An Analysis of Sentence-Like Utterances of IELTS Mock Speaking Test Scripts

The present study examines non-Malaysian candidates’ performance in an IELTS mock speaking test with regards to their use of different types of sentence structure utterances. Audio recorded data was obtained from eight students of three different levels of proficiency, namely; foundation, intermediate and advanced, in which thereafter an analysis was carried out using Radford (1990; 1997) sentence types. A semi-structured interview was also employed to gauge the candidates’ opinions on answering the test questions as well the interlocutor’s views on the candidates’ performance. The test was conducted by an IELTS trained interlocutor. It was found that most candidates were able to understand the questions, their responses were mainly simple sentence utterances indicated by many disjointed and choppy ideas. The semi-structured interview answers show that most candidates’ high level of nervousness and anxiety caused them not to be able to speak fluently, and as a result, their ideas were expressed in simple sentence structures that lacked logical coordination. It is hoped that the findings of the present study would help the current IETLS course module developers to integrate lessons on the different types of sentence structures in training test candidates to express complete and complex structured responses

Internet Banking Among Baby Boomers: A Case Study on Customer Satisfaction in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur

The present study focuses on the factors relating to why Baby Boomers are reluctant to adopt internet banking and to investigate the level of convenience experienced when using it. A quantitative method was employed to analyse the data based on the conceptual framework. A survey questionnaire was chosen as the research instrument. The findings show that the two independent variables, service quality and convenience, did not correlate, but there was a significant affect from customer satisfaction with internet banking among the Baby Boomer respondents. The R-squared value was 0.928, meaning that 92.8% of the both independent variables affected the dependent variable. Another 7.2% was indicated for other independent variables not used in this study

An Analysis of Sentence-Like Utterances of IELTS Mock Speaking Test Scripts

The present study examines non-Malaysian candidates' performance in an IELTS mock speaking test with regards to their use of different types of sentence structure utterances. Audio recorded data was obtained from eight students of three different levels of proficiency, namely; foundation, intermediate and advanced, in which thereafter an analysis was carried out using Radford (1990; 1997) sentence types. A semi-structured interview was also employed to gauge the candidates' opinions on answering the test questions as well the interlocutor's views on the candidates' performance. The test was conducted by an IELTS trained interlocutor. It was found that most candidates were able to understand the questions, their responses were mainly simple sentence utterances indicated by many disjointed and choppy ideas. The semi-structured interview answers show that most candidates' high level of nervousness and anxiety caused them not to be able to speak fluently, and as a result, their ideas were expressed in simple sentence structures that lacked logical coordination. It is hoped that the findings of the present study would help the current IETLS course module developers to integrate lessons on the different types of sentence structures in training test candidates to express complete and complex structured responses

Internet Banking Among Baby Boomers: a Case Study on Customer Satisfaction in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur

The present study focuses on the factors relating to why Baby Boomers are reluctant to adopt internet banking and to investigate the level of convenience experienced when using it. A quantitative method was employed to analyse the data based on the conceptual framework. A survey questionnaire was chosen as the research instrument. The findings show that the two independent variables, service quality and convenience, did not correlate, but there was a significant affect from customer satisfaction with internet banking among the Baby Boomer respondents. The R-squared value was 0.928, meaning that 92.8% of the both independent variables affected the dependent variable. Another 7.2% was indicated for other independent variables not used in this study