Communicative competence (CC) is the ability to express oneself effectively in various contexts, needed for employability and sustainability in the workplace. This study assessed the levels of communicative competence of Accountancy and Engineering graduates in various companies in Bacolod City from the perspective of office supervisors. Using a quantitative-qualitative approach, 71 Accountancy (62.28 %) and 43 Engineering (37.72%) graduates were evaluated based on a self-made questionnaire comprising four competencies: grammatical, sociolinguistic, strategic, and discourse competencies; the Expected Lasallian Graduate Outcomes’ (ELGO) framework on effective communication; and the requirements of office supervisors in the workplace. To analyze the data, the frequency, percentage, mean, and the Wilcoxon test formula were used. Overall results showed Accountancy and Engineering graduates as having a high level of competence in four competencies in oral and written communication. As for the significant difference, the Accountancy graduates showed a higher level of strategic and discourse competence in oral communication with a p-value of 0.0298, than Engineering graduates with a p-value of 0.0188. For the qualitative responses, office supervisors required fluency, clarity, vocabulary, and mechanics for grammatical competence; appropriate language choice, tone, level of formality, courtesy, politeness, and tact in communication for sociolinguistic competence; use of feedback, listening skills, backchannels, requests for clarification, and circumlocution for strategic competence; coherence and completeness in communication for discourse competence; and Christian values, open-mindedness, flexibility, adaptability, and good interpersonal skills for ELGO attributes on effective communication. The study proposed an academic intervention program to address the competence requirements in the workplace.

Authors:
Maria Loreen Lofranco, University of St. La Salle, Philippines

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Maria Loreen Lofranco is a University Professor/Principal Lecturer at University of St. La Salle in Philippines

See this presentation on the full schedule – Wednesday Schedule

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