Professional Documents
Culture Documents
RESEARCH:
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PREPARED FOR :
-Abstact-
This study focused on the need analysis on English language use for customer service
employees in Sabah which based on Gleneagles Hospital Kota Kinabalu. This research
attempts to answer two research questions i.e., i) what are the perceptions of the customer
service employees on English language needs in their sector? and ii). What are the difficulties
that they encounter by using English as their medium of communication. The questionnaires
given to the participants regarding their needs on the English language as a medium of
communication were examined and analyzed. A purposive sampling was used in selecting 10
customer service employees as respondents for in-depth interviews, and also to know their
personal observation regarding this research. These respondents were selected from various
educational backgrounds for gaining variety of information. From this research, it is revealed
that employees' perception on English language needs does give an impact towards
employees’ performance in this sector. Anonymously, all are in favor if contributing a series
of ways that can boost up students motivation in learning English as a second language.
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 INTRODUCTION
English is the world language, the dominant lingua franca in commerce and media.
The language cruises at the apex of globalisation, technology and pop music, and is arguably
at its most dominant position in its history.That is the main reason why most of the industry in
the job markets requires employees to be skilled in providing customer service through the
medium of English. To do this effectively, an employee, especially one who has constant
(Chan,2002)
Quality customer service has stated as one of the hottest issue in the jobs market. This
leads from the undeniable fact that today’s customers are increasingly sophisticated and
quality conscious. They want service and value they can depend on and they don’t want to
spend a lot of time looking for it. The quality of the service is neccessity to survive in this
fierce industry because its the key to attract and maintain the customers.That is because of the
fact that thhe voice of the customer provides the only true direction for any organization.
(Rashid,2008)
In Malaysia, customer services quality has been recognised as an important issue in
both public and private sectors. This matter had became an attention where natiojn put more
focus on the concept of customer services quality as they begunto understand the necessity of
it. The importance of this sector had increased due to the enlargement in the number of jobs
which requires customer services that exist from both public and private sectors. (Yap,2006)
Customer service sector has received considerable attention from many areas of
satisfaction. Thus, the pursuit of quality customer services in both private and public sector
organizations is driven by the need to survive and remain competitive. (Agus, Barker
&Kandampully, 2007)
service at a much faster rate than those in the public sector. This can be seen through
differences between the sectors in terms of their historical and environmental contexts. In
particular, the primary objective of most public sector organizations is to provide a social
benefit within a limited budget and reduce costs. It is different with private sector
organizations which focused on increasing profits. It is not surprising, that private sector
organizations have higher productivity and profitability than public sector organizations.
customer services industry. Gleneagles Kota Kinabalu, a newly-built hospital in the capital
city of Sabah, the hospital offers diverse range of healthcare services and patient care from the
Gleneagles brand inculcating a facility with high-quality amenities and comforts, service
levels to match, be infused with modern technology and have a highly-trained team of
consultants and staffs..This company is built to comply with all content of local and national
regulations. Their main goal is to be the new referral center in East Malaysia and target
international patients from Indonesia, Brunei, Korea and Japan seeking quality and reliable
medical care.
Gleneagles Kota Kinabalu sees customer service aspect as an important part of its
business activities and consistent with being a responsible organisation. Caring for their
customer or in this context it mainly focuses on their clients, taking care of the welfare of the
employees and business partners while delivering commitments to the clients, are in harmony
The fact that this company serves clients which came all around the globe make it is
essential for the employees to have a good foundation in English communication skills.
English is an international language and it is used widely in the Contact Centre Department
thus it requires the employees to speak English effectively and fluently in order to serve
Customer service industry in one of the field that needed an employees to be skilled in
English language. In Malaysia, the quality of customer service companies has a tremendous
In this company, the customer service employees were under contact centre
department. The employees were expected to be fluent and competent in English language
communication skills because they have constant contact with customers. But in reality, the
employees of this particular department especially customer service, are not proficient in
somehow faced difficulties to communicate fluently and accurately with the customers. The
customers feedback on this matter may affect the productivity and reputation of the company.
