English language vocabulary profiles of undergraduate students at different proficiency levels

Vocabulary knowledge is influential to learners’ language ability. While vocabulary studies in Malaysia have investigated learners’ vocabulary knowledge, they however do not consider learners across various proficiency levels. Furthermore, previous studies do not focus on both the receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge of learners. To fill this gap, the present study systematically investigated the profiles of receptive and productive vocabulary of Malaysian undergraduate students at the Band 1 (very limited), Band 2 (limited), Band 3 (modest), Band 4 (satisfactory) and Band 5 (proficient) levels of the Malaysian University English Test (MUET). The Vocabulary Size Test and the Vocabulary Levels Test were administered to gauge the students’ receptive vocabulary knowledge. Additionally, parts of their written and spoken corpora were analysed to examine the vocabulary they used in terms of lexical variation, lexical density, lexical sophistication, lexical frequency, lexical originality and lexical collocation. The findings reveal that students attain different extent of receptive vocabulary knowledge. Next, the findings also show that Bands 1, 2 and 3 students lacked receptive vocabulary knowledge to use the language at the university. Furthermore, their knowledge of the academic vocabulary is also limited. When writing the essays, the Bands 1, 2 and 3 students produced almost similar extent of lexical variation, lexical density, lexical sophistication, lexical frequency and lexical collocation. When speaking, the Bands 1, 2, 3 and 4 students produced similar extent of lexical variation, lexical sophistication and lexical collocation. All students demonstrated high use of the General Service List when writing and speaking (more than 86%). Lastly, the finding points to an underuse of lexical collocation categories by the students. The profiles of receptive and productive vocabulary unveiled in the study serve as a practical guideline to incorporate effective vocabulary teaching at higher learning institutions in Malaysia for students at various proficiency levels

Relationship Between Vocabulary Size And MUET Score Of Malaysian ESL Undergraduates

Vocabulary is an important element of a language. Without the knowledge of vocabulary, people will not be able to understand what others are saying to them. Furthermore, they will also experience difficulty expressing what they intend to say or write. Taking this into account, language learners are required to achieve a certain attainment of vocabulary size of a target language to ensure they are able to meet the demands of the language and achieve maximum comprehension when the language is used in communication. As such, it is very important for language learners to be aware of their vocabulary size of the target language. To this end, the current study was conducted to identify the English vocabulary size of first year undergraduate students in a Malaysian public university. In addition, it aims to examine whether there is a correlation between the scores which the students obtained for their Malaysian University English Test (MUET) and their total English vocabulary size. An intact group of thirty first year students (19 female, 11 male) who use English as their second language participated in the study. The Vocabulary Size Test (VST) by Nation and Beglar (2007) was administered to gauge their English vocabulary size and a questionnaire was used to elicit demographic details. The findings revealed that majority of the participants have below than 4000 English vocabulary size. The mean score of the participants’ English vocabulary size is 3183 word families indicating that the participants on average do not reach the vocabulary size of 6000 to 9000 word families to achieve 98% coverage in written and spoken English texts (Nation, 2006). Their minimum English vocabulary size is 2200 whereas the maximum is 4500 word families. A strong positive correlation of r=0.84 was found with regard to the relationship between the participants’ MUET score and their English vocabulary size. This result suggests that the better the participants’ score in MUET, the more English vocabulary they would have. This result could also mean that the larger the English vocabulary size of the participants, the higher their MUET score is

Developing A Framework For The Training Of Communication Skills In English For Institutional Drivers

Communication skills development of institutional drivers from English for Specific Purposes perspective has been found inadequate as there are gaps which have not been satisfactorily addressed. In contrast, communication skills development from a human capital development perspective has been found to be systematically organised using a Training Needs Analysis (TNA) approach along three lines of analysis, i.e., Organisation, Task and Person (OTP). With that OTP typology we propose to develop a framework for development of communication skills in English for institutional drivers. Both qualitative and quantitative methods will be adopted for data collection. The qualitative data will be collected through interviews of top administrators, academic staff, non-academic staff, visiting professors and students. Additional data will be gathered through client appraisal forms, diary entries, observation and document analysis. The quantitative data will be gathered through survey questionnaires distributed to related respondents including, academic staff, non-academic staff, students and visitors. The qualitative data will be analysed using constant comparative method and Nvivo software while the quantitative data using SPSS version 20 involving descriptive and inferential descriptive statistics. Results of the analyses are used to develop a framework for the development of communication skills in English that has evaluated the training needs and expectations revealed at the Organisation, Task and Person levels. The study is significant in that it considers an alternative approach to development of the communication skills of the non-academic staff that meets the need for a more efficient and effective communication skills training programme

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON INTERFERENCE ERRORS FROM MALAY LANGUAGE TRASNFER TO MANDARIN LEXICON LEARNING

Language transfer is one of the main factors affecting foreign language learner from learning a target language well. In Malaysia, the number of non-Chinese students learning Mandarin is increasing. However, differences in their language and cultures could impose more difficulties to the non-Chinese students when learning the language. The present study explored the interference errors from Malay language to Mandarin learning of non-Chinese students in terms of lexicon. To this end, learner corpus containing collection of the students’ compositions, dialogues and examination scripts was compiled and analyzed in the study. Four types of lexicon interference errors were focused on, namely (1) improper usage of words (2) word orders error (3) improper usage of collocation and (4) improper usage of culture images. The findings reveal the highest interference error occurs in improper usages of words followed by word order errors, improper usages of collocation and improper usages of culture images. The finding calls for a more effective teaching to be incorporated to raise the students’ awareness on the negative transfer of their native language into Mandarin lexicon learning

