Living in an era that has developed radically as industrialization and informatization took place, we live by communicating directly or indirectly with each other through enormous information and various media media. People in their 20s and 30s who ex...
Living in an era that has developed radically as industrialization and informatization took place, we live by communicating directly or indirectly with each other through enormous information and various media media. People in their 20s and 30s who experienced the bad news of the COVID-19 pandemic at a time when they had to go to school and prepare for employment in their early adulthood are also called the "lost generation," and the issue of isolated young people is emerging as a social issue. College students in 2020 called "COVID-19 Student Number" did not have a smooth adjustment process to college life compared to other students, and not only Corona Student, who started college life non-face-to-face, but also existing students need to make efforts to cultivate core competencies such as communication skills through college life. In addition, due to the lack of communication experience, it is estimated that the number of young people who are currently isolated and do not have positive interactions with others in Korea reaches about 540,000. This problem cannot be solved without being connected to people. Communication skills are part of the skills that everyone must have in order to have positive relationships and successful interactions, and companies also consider communication skills to be an important factor in selecting talent. College students are learning new things through various experiences and are having an important period in their lives in general. It is also important to achieve studies and prepare for the future through college life, but it is considered essential to establish positive interpersonal relationships and cultivate individual students' core competencies in order to live a successful life in our society. There are standardized test tools and informal evaluation methods for evaluating the pragmatic language ability among language test tools, but the method of evaluating pragmatic language for adults is different for each examiner without standardized standards, and studies on the characteristics and interventions of pragmatic language ability in adulthood are insufficient. Therefore, this study attempted to compare pragmatic communication skills that affect communication core competencies by major area, and also prepared basic research data on pragmatic communication skills for adults. In this study, a questionnaire was constructed and factor analysis was conducted by referring to DSM-5's diagnostic criteria for social pragmatic communication disorders and the questions of KOPLAC (Korean Children's Meta-Voice Test). Sub-detailed items were set based on the factor analysis results, and the ability of pragmatic communication by major area was analyzed with 60 undergraduate students enrolled in universities in Daegu and Gyeongbuk. The research results are as follows.
First, the results of factor analysis for questionnaire items for adults were judged to be suitable for the analysis model and were found to be five factors. The five factors were named conversation technology operation, communication coordination, causal relationship identification and discourse resolution, contextual explanation, and situational communication.
Second, comparing the overall average score of pragmatic language communication skills by major area, it was found that engineering colleges were lower than those of rehabilitation science colleges, formative arts colleges, and social science colleges. When compared by factors, engineering colleges were lower than those of formative arts colleges and social science colleges in terms of dialogue technology operation and explanation according to situations and opponents. In terms of communication coordination, engineering colleges were lower than formative arts colleges. Engineering colleges were lower than social science colleges in their ability to identify causal relationships and resolve discourse. In terms of communication ability according to the situation, engineering colleges were lower than those of formative arts colleges, business schools, social science colleges, and rehabilitation science colleges. This study is meaningful in that it examined communication skills among the core competencies that college students should have for general adult college students by major area, and the results of this study showed that undergraduate students of engineering colleges had lower scores than those of rehabilitation science colleges, formative arts colleges, and social science colleges, among which they had the lowest communication skills according to circumstances. Therefore, whether engineering students' low pragmatic communication skills are the result of learning about their major areas, and they encounter various communication situations such as counseling and meetings not only in college but also in their work lives, and follow-up studies are needed on communication education or methods that can provide difficulties in the university curriculum.