COMMUNICATION SKILLS

As the world is shrinking (become smaller) into a global village, communication skills in English have emerged as the major means of empowerment as well as human resource development. Many of our brilliant engineers and software professionals fail to make an impact on the global market mainly because they lack the required communicative competence. It is time that we realize that our engineers should know not only engineering skills but also English for Engineering. They should be aware that a good communicator knows what to say, to whom, when, where, why, and how, and also when to be silent. It may not be an exaggeration to say that communication skills in English are needed for a complete survival.

Besides, according to Farhathullah (2002: 15)¹ engineers are most of the time involved in negotiating business deals. Successful negotiations depend on persuasive (convincing) talk. Your talent of persuasion; being a good communicator, will end the negotiation in your favour or in the favour of the second party. You have to use the tools of persuasion and impress upon the customer or official the importance of the proposal or business deal