It has become a necessity to consider a constant training among the employees in the area of
English language communication skills. It is very essential for upgrading or even maintainng
Thus, this research will determine the perceptions and difficulties that the customer
The general objectives of this research is to study the impact of needs analysis on English
language use for customer services employees in private sector which mainly focuses on
Gleneagles Hospital Kota Kinabalu. The following is the specific objectives for this research :
1. To find out the perceptions of the customer service employees on English language
2. To discover the difficulties that they encountered by using English as their medium of
communication.
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
The following research questions is formulated simultaneously based on the objectives of the
1. What are the perceptions of the customer service employees on English language
2. What are the difficulties that they encounter by using English as their medium of
communication? (PSA)
This research investigate the real situation that occurs to customer service employees
especially on private sector. This study will help the public generally and the employees on
how they encounter the difficulties that involved English language as medium of
communication. The aim of the study is to give clear explanation regarding the importance of
English language for customer service employees so that they can improve their job
language skills are needed to become a good and qualified customer service employees. The
result of this study can be a guideline for those who wants to join this field of work. This
reseacher will vary from other researcher as it will be carried out in Kota Kinabalu and it
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 INTRODUCTION
needs analysis. It is to allow readers to acknowledge the purpose of this research being carried
out. The aim of this chapter is to convey the ideas that have been proposed by previous
researchers and scholars. In other hand, it also allows the readers to identify the limitations
and gaps contain in previous studies to be followed by the strength and weaknesses of the
research.
Course design is mainly about planning and structuring of a course to achieve the
desired goals. Hutchinson and Waters (1987) defined course as an integrated series of
Brown (1995, cited by Christopher, W.S, 2007) stated that curriculum development is
a series of activities that help grows the unity among lecturers, administrators, faculty and
students. Thus, he came out with a systematic curriculum development model (Figure 1)
which consist of 5 main features; need analysis, objectives, testing, materials and teaching. He
further explains that these features will provide a frame work that helps educators create an
effective lesson in order to meet learners’ needs and at the same time helps learners learn
development as” the range of planning and implementation processes involved in developing
a curriculum”. He stated that the focuses of this process is on the need analysis, needs
selecting and preparing teaching materials, providing for effective teaching and evaluation”
analysis, settings of objectives, materials and preparation and teaching and evaluation. Based
on Christopher W. Storey, 2007, he stated that Brown’s views differ from Richard’s, as
Brown’s include testing which described as the important element in the curriculum
development. In other hand, Richard added on the elements of situational analysis and course
organization separately while Brown groups the situational analysis in need analysis and
As cited by Ozek, Y & Akyel, A.S (2010) the answer to how educators or practitioners
develop effective curricular often lies in needs analysis because NA is a powerful tool that
helps clarify and validate true needs. It enables educators and practitioners to shape the
curriculum development that bases the content of language courses on the communication
needs, wants and interests of the learners (Lepetit & Cichocki (2002). There are three main
approaches in NA which is target situation analysis (TSA), learning situation analysis (LSA)
originally concentrated on how much the language is use and what is the use of the language
to the learners. In 1987, Munby established a Communication Needs Processor (CNP) which
is the basis of needs analysis by placing the learner’s need in order to produce effective
outcomes according to the target situation. Hutchinson & Water (1987) adopted (Allwright,
1982) ideas and stated that there are 3 major features to look at the target situation analysis.
Firstly, necessities which determined by the crucial need learner have to obtain in order to
function effectively in target situation. Next is the lacks which refer to the absence of learner
target proficiency and learner existing proficiency. Lastly, the term wants which is the
Present Situation Analysis (PSA) may be opposite to target situation analysis (TSA)
(Robinson, 1991). If target situation focused initially on what the learners need to do in target
situation, present situation analysis aim to identify on what the learners are like at the
beginning of the course and also to investigate their strength and weaknesses (Dudley-Evans
& St. John, 1998). Brindley (1989, as citied by Mehdi Haseli Songhori, 2008) refers present
situation analysis as “means needs” and “end needs”. Means needs refer to the learners’
purpose in learning the language while ends needs refers to the target needs.