English language vocabulary profiles of undergraduate students at different proficiency levels

Vocabulary knowledge is influential to learners’ language ability.While vocabulary studies in Malaysia have investigated learners’ vocabulary knowledge,they however do not consider learners across various proficiency levels.Furthermore,previous studies do not focus on both the receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge of learners.To fill this gap,the present study systematically investigated the profiles of receptive and productive vocabulary of Malaysian undergraduate students at the Band 1 (very limited),Band 2 (limited),Band 3 (modest),Band 4 (satisfactory) and Band 5 (proficient) levels of the Malaysian University English Test (MUET).The Vocabulary Size Test and the Vocabulary Levels Test were administered to gauge the students’ receptive vocabulary knowledge.Additionally,parts of their written and spoken corpora were analysed to examine the vocabulary they used in terms of lexical variation,lexical density,lexical sophistication,lexical frequency,lexical originality and lexical collocation.The findings reveal that students attain different extent of receptive vocabulary knowledge.Next,the findings also show that Bands 1, 2 and 3 students lacked receptive vocabulary knowledge to use the language at the university.Furthermore,their knowledge of the academic vocabulary is also limited.When writing the essays,the Bands 1, 2 and 3 students produced almost similar extent of lexical variation,lexical density,lexical sophistication,lexical frequency and lexical collocation.When speaking,the Bands 1, 2, 3 and 4 students produced similar extent of lexical variation,lexical sophistication and lexical collocation.All students demonstrated high use of the General Service List when writing and speaking (more than 86%).Lastly,the finding points to an underuse of lexical collocation categories by the students.The profiles of receptive and productive vocabulary unveiled in the study serve as a practical guideline to incorporate effective vocabulary teaching at higher learning institutions in Malaysia for students at various proficiency levels

Influence of Malaysian university english test training on the speaking performance of pre-university students

Formal training in a second language (L2) could be one of the essential factors for acquisition of the target language. In Malaysia, Malaysian University English Test (MUET) training is provided to pre-university students (Lower Form Six and Upper Form Six) in preparation for the actual test. However, does the amount of MUET training received by these L2 learners influence their speaking performance? This study therefore aims to investigate if the amount of MUET training factor received by pre-university students significantly distinguish them with regard to their speaking performance. To this end, a speaking test was administered to seventy Malaysian pre-university students from two different intact classes (a group of 35 Lower Form Six and 35 Upper Form Six students). The results of the study revealed that the Upper Form Six students who received more exposure to MUET training obtained a significantly higher mean score than the Lower Form Six students in the speaking assessment. Hence, it can be concluded that MUET training provided to the Form Six students seems to have a significant influence on the L2 learners’ speaking performanc

English language receptive vocabulary profile: A case of novice business undergraduate students

One of the challenges for undergraduate students is coping with the demand for English language use at universities. Generally, vocabulary knowledge of learners affects how well learners can function in the language, whereby better vocabulary attainment enables more effective use of the language. Thus, it is vital to understand the vocabulary ability of university students to ensure that their overall English language proficiency could be enhanced. This study explores the receptive vocabulary profile of 35 novice business undergraduates at a public university in Malaysia. The profile was explored in terms of size and level. Two tests were administered -- the Vocabulary Size Test (Nation & Beglar, 2007) and Vocabulary Levels Test (Schmitt, Schmitt, & Clapham, 2001). In terms of size, the results indicate the average was 2971 word families (the maximum known was 3800). This is in line with their vocabulary level which reveals 97% of the students did not reach the mastery level of 3000 word family level i.e. have not acquired adequate vocabulary to be able to use the language. The study offers insights into the profile of receptive vocabulary of novice undergraduate students which could be used to enhance vocabulary teaching and learning at universities

Relationship between productive vocabulary knowledge and speaking performance

The significant role of vocabulary knowledge in second language (L2) learning has been acknowledged by various studies conducted by researchers with different purposes. Of the previous research conducted, hardly any attempted to examine how well productive vocabulary knowledge predicts the speaking performance of L2 learners. Therefore, the current study was conducted with the purpose to systematically investigate how well productive vocabulary knowledge predicts the ESL speaking performance of Malaysian pre-university students. Seventy Form Six students from a Malaysian secondary school participated in the study. A productive vocabulary knowledge test and a speaking performance task were carried out onto the participants and the results were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The finding revealed that productive vocabulary knowledge has a weak positive correlation with the speaking performance of the students which is not statistically significant. The result thus suggests that productive vocabulary knowledge is not a good predictor of the speaking performance of ESL pre-university students

Receptive vocabulary levels of Malaysian university students

Acquiring adequate vocabulary knowledge is necessary for English language learners in order to be able to function effectively using the language. The study investigated the English language receptive vocabulary knowledge among Malaysian undergraduates in terms of word levels. The Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) by Schmitt et al., (2001) was employed in order to assess the students’ receptive vocabulary knowledge at five different word levels. The result reveals majority of the students are weak in terms of their receptive vocabulary knowledge and most of them failed to reach the mastery level for all the five word levels; 40 (57%) of the students do not master the 2000 word level, 58 (83%) of the students do not master the 3000 word level, 65 (93%) of the students do not master the 5000 word level, 70 (100%) of the students do not master the 10000 word level and 65 (93%) of the students do not master the academic word level. The findings were useful insights on the English language receptive vocabulary knowledge among Malaysian university students in terms of word levels