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Low Level of English Language Proficiency is One of the Challenges Faced by

Postgraduate Students & the Importance of Language Editing

Dr. Nancy Agens, Head,

Technical Operations, Tutorsindia

info@ tutorsindia.com

In Brief

Proficiency in English language is now

mandate for the students undergoing

higher education. It is not just important

for the understanding the academic

instruction but also in contributing to the

research. An inadequate knowledge of the

language can lead to poor academic

indulgence and hence universities should

be offering the specialized English

language courses related to field of

education.

Keywords: proofreading and editing,

proofreading online, dissertation

proofreading, dissertation proofreading

services, editing and proofreading services,

professional proofreading, academic

proofreading, academic proofreading

services, academic editing services,

professional editing service, proof-reader

online, Grammarly proofreading, thesis

proofreading, professional proofreading,

dissertation proofreading, essay

proofreading service, assignment

proofreading

I. INTRODUCTION

Globalization has turned the world into a

small village and English is a language that

holds a prominent position in today’s world.

The necessity of the English language

becomes important for communication

globally. English is not even taught as a

foreign language anymore but is taught as an

alternative language for the medium of

academic instruction. However, the students

in the countries with non-native English

speakers sometimes face great difficulty

since their proficiency and the command in

the language is not so strong. If we take an

example of Asian and Arab countries, the

formal education of the English language

does exist in the classrooms but there is a

lack of language exposure since it is

nowhere seen in the daily conversations.

The approach to teaching the English

language in the classroom is not up to the

mark and thus results in the slow progress of

the students. When the students undertake

the Postgraduate programs they are exposed

to the English in wide contexts, as in the

areas of health sciences and engineering,

science and technology, physics, biology,

etc use English as a primary language of the

academic courses. Academic proofreading

and academic editing services are mostly

carried out in English. Hence, proficiency in

the language is a must and is one of the

major challenges faced by postgraduate

university students.

II. ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN

SCIENTIFIC WRITING

In most of the Scientific writings and

professional proofreading, English has been

a prime language to present papers. Due to

the low proficiency, the postgraduate

students sometimes rely on the direct

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translations of the studies to present their

writings. However, direct translations are

never correct and apt because of the context

of the vocabulary in different languages.

Sometimes direct translations lead to funny

meanings in English which is certainly not

accepted in the professional environments.

In the scientific paper, we need to present

facts, theories, proofs, experiments, and

testing objectivity that requires a good

language flow in English. Many students

lack this ability and hence the research

papers are simply rejected by the bad use of

grammar and language flow. Academic

proofreading services and reviewers do not

entertain the flawed use of language. For

example, the title of any research paper is

never a sentence and the use of verb and

word wastage should be avoided. However,

a lack of proficiency and flawed use of

language is a thumbs down to all of the

research done by the student. Style, good

grammar, and clarity are as important as the

research itself.

III. STATUS OF ENGLISH IN THE

WORLD’S SCIENCE

In a research, the sources of Global media

translated to other languages were identified.

The data included from the books, twitter,

and Wikipedia. The research showed that

English is the largest hub for the

information. Other languages such as

Spanish and Russian were also recognized

as hubs but smaller as compared to English.

Communication with the wider audience

confers the ability to influence a greater sum

of people. Research trend, a scientific

publication also revealed that 80% of

articles were entirely written in the English

language as a huge amount of these articles

were based out of the US & UK. The

research also included that the non-English

articles have a very fewer audience. For

students and scientists who want to produce

the globally recognized work will have to

attend conferences in the English Language.

proofreading and editing are also done

mostly in English.

Language of Scientific Output in the biotic

Stress Research Field

Reports0

2000

4000

6000

Reports

%

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IV. ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE

POSTGRADUATE AND SCIENTIFIC

STUDIES AND CHALLENGES

Science education is a preparation for a

scientific career in the future. The English

language is taught in non-English speaking

countries as a primary language and the

trend is continuously rising. Nonproficiency

often leads to disengagement and is one of

the major challenges. Students often do not

participate in group work activities and

presentations because of the anxiety caused

due to nonproficiency. Sometimes students

also build up an inferiority complex when

they are not very good at English

communication. The wrong pronunciations

often lead to embarrassment and less

significant participation in the classrooms.

Errors in the punctuation, grammar, and

spellings can be the result of poor literacy if

the language by the students. There are

students with non-English speaking

backgrounds. These students are sometimes

not sure about the appropriate titles and

surnames. Language is also a key factor in

forming relationships between students and

professors. Hence for the overall wellbeing

of the students in universities language plays

an important role. The non-English

proficient students belonging to higher

technical education sometimes have a

disadvantage as they can not participate in

dissertation proofreading or any professional

editing service.

V. CONCLUSION

Universities need to do better in dealing

with students with low proficiency in the

English language. The investment of more

time and money in addressing the language-

related challenges can bring about a

substantial change in the overall

environment and well being of students and

universities. Educators should be able to

understand the hidden reasons behind the

silence in the classrooms and help students

to be more interactive in the subjects.

Diversity is always a strength that can bring

about solutions from different linguistic

backgrounds. The postgraduate students can

be indulged in thesis proofreading,

professional proofreading, and assignment

proofreading of their peers that can help in

the proficiency in understanding the

language in different contexts.

The students can also be taught specified use

of language as per their technical purposes

and special needs and not just general

English. These courses can be of zero credit

bit a compulsion in the universities. For

example, English for Medical Sciences can

be taught to the students with the related

fields. This way students can have better

participation in the academic environment

and can overcome the challenges of non-

proficiency and have more confidence with

their verbal and written skills.

REFERENCES

1. Khan, I. A. (2011), Challenges of Teaching/Learning

English and Management. Global Journal of Human

Social Sciences.

2. Natalia Fernández Díaz-Cabal, The Importance (or

Not) of Writing in English in the Scholarly Context.

3. IFLScience, Most influential languages

4. Estella Gimenez, Maria Salinas, Francisco Manzano,

Worldwide research on Plant defense against Biotic

Stresses and Improvement for sustainable Agriculture

5. Clemence Due, Sally Baker Three issues language

proficiency can hide for students from non-

English speaking backgrounds.

6. Aisha Bint Al-Hussein, English Language challenges

among students of Jordan.