In 1980’s a big shift of language learning happen when it focused on the learners
preferred learning styles, motivation, attitudes and expectation thus created the learning
situation analysis. Learning situation analysis (LSA) is used to obtain the strategies learner
requires in order to master another language. West (1998, quoted by Vali Mohammadi &
Nasser Mousavi, 2013) mentioned that this type analysis tries to determine how the learners’
wish to learn rather than what they have to learn. Bower (1980, citied in Jordan 1997) noted
learner preferred learning styles and strategies in order to give a clear picture on what the
learners want to learns rather than just teaching what they needs to learns. In addition (St.
John & Dudley-Evans, 1998) argued that learners should be taught the skills that they need to
acquire the language and it is crucial to consider the process and learners’ motivation as
Studies on needs analysis has been carried out widely by various scholars and
researchers. They have been looking into the issues of how English for Specific Purpose
(ESP) course design affecting the tertiary level students, the English Language needs in
courses such engineering, nursing and also language needs analysis in job requirements
Moslemi Fatimah (2011) has carried out a study on Iranian MA students regarding
English language needs.. Based on the research done, most of the students find that their ESP
course design still lacking in meeting their needs toward English language. The participant
was dissatisfied with the current course design because it is inadequate in addressing learner’s
needs both in professional setting and academic. The revision of the existing ESP curriculum
seems extremely timely and students do not have enough exposure to English in a way that
can help fulfill their subjective and objective needs at MA level. From the findings, it can be
concluded that they need to restructure the course by giving more attention on English course
in the MA entrance exam in order to improve the students motivation’s in improving their
proficiency. In fact, joint teaching of the ESP course would be very helpful to meets the
identify the needs of the target group of learners and introduce the needs based course design.
The study aimed to record students suggestions for better ESP training, elicit the students’
preferences with respect to learning styles, methodology and teacher roles and also to identify
students’ deficiency concerning language skills. The findings of this study revealed the needs
for developing a highly specific ESP language course with clear focus on the target discipline
accountancy. There was also a call for provision of ESP training which addresses the learners’
immediate needs as students and their long term needs as professionals in the accountancy
business industries. This research no doubt gave a huge guidance for the academicians in
Accountancy faculty to adjust their current curriculum accordance to the needs of students for
In addition, there is also a studies carried out for Engineering students in Korea
regarding ESP course design development by Hyun, H.K (2013). As Korea has been
implementing export- oriented economy policy, it is essentials for the Engineering industries
to master the English language skills especially in terms of oral communication and a little bit
of writing skills. Thus, the study is aimed to identify the English language need for
engineering students from various sources. In other hand, the study also aimed to provide
detailed description of the needs analysis to develop and ESP course for engineering students
in Korea. Total of 173 respondents were involved during the survey. 99 of them were
students, 30 engineering professor and 43 industry workers. Since the survey was done on
three different groups there are three major findings in this study. From the Engineering
professor perspective most of them have very low level of satisfaction on the students’
English ability. Both professor and industry workers think that the ESP course should be
restructure and focus more on speaking skills because speaking is very required skills in the
industry of engineering. Both the workers and professors think writing is also very important
but it doesn’t for the students. Most of them students think the ESP course should focused on
improving their speaking ability as it is important both in their academic and professional
setting.
In recent studies done by Chen, I Ju. Chang, Yung Hao. Chang, Wei Huan. (2016) in
Taiwan, they investigated the needs analysis on English learning from the viewpoints of
students and the real needs of employers regarding English use in the workplace. Overall
results from this research find that there were significant differences between the students’
perceptions and the employers’ expectation toward specific tasks language needs especially in
listening and reading skills. In summary, the finding reveal discrepancies between what is
taught at school and the requirements of the workplace therefore students should seek the
needs of English skills that the employers expect for the workplace. In addition teacher also
should acknowledged the course design and provide more adequate materials to improve
students English abilities to prepare them for their future careers after graduation.
