e-Portfolio 4: English, our partner

Topic: English language competence is a significant aspect of an engineering student’s academic life and prospective career.


When we, year one students, first submitted our applications to NUS, we already knew that we would not use our mother tongue languages as a tool for study anymore. It is English, instead. The chosen one, English, got its position through a flow of history. Consequently, it becomes a significant aspect of our academic lives and prospective careers.

English is used for most academic materials in the world. Books at our libraries are among the evidences which prove that authors prefer English as their language for publication. International schools and universities use English as their teaching language. We use English books as references and write English in our researches and reports for a convenient cause that readers can easily review and understand. If we do research in our home countries (China, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, etc), we need to translate it into English for worldwide publication. In short, our academic lives get no limitation with the help of English competence.

English follows us even after we get a career. For an engineer, graduating does not mean stopping studying. We still need to observe documents relating to our works. We need to improve our knowledge about issues we’ll be working on. Above all others, we need to interact with our partners, communicate with international colleagues. And again, English comes as a helpful and consistent tool serve our needs. English is considered as a common point for communication. We cannot work efficiently without some extent of proficiency in English. As an engineer, we treat English as a partner in work.

In conclusion, English language competence plays an important role in our trips. We need it for our academic lives as well as our future careers. Take its advantage and go on!