IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION, VOL. 57, NO. 1, MARCH 2014 41 Research Article Seeking an Effective Program to Improve Communication Skills of Non-English-Speaking Graduate Engineering Students: The Case of a Korean Engineering School —EUN GYONG KIM AND ABIGAIL SHIN Abstract—Research problem: Many Asian universities have begun reforms to enhance educational competitiveness in our globalizing economy. This study aims to ascertain the status of English communication education and English-medium instruction at a Korean engineering school and to offer workable suggestions for English communication training for Korean graduate engineering students. Research questions: Should English communication education be offered at the graduate level in Korean engineering schools? How could English communication education be improved for Korean graduate engineering students? Literature review: Studies of English communication education for graduate engineering students indicate that English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students have English needs to publish internationally and English needs for English-medium instruction classes and for after graduation. Furthermore, individual assistance and e-learning programs might strengthen English communication education and academic writing for EFL graduate engineering students. Methodology: An evaluation study was conducted at an institution that has been leading the wave of English as the language of instruction. We collected data from documents as well as through surveys of faculty and students in graduate engineering programs. Results and discussion: The study was conducted at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. The results showed that students’ English fluency is critical for the success of using English as a medium of instruction. To facilitate this fluency, universities need to establish an English communication center that provides a comprehensive, systematic approach to English language training. Faculty also need the services of such centers. It is also advised that a thesis writing course be customized according to students’ actual writing and communication abilities and enhanced with collaboration between engineering faculty and English education faculty. Index Terms—English communication education, English-medium instruction, Korean engineering students, writing instruction. Under the increasing influence of globalization, many Asian governments have begun university reforms to enhance educational competitiveness and national competence in a globalizing economy. Subsequently, internationalization has impelled the restructuring of higher education institutions in a number of Asian nations, including China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan [1]. Individual governments have taken different approaches and measures to enhance the competitiveness of their institutions of higher education. The Chinese government has taken Manuscript received June 30, 2012; revised September 23, 2013 and February 28, 2014; accepted March 06, 2014. Date of current version April 21, 2014. This paper has supplementary downloadable material at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org, provided by the author. The material is 20.3 kB in size. E. G. Kim is with the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, College of Liberal Arts and Convergence Science, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 305-701, Korea (email: egkim@kaist.ac.kr). A. Shin is with Seoul National University, College English Program, Seoul 151-818, Korea (email: abigail.shin@gmail.com). Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. IEEE 10.1109/TPC.2014.2310784 quantitative and qualitative measures such as the massification of higher education and the development of world-class universities since the mid-1990s [2]. With financial support from the government, Chinese universities have actively recruited high-quality academics from around the world to improve their educational quality [2]. The Japanese government has had concerns about the diminishing positions of their universities and has supported international collaborations and exchanges to facilitate the repositioning of Japanese higher education institutions [3]. In the case of Singapore, the government has carried out extensive university reforms with the intention of establishing the island country as a center of education in the Asia-Pacific area. To achieve this goal, the government has promoted the establishment of branch campuses of reputable foreign universities in addition to the reformation of university curricula [4]. In South Korea, university reforms have resulted in the drastic expansion of higher education [5]. However, there have been criticisms that this expansion has not been accompanied with qualitative improvement. It has been noted, for 0361-1434 © 2014 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.