A number of ESP researchers have agreed that as language in different context varies,
methods and contents of second language teaching should vary to meet the needs of learners
in specific situation (Gatehouse, 2011; Hutchinson & Waters,1987). According to the study
done by Choi, K (2005) the study discussed the English needs analysis of freshman students
in Hanyang University who studied tourism English. The paper discusses details such as;
what the students want to do after graduation; what should be taught during the next two
years in accordance with their aims of getting a job and how much they are motivated to
learn English. End results showed that the students still facing difficulties in verbal
communication and lacking in English grammar. Thus this help the department to
reconstruct their courses structure in accordance to students need as to help the students
2.4 CONCLUSION
In conclusion, all the information from this chapter will help people especially
academicians and students to get useful information regarding course design, need analysis
and English language analysis based on previous researchers. It also helps academicians to
design suitable strategies to design and restructured their curriculum accordance to the needs
of English language use. In present study, the researchers aim to investigate the perceptions
of the customer service employees on English needs in their sector, and to discover the
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 INTRODUCTION
This chapter explains in detail the methodology being used in the process of
completing this research. The chapter starts with the background of the study, participants
involved, instrument used, data collection procedure and data analysis. This study aims to
identify the need of English language for contact center staff of Gleneagles Hospital and
Medical Centre, Kota Kinabalu. This research attempts to answer the following questions;
i. What are the perceptions of the customer service employees on English language
ii. What are the difficulties that they encounter by using English as their medium of
communication?
Gleneagles Hospital and Medical Centre, Kota Kinabalu is a newly- built leading
hospital that offers healthcare services and patient care from highly trained medical
professionals. On their behalf, Gleneagles is a well establish private medical center where it
provides the patient with high quality amenities, service levels to match, being infuse with
modern technology and recruited a highly-trained team of consultants and staffs. This
organization aim to provide the highest level of healthcare experience, service and safety not
only to local people in Kota Kinabalu but also aim to be the new referral center in East
Malaysia and international patients from Indonesia, Brunei, Korea and Japan.
Gleneagles had gained a good reputation and making it a new leading hospital in East
Malaysia in providing good healthcare quality and service. Therefore, the employees of the
organization, specifically the customer service employees who serve as the frontline of this
organization have to establish a good service in order to preserve its good performance and
quality.
The customer service department serves as the contact center department for
Gleneagles where they need to make and receive a call from their patient. They are focusing
on giving a good service to the local and international patient in term of accommodation,
flights bookings, airport transfer arrangement, third party and insurance assistance, visa
This research uses both qualitative and quantitative method to gather data where the
study takes on a non-experimental design. The data collected will reflect the respondents’
positive or negative. The data will be analyzed and few main factors will be extracted from
the data to support this study. A set of questionnaire will be given to the targeted respondents
The respondents of this study consist of customer service staffs in Gleneagles Hospital
and Medical Centre which is located in the heart of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The number of
subjects that participate in this study will consists of 10 staffs in the customer service
department.
3.4 INSTRUMENTS
This research uses two techniques in order to obtain the necessary data from the
respondents. The techniques used are questionnaire and interview. The questionnaire included
3 parts which are participant general opinion about English language, needs of English
language for their job specification and problems in using English while working. All the
questionnaire is based on 5-rating checklist and open- ended form. After that, an interview
was carried out to gain more information regarding their perception and difficulties in using
English as their medium of communication. The results from those techniques will provide
enough data to answer the research questions that has been stated earlier. The relevance of
using this data is to observe the respondents’ reaction and feedback towards the subject given
After sending the official letter to request for permission and cooperation to gather the
data a set of questionnaire are given to the target respondents in Gleneagles Hospital and
Medical Center and they are required to complete it. Then, an interview session is conducted
with the presence of the respondents. The respondents are required to respond to the questions
posted to them which are related to the study and a set of standardized questions is used to
perform the interview. All the data collected from both the questionnaire and the interview
will be analyzed.
The information gathered from both the questionnaire and the interview will be
analyzed manually. The main factors identified from all the data collected will be narrowed
down into three themes. The themes are perception of the usage English language in their
working sector, difficulties in using English as their main medium of communication and
suggestion in improving their English skills. Those themes created would be able to answer
the research questions stated earlier and provided good information for employees’
3.7 CONCLUSION
In short, this chapter discusses the methodology used in this study to collect the
necessary data. The technique and instrument used in this study is also being discussed here in
detail. The data analysis was also explained to justify how the result of the study will be
analyze
CHAPTER 4
4.1 INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, the researcher looked into the participants’ responses using a
questionnaire. The researcher also stated the results of the interviews sessions with the
participants. The purpose of the questionnaire was to discover what were the participants’
perception about English language needs and the interview were used to gain more
from the questionnaire and interview were then broke down into several themes in order to
In the analysis, a Likert 5-scale method has been adopted. The total number of
questions in this questionnaire is 20. The questionnaire was divided into 4 parts which is; Part
I Needs of English language skills, Part II Difficulties of English language skills, Part III
Problems in using English while working. The participants were required to choose the
relevant option according to their own perspective and understanding regarding the issues.
