| Abstract: |
English communication competence is widely treated as the gatekeeper of graduate employability in India, yet evidence on its magnitude and distribution across district-level undergraduate populations remains fragmented. This paper systematically reviews and meta-analytically consolidates past empirical work on English communication skills and employability readiness among undergraduates, taking Durg district of Chhattisgarh as the anchoring empirical context. Following PRISMA guidelines, 412 records were screened, 34 studies were synthesised qualitatively and 22 studies with extractable correlations were coded for effect-size analysis. Random-effects synthesis yielded a pooled correlation of r = 0.46 (95% CI: 0.38 0.53) between communication competence and employability readiness, with substantial heterogeneity (I² = 68.4%); effects were stronger in quasi-experimental intervention designs, urban private-college samples and employer-rated outcomes. Coded domain means show receptive, written-grammar skills consistently outscoring productive oral skills such as interview communication and group-discussion fluency, while expectation performance gaps peak at interview readiness. The evidence base, though expanding rapidly after 2015, remains dominated by small, self-reported, cross-sectional surveys with weak sampling frames, and district-level data from Chhattisgarh is nearly absent. The paper concludes that English communication is a necessary but insufficient lever of employability readiness, and proposes a validated, district-sensitive assessment protocol for Durg's empirical phase. Implications are drawn for curriculum redesign, district skill policy and equity-sensitive assessment, and a pre-registered, employer-triangulated measurement protocol is specified for the forthcoming Durg survey, positioning district-level evidence as the missing link between national employability statistics and institutional action. Findings are offered as a well-specified prior for district-level measurement rather than as a settled population parameter. |
