Much has been said that universities in Malaysia have to increase the intake of foreign students. One of the purposes is to rank Malaysian universities among the top World Class Universities. Due to this, there is a growing

concern of the use of English language at the public universities especially among the support staff. Hence, this study was conducted to find out the perceptions of the support staff at the Malaysian public universities at the

Northern Region regarding English usage by examining the workers’ needs and actual use of language at the workplace, the workers’ wants, and the workers’ lacks in English language. It was found that English is not necessary

for the support staff in performing their duties. However, English is more needed for personal usage. It is hope that the findings of this study will provide insights to employers to better manage the workplace literacy particularly when English is concern

Bidin, Samsiah

Musa, Aishah

Universiti Teknologi MARA Institutional Repository

Measuring Local Government Performance in 
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Theory
The Eects of Recruitment and Promotion Practices 
on Employees’ Job Satisfaction in the Local                
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Expanding Medicaid Coverage for Early Treatment of 
HIV- Positive Persons and Implications
Climate Change and Vulnerability of  Paddy Cultiva-
tion in North-west Selangor, Malaysia : A Survey of 
Farmers’ Assessment
 
A Study of Ethics and Information Technology Usage 
among UUM International Students
Factors that Inuence Customer Preferences towards 
Private University in Sungai Petani, Kedah 
Perceptions of Support Stas on English Usage at the 
Workplace 
Zaherawati Zakaria
Adnan Aminuddin
Mahazril ‘Aini Yaacob
Gabriel Tourek
Md. Mahmudul Alam
Chamhuri Siwar
Raqul Islam Molla
Mohd Ekhwan Toriman
Basri Talib
Abd. Manaf Bohari
Nurul Hazan Mazani
Azzyati Anuar
Mohd Rizaimy Shaharudin
Siti Nabihan Baharudin
Samsiah Bidin
Aishah Musa
Dr. Noor Zahirah Mohd Sidek
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Measuring Local Government Performance in 
Malaysia : Political Indicators Versus Organisational 
Theory 
The Effects of Recruitment and Promotion Practices 
on Employees’ Job Satisfaction in the Local              
Governments 
Expanding Medicaid Coverage for Early Treatment 
of HIV- Positive Persons and Implications
 
Climate Change and Vulnerability of  Paddy          
Cultivation in North-west Selangor, Malaysia : A 
Survey of Farmers’ Assessment
 
A Study of Ethics and Information Technology Usage 
among UUM International Students 
Factors that Influence Customer Preferences towards 
Private University in Sungai Petani, Kedah 
Perceptions of Support Staffs on English Usage at the 
Workplace 
1
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3
4
5
6
7
1
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45
57
73
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CONTENTS PAGE


Much has been said that universities in Malaysia have to increase the intake 
of foreign students. One of the purposes is to rank Malaysian universities 
among the top World Class Universities. Due to this, there is a growing 
concern of the use of English language at the public universities especially 
among the support staff. Hence, this study was conducted to find out the 
perceptions of the support staff at the Malaysian public universities at the 
Northern Region regarding English usage by examining the workers’ needs 
and actual use of language at the workplace, the workers’ wants, and the 
workers’ lacks in English language. It was found that English is not necessary 
for the support staff in performing their duties. However, English is more 
needed for personal usage. It is hope that the findings of this study will 
provide insights to employers to better manage the workplace literacy 
particularly when English is concern.
Perceptions of Support Staffs on English Usage at 
the Workplace
89
Samsiah Bidin (Corresponding author)
Department of Language Studies 
Universiti Teknologi MARA Kedah
Peti Surat 184, 08400 Merbok, Kedah, Malaysia
Tel: 6-019-418-8633  E-mail: samsiah482@kedah.uitm.edu.my
Aishah Musa
Department of Language Studies 
Universiti Teknologi MARA Kedah
Peti Surat 184, 08400 Merbok, Kedah, Malaysia
Tel: 6-012-423-8102  E-mail: maishah100@kedah.uitm.edu.my
ABSTRACT
Samsiah Bidin & Aishah Musa / Voice of Academia Vol. 6(1), 2011
Keywords: Workplace literacy, workers’ needs, workers’ wants, workers’ 
lacks.
INTRODUCTION 
In America, New Zealand, and Canada, workplace literacy is not a new issue. 
Other terms used apart from workplace literacy are Employee Basic Skills and 
Workplace Basics. Workplace literacy program is often associated with 
providing benefits to employers and employees. Therefore, to reap the 
benefits, these countries have come up with workplace literacy programs for 
their employees. 
Workplace Literacy comes in various definitions. In general workplace 
literacy comprised of essential skills like communication, mathematics, 
technology, teamwork and lifelong learning needed by an employee to 
perform his or her duties successfully. Communication can be related to the 
language used in communicating with fellow colleagues and in performing 
daily duties.
Workplace Literacy programs are important, however, considerations should 
be taken on whether the programs are suitable and effective to the employees 
and employers. This is to avoid spending energy, time, and money on 
programs that do not benefit both the organization and the employee. Thus, a 
needs analysis should be conducted.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
This study sought to find out whether English is necessary among the support-
ing staff in public universities. To achieve this, the study examined the work-
ers’ needs and actual use of language at the workplace, the workers’ wants, 
and the workers’ lacks in the English language.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The research questions for this research are:
• What are the workers’ needs and actual use of language at the  
 workplace?
• What are the types of the English training courses preferred by  
 the workers?
• What are the workers’ lacks in the English language?
LITERATURE REVIEW
 