4.2.1 English language skills need of customer service employees.
The findings of the questionnaires indicated that customer service employees primarly
rated all four English language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) as the most
difficulties of English language skills. As shown in Table 1, the vast majority of the
participants highly rated listening (f=7,70%) as the most least difficult skill for them to be
proficient in followed by reading (f= 6,60%) , writing (f=5,50%) and speaking (f=4,40%),
respectively.
using English at their work place. The employees were asked to choose which problems faced
by them mostly at work. The results were illustrated in table 2-5 below.
Frequency
Listening Problems Least A Little Moderate A lot Most Total
1. Following presentation/ 1 4 3 1 1 10
talk.
2. Following instructions. 1 4 3 1 1 10
3. Following training sessions. 1 4 3 1 1 10
Table 2 decipts the listening problems faced by the employees in their profession. The
data shown explained that most of the participant responses lead to a litte (f=12) and followed
Frequency
Speaking Problems Least A Little Moderate A lot Total
1. Giving instructions. 1 3 3 3 10
2. Doing a task. 1 3 4 2 10
3. Giving a formal 2 2 4 2 10
presentation.
4. Talking on the phone 1 3 3 3 10
The above table demonstrates that some of the employees encountered a lot of
speaking problems in giving instructions (f=3) and talking on the phone (f=3). Where as in
doing task that involving speaking english and giving a formal presentation was reported as
moderate (f=4). To conclude more than half of the employees had chosen moderate as their
response towards all the problems that they faced in speaking English.
Frequency
Listening Problems Least A Little Moderate A lot Total
1. Reading emails/letters. 3 2 3 2 10
2. Reading training manuals. 3 2 3 2 10
As shown in Table 4, the data results showed reading emails/letters and training
manuals in English language was rated highly as least(f=3) and moderate (f=3). While the
remaning participants responded a little(f=2) and a lot (f=2). Thus conclude that most of the
.
Table 5. Writing problems encountered by customer service employees
Frequency
Listening Problems Least A Little Moderate A lot Most Total
1. Writing emails/letters. 1 4 3 1 1 10
2. Writing specific text. 3 2 3 1 1 10
The table above indicates that the employees mostly faced a little (f=4) problems in
writing emails or letters and the remaning participants had chosen moderate (f=3), least (f=1),
a lot (f=1) and most (f=1). On the other hand, when it come to writing specific text in English,
most participant responded are moderate (f=3), followed by least (f=3) , a little (f=2) , a lot
To sum up all , the data shown above showed that when considering the problems of
English use among customer service employees, the inadequate in giving instructions using
English language and inable to talk with customer on the phone were regarded as the major
problems.
The main goals of this interview is to look upon employees perception towards the
Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and also to look into the issues and difficulties that they encountered in
this field of work. Based on the interview conducted on 8 respondents which came from
different educational background, there are 2 major elements on their perception in English
language needs, 2 major difficulties in communication along with the personal suggestion
Employees Perception
4.3.3 Suggestion
Based on the information gathered, there are 2 major themes that found from the
employees perception of the English language needs in the customer service sector. These
themes were recognized by the employees due to their experiences in this particular area of
works.
