islamabad, and MA English programs offered in public sector universities in Rawalpindi/Islamabad. The results reached through qualitative tools like the content analysis of objectives, courses and assessment policies in MA English programs and quantitative tools like surveys for potential employers, students and teachers in MA English programs prove the importance of English language proficiency for a good job. It also reflects the employers’ dissatisfaction with the current English language proficiency level of MA English degree holders, and their stress on the need to revise the assessment practices in this regard. It also shows that all the stake holders understand the need for students’ language proficiency enhancement to enable them to develop high order thinking skills needed in valid assessment practices. It is concluded from the analyses of data that there is not much scope for students’ language proficiency enhancement in MA English programs as is required by the potential employers and it is recommended that in order to increase the employability of MA English graduates in the job market, MA English programs must be based on the realistic objectives formulated on the basis of students’ needs. The language proficiency enhancement should be made a part of the teaching and assessment procedures. Structurally, the thesis has been divided into introduction and the background of the study, review of relevant literature, research methodology, qualitative and quantitative analyses of all the relevant documents and the responses on the surveys for which the Chi-square tests have been applied. The last chapter discusses the conclusions drawn and recommendations made.