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ENGLISH LANGUAGE USAGE IN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY (SPEAKING)

(RESEARCH PROPOSAL)

(MGT 648)

PREPARED BY:
MURNIZAHAYATI BINTI ARIPIN (2010274214)

FACILITATED BY:
PROF. MADYA HAZIAH BINTI JAMALUDDIN





BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (Hons) INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
FACULTY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY MARA
SHAH ALAM

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction..
Background of Study...3
Problem Statement...4
Objectives of Study..5
Scope and Limitation ..6
Literature Review.7
Research Methodology9
References10





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1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background

The transition which English second language students need to make when using English as
language of learning in higher education is a matter of great concern in the Malaysia higher
education sector.
Many professionals and political parties voiced out their concern regarding the decline in the
English language and the need to improve English language proficiency among students. They
are worried fresh graduates to become unemployed due to this factor.The emphasis for the
employers at large lies mainly in the competency of new hires when it comes to conversational
English. The JobStreet.com study revealed in terms of importance, 92% of employers felt that
conversational English was the most important with 65% choosing grammar, 55% indicated
comprehension and 47% saying vocabulary.
This study on the importance of the English language in the workplace was conducted by
JobStreet.com in August 2009. With the participation by 1001 employers, the study was a
follow-up research on an earlier survey in July 2009 on reasons why employers felt fresh
graduates remained unemployed.












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1.2 Statement of Problem
The worst situations, the students graduate from University of Technology Mara were not able
to speak English fluently, because of that reason I do the research to encounter this problem. I
want to generate more quality student that is fluently speaking in English because nowadays
the English language proficiency is a mandatory requirement for those who want to apply for
the job. There are various factors that could have contributed to this failure, learners learning
methods, lack of motivation (shy and not confident), lecturer teaching methods and or
approach, cultural influence (not mother tongue language). Therefore, we want to find out the
perception towards English language proficiency among University of Technology Mara
students and their experiences in learning a second language in order to identify the difficulties
that they encounter in the University of Technology Mara.


















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1.3 Purpose of Study
The purpose of this study is to obtain information on the perception towards English language
proficiency among University of Technology Mara students communication skills. There is to
know the University of Technology Mara students ability to speaking in English, the
effectiveness of speaking in English and the methods of improving the population of University
of Technology Mara students using the English language while they communicate between the
lecturers, supervisors, classmates, and administration.

The research questions are formulated as follow among University of Technology Mara
students:

1. To determine English proficiency in speaking English.
2. To find out the ability to speaking in technical English.
3. To do research on the effectiveness of speaking in English.
4. To determine how frequency of speaking in English.
5. To do research on the influence in willingness to speaking in English.
6. To find out the effective method of improving the speaking in English.










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1.4 Scope and Limitation
This study investigates the perception of University of Technology Mara students toward
English language proficiency between E-PJJ students since they have more experience toward
the usage of English terms. Hence, it limits the number of the respondents.


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2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

In communicative language ability, basics are considered important to a learners performance
on a given language use situation are said to be acquisition of knowledge of the second
language, knowledge of how to overcome communication difficulties, knowledge of how to
organize and plan a task, relevant knowledge and learners affective reaction.

Developing effective speaking skills is critically important in advancing a career or profession.
Individuals who can speak well are way ahead of others on not only in the training school but
also on all other career paths in any industry. This shows that developing effective speaking skill
is an important step for every individual. A poorly speaking fluent among each other like
employees and managers, students and lecturers or other than that would make people easily
difficult to understood the subject. The speaker also would have difficulty in giving his/her
opinion and lead the listener to misinterpret the message conveyed.

There many ways to improve speaking skills in English such as attending short course about
speaking, do a lot of talking, make friends with international student or staff, refer to more
experienced person like teacher and lecturer and do lot of reading as it can help in building nice
and attractive yet corrective sentences. It is essential for every individual to have good speaking
proficiency as they will use this skill everyday to communicate with each other in different
people background, they will also need to listen and understand the instruction given from the
boss.

In my study research of English Language Usage in University of Technology Mara students
focusing on speaking skill, among the objectives are to determine students English proficiency
in speaking English. Looking the culture of University of Technology Mara which is using English
in the teaching and training purposes prompted us to verify students in English speaking.
Moving on to the second objective is to find out the students ability to speaking in technical
English.
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The next objective is to do research on the effectiveness of speaking in English. From the
research I can identify whether they can understand each other when they speak in English.
Furthermore, the research can helps me determine how frequent the students of University of
Technology speak in English. Besides that, I can find out what may be the biggest influence in
the students willingness to speak in English. Lastly, we can come up with the best method to
improve the students English speaking skills.

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3.0 METHODOLOGY
In order to investigate the students proficiency in speaking English in University of Technology
Mara, the questionnaire will design and distribute among EPJJ students and thus provide the
students with opportunities to talk about their experience and choose with their own opinion.

The questionnaire will consists of six sections which are section A, B, C, D, E, and F. The first
section which is section A focuses on personal information of the respondents while the section
B more focuses on English proficiency. For this section, the proficiency of English was provided
with rate of high level to low level where the respondents know their own level of confidence in
English proficiency.

Moving to the next section which is section C which is focuses on the ability of to communicate
(speaking) in technical English. This section indicate the level of respondents agreement and
disagreement when speaks in technical English like communicating with supervisors, respond in
correct grammar and technical terms, able to speak English during presentation and interacting
with people around and so on.

Section D is focuses on effectiveness of speaking English where the respondents can
understand the messages clearly in speaks English, also the respondents can give instruction
clearly when communicate with classmate and etc.

The next section is Section E which is focuses on frequency on speaking in English. This section
show of how frequent of respondents interacting with their colleague in speaking English.

Lastly for Section F are more focuses on method of improving speaking in English. This section is
a solution method in helping the proficiency in speaking English in University of Technology
Mara.


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APPENDIX 1
REFERENCES
1. Donald E. Powers, Hae-Jin Kim, Feng Yu, Vincent Z. Weng and Waverely Van Winkle. (2000).
TOEIC Speaking and Writing Tests: Relations to Test-Taker Perceptions of Proficiency in
English.(Online)
Retrieved 12 November 2012, from
http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/RR-09-18.pdf
2. DrSadiqAbdulwahed Ahmed Ismail. (2011). Exploring Students Perceptions of ESL Writing.
(Online)
Retrieved 13 November 2012, from
http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/63614361/exploring-students-perceptions-esl-
writing
3. Johanne Myles. (2002). Second Language Writing and Research: The Writing Process and
Error Analysis in Student Texts. (Online)
Retrieved 13 November 2012, from
http://www.cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/tesl-ej/ej22/a1.html
4. Moumeta Paul and A. Sinha. (2010). Effect of Proficiency in English on the Performance of B.
Tech Students in Group Discussion. (Online)
Retrieved 13 November 2012, from
http://www.academicjournals.org/ajbm/pdf/pdf2010/18July/Paul%20and%20Sinha.pdf
5. Job Street. (2009). Survey: The Importance of the English Language in the Workplace.
(Online) Retrieved 13 Nov 2012, from
http://careers.jobstreet.com.my/community-digest/importance-of-english-at-the-
workplace