4.3.1.1 Mastery of English Language Skills
In this theme, our main focus is to find out how mastery of English language skills can
highly affects the needs in this arena of work. As the private sector companies are gaining
ground and becoming more competitive due to changed world economy, the employees are
always kept on their toes. In Gleneagles Hospital, especially in customer service department,
their ability to use a language efficiently is very much required to remain employable. From
the interviews conducted, all respondents agree on how English language skills are highly
needed in their job. The knowledge of English is one of the most important employability
skills. It is because in Gleneagles, they use English as a main language in all areas in the
Proper English skills do not mean only the ability to make grammatically correct
sentences. It means other related skills for effective communication like presentation skills,
convincing and negotiation skills and interpersonal skills using that language. As we quoted
In this theme, we are focusing on how does the training and its effectiveness can be
related towards the English language needs. As we know, compelling communication skills
are important in a customer service industry regardless of some staff members not being
guest-facing. A few companies spend considerable amount of money on training their staff to
interact with the guests. Good communication skills are a learned art and not a natural skill so
Based from the interviews conducted, all respondents had stated that there were no
training provided in this company. But some of them agree on how English training would
help the staff to perform better in their job scope. As mentioned by one of the respondent:
helps.” –Respondent 2.
As the matter of fact, few of the staff members might be able to speak in manageable
English because of the work environment but those who don’t have English as their first
language suffer due to their inability and fail to understand simple instructions and
information. (Respondent 5). In this context, effective training would be helpful to develop
employees English language skills. The company should emphasize on providing English
language skills training courses which cover everything from basic techniques to advanced
Excellent customer service is all about communication. Not only have the staffs
needed to communicate successfully with the guests but also with other department
employees. However, difficulties in commucation typically arise in this field of work. Based
on the information gathered from the interview, we are focusing on the oral communication
and the issues that lead to the difficulties from the employees’ perspective.
In this context, all respondents agreed that oral communication plays an important role
in their job. In Gleneagles Hospital,the fact that guest relations are mainly facilitated through
the English language made all the employees aware on the importance or needs of it
This is also supported by statement from other respondent where the situations of
For those in customer service positions, strong communication and effective problem-
situations can involve a number of issues of problems. From the interview conducted, 8 out of
10 respondents stated miscommunication is one of the major issues in that occurred in their
daily situation with the customer. Sometimes they are unable to satisfy customer or patients’
requests due to the misunderstanding of the language and this can be a stressful part of the
job.
Apart from that, the communication issues that typically arise among the employees are
caused by the language barrier. In this context, the employees are dealing with clients from
different countries, especially those who are from China who weren’t really proficient in
The communication became less effective because of the language barrier face by both
4.3.3 Suggestions
The last part of the interviews is about the suggestions from the respondents. The
respondents were asked to point out any ideas to overcome the issues regarding
communication in their field of work. 7 out 8 respondents agreed that the best way to improve
their communication skill is through training and practising. The company should arrange for
a communication skills program that will be helpful for the employees to communicate
effectively with the guests in crucial circumstances. The training should be conducted once a
month so that they get a chance to improve their communication skills. Also, the employees
also should be encouraged to communicate with each other in English as a part of their
training. (Respondent 1)
Other than that, the respondent also stated that exposure towards English language is
important. The exposure basically refers to the contact that the employees has with the
language that they are trying to practice, either generally or with specific language points
Respondent 4
As stated above, effective communication skills are a learned art and not a natural skill so it
doesn’t mean that the relevant skills cannot be develop. This issue may be lay down by
5.0 INTRODUCTION
This chapter discussed the conclusion regarding the English language needs among customer
service employees in Gleneagles Hospital Kota Kinabalu.. The limitation of the study,
suggestion and recommendation for further research related to this research were also
This study was on the ‘Need Analysis on English Use for Customer Service
Employees’ which was conducted among employees in Gleneagles Hospital Kota Kinabalu,
Sanah. It was carried out using mixed method which is qualitative and quantitative. An
interview was administered to the employees and shortly after a questionnaire to elicit
responses and perception regarding the need of English language in this field of work. The
number of participants involved in this study was 10 employees. All the respondents were
briefly exposed towards the term of need analysis on English language for the purposes of
ensuring that the result of the study did not astray because the lack of understanding with
The findings showed that majority of the customer service employees in this study
rated all four major English skills as highly needed. This may be explained as the fact that
Gleneagles customer service centre appointed on giving a good service to the local and
third party and insurance assistance, visa application and post treatment tour. Therefore, it
could be said that all the four major English skills in handling the customers’ need and
accommodation as to maintain the quality of Gleneagles as the new leading Hospital and
(Dkt questionnaire ada ckp yg speaking skill paling tinggi rated as difficult skill so terus
In conclusion based from above discussion showed that the employees were aware on
the importance of English language needs in their career development. Despite the fact they
have to deal with various difficulties and issues in term of communication, their perception on
this language needs were merely positive. However, by looking thorugh their situation the
customer service employees needs to be a customer-centered person. They should know how
to interact professionally with the customer.Effective communication skill is very important
There were some limitations throughout the completion of this particular study.
