Abstract

Moumeta Paul and A. Sinha*

The following study has been done to study the effect of proficiency in English on the performance of engineering students in group discussion. The hypothesis was framed in such a way that the higher the student’s proficiency in English, the better will their performance be in group discussion. The first year students of Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology were taken as respondents. Group discussion sheets were prepared and every student was marked by three examiners on six dimensions, each dimension consisting of five marks. Class test marks of the same students were also collected. Correlation between group discussion marks and class test marks was calculated and the correlation was high. The result showed that the students who have good proficiency in English have good self-efficacy and also perform well in group discussions. Previous studies have also shown that students who have low proficiency in English have low self-efficacy, and as such they fear to perform in groups and in public. Students who are well proficient in English Language perform better and are well settled in the global market because of their better thinking and expression capability.