English language training from the students’ perspective

Abstract

This work is part of the research project "Study of teaching practices of English in the Faculty of Engineering and Agricultural Sciences (FICA) of the National University of San Luis (UNSL) and its relationship with the demands of the working environment". Among the various tasks that were carried out within the framework of the project, a survey was conducted to enquire on advanced engineering students’ formation. This survey also inquired about their perceptions on the importance of their training in English. This research is of a mixed nature, with “qualitative preponderance” (Johnson et al., 2006, in Hernández Sampieri, Fernández Collado and Baptista Lucio, 2010, p. 546), since the numerical data with which we worked were subjected to subjective interpretations. The results obtained from the 99 respondents revealed that most of them consider that the training provided by our institution is not sufficient since they would not be able to enter and continue working in multinational companies of the region or to expand their academic possibilities.