Firstly, time constrain where the researcher needed to find a suitable time which fitted with
the schedule of the respondents in order to conduct the interviews. This was because the
interviews needed to be conducted in a real test taking situation so it would not affect the
result of the study. Another time constrain led the study to be conducted on a limited scale
where only 10 participants participated.Overall, the data for the interview and questionnaires
was able to be collected by the researcher in trying to complete this particular study.
Based on the limitations of the study that had been discussed above, there were a few
recommendations that could help in assisting future researchers who might want to pursue this
topic. It is recommended that the study can be conducted on a larger scale for example,
Besides the number of participants, the study could also be conducted for different age
groups to ensure an increase in the reliability and validity of the findings. Future researchers
could conduct the research by adding a few extra factors that might yield a different result
regarding background knowledge. Some of the factors that could be added towards this study
were gender, race and also scope of English skills. These were because these factors might
have contributed towards the background knowledge of the participants and gave a new
Lastly, it was recommended that the study could be carried out in a broader scale of
area. The study could be conducted in other sector of companies so that they could gain the
5.5 CONCLUSION
Based on the findings of this research, it could be concluded that English language use
were mainly needed in customer service sector. Although the number of participants involved
in this study was only limited to 10 participants. The result from this study might have shed
some answers in assisting the customer service employees on the use of English language
skills. This research had shown that English language is highly needed is this field of work.
APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE
English language needs of the customer service employees of Gleneagles Hospital Kota
Kinabalu, Sabah.
Please kindly complete this questionnaire with regard to your information by placing (/) to
indicate your answer.
1. Sex
Male Female
2. Age
21-30 31-40 41-50
3. Educational background
Lower than Bachelor Bachelor degree Master degree
degree
Please indicate your attitude towards the following topic areas by ticking the appropriate
numbers by
1. How necessary are the following skills of English language in your job?
5 4 3 2 1
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
Please indicate your attitude towards the following topic areas by ticking the appropriate
numbers by
5 4 3 2 1
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
Part 3: Problems in using English while working
Please indicate your attitude towards the following topic areas by ticking the appropriate
numbers by
How much do you have problems with each of these English language sub-skills in your job?
1. Listening
5 4 3 2 1
Following presentation/talk
Following instruction
Following training sessions
2. Speaking
5 4 3 2 1
Giving description and
explanation
Giving instructions or doing a
task
Giving a formal presentation
Talking on the phone
3. Reading
5 4 3 2 1
Reading emails/letters
Reading training manuals
4. Writing
5 4 3 2 1
Writing emails/letters
Writing specific text
Suggestion
Do you think Glenagles should provide English language training course?
Yes No
APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Does mastery of English highly needed in your job? If yes, in which area?
2. What language skills (reading, writing, listening & speaking) that is highly required to
3. Did your company provide any English training before? If yes, how do you find the
course is effective?
4. In the future, what would you suggest to your company in order to English courses?
8. In your opinion, what are the other aspects that lead to difficulties in English
9. Can you suggest the best way to overcome this issue of communication?
REFERENCES
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Boroujeni Samira Atifa, Fard Fateme Moradian (2013). A Need Analysis of English
for Specific Purposes (ESP) Course For Adoption O Communicative Language
Teaching: A Case Of Iranian First Year Students of Educational Administration,
International Journal Of Humanities and Science Invention 6(2), 35-44. Retrieved
September 22,2016, from http://www.ijhssi.org/papers/
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Engineering, International Journal Of Multimedia and Ubiquitous Engineering, 8(6),
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Mehdi Haseli Songhori (2008). Introduction to Needs Analysis, English for Specific
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Moslemi Fatimah (2011). ESP Needs Analysis of Iranian MA Students : A Case Study
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