Some studies were conducted on the English usage among workers in coun-
tries where English is considered as the second language. Tiong & May 
(1996) conducted a study on blue-collar workers in a company in Penang. 
90
They discovered that the support staff used colloquial Malay in communica-
tion among peers. In studies conducted by Morias (1990; 1998) and Nair-
Venugopal (1997) in West Malaysia, they found that Malay or a mixture of 
Malay and English were used by the lower staff to communicate (as cited in 
Ting, 2002). 
Studies on the same issue were conducted in countries where English is a 
foreign language. In a study by Mahmoud A. Al-Khatib (2005) on the commu-
nication needs of tourism and banking personnels, the English skills are used 
more by the respondents from the tourism agency compared to the banking 
employees. Similarly, in Korea, Hyeson Park & Bora Jung (2006) conducted 
a case study on the English usage in the Korean workplace. It was discovered 
that English was “not much in demand” at the workplace. From a different 
perspective, a comparative study on the importance of the English language 
skills in the tourism sector was conducted in Croatia (Bobanovic & Grzinic, 
2009). The perceptions of the students of the Economics and Tourism Depart-
ment and the tourist agency employees were taken into consideration to com-
pare the English usage between the two groups. The study revealed that 
English among the employees is mostly used for easy communication with the 
business partners. The students, on the other hand, only used English for fun 
and entertainment. The only similarity between the two groups was both used 
the Internet as a media in communicating in the English language.
RESEARCH METHODS
The information regarding the workers’ needs and actual use of language at 
the workplace, the workers’ wants, and the workers’ lacks in the English 
language were obtained from a self-report questionnaire.
Sampling Design
The subjects were 60 supporting staff who work at the counters of three public 
universities in the Northern Region of Malaysia. In attaining the samples, the 
permanent workers who have worked at their respective institution for more 
than one year were chosen.  
Questionnaire
A set of questionnaire was adapted from a study conducted by Mahmoud A. 
Al-Khatib (2005). The questionnaire comprised of 33 questions that covered 
3 aspects namely; workers’ needs and actual use, workers’ wants, and work-
ers’ lacks. The questionnaire is divided into two parts: Part A: Demographic 
details. Part B contains information on the three aspects: Thirteen questions 
are posed on the respondents regarding the worker’s needs and actual use of 
91
Samsiah Bidin & Aishah Musa / Voice of Academia Vol. 6(1), 2011
English at the workplace, eight questions asked the respondents regarding 
their wants in terms of the types of English courses preferred and eight ques-
tions are posed on the respondents regarding their lacks in the English 
language. The questionnaire was piloted to a set of respondents and the calcu-
lated value of Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability Test is 0.766. 
Data Analysis
The data collected were computed using the descriptive statistics; frequency 
and percentage.
 
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The Workers’ Needs and Actual Use of Language at the Workplace
The results of the survey revealed that the respondents needed English for 
several purposes such as communication, improving performance in the 
language, reading English materials (books, newspapers etc), for watching 
English programs and also to be more fluent in the language (100% respec-
tively). Respondents also needed English for a job, studying in the language, 
promotion purposes (85.7%) and for traveling abroad (71.4%). 
The results (100% scores) indicated that the respondents need English for 
their personal or self-development rather than for job performance. Further-
more, the percentages recorded for the job and promotion purposes are much 
lower than the rest. This further supports their need of English is for their 
self-development.
As for the language used in the workplace, the respondents rated much higher 
for Only Malay and Mostly Malay used at the workplace as compared to 
Malay and English and Only English used in their daily duties such as Corre-
spondence, Filing and documentation, Communication with other colleagues 
and Dealing in public relations. The only language used category that 
recorded a high rate of Malay and English used is in dealing with public 
relations, with 30%. The results showed that in their daily job activities, the 
workers do not really use English. Thus, this explains the earlier finding that 
the workers need the English language for self-development rather than in 
enhancing their job performance. The only task that they may need the use of 
English would be in dealing with the public relations. 
The Type of English Training Courses Preferred by Workers
In response to the question `What kind of English Training Courses do you 
92
like to be enrolled in?’,  all of the respondents preferred English training 
courses that can help improve their English proficiency like Vocabulary, 
Grammar, Writing Skills, Reading Skills, Listening Skills, Speaking Skills 
and also courses that can improve their ability in using the Internet. 
The workers seemed to accept all types of English courses as long as the 
courses can improve their general English proficiency. Among all the 
language skills given, none of them is actually much preferred than the rest. 
Apart from that, the respondents also preferred courses that can help them use 
the Internet. Thus, it is apparent that the workers need English for their 
personal use rather than for their job performance.
The Workers’ Lacks in the English Language
 
When asked to self-assess their English language proficiency, most of the 
respondents rated their speaking skill (56%) as Weak and their reading (56%), 
writing (67%) and listening skills (67%) as Satisfactory. This finding indicates 
that the workers are not satisfied with their communicative ability in English 
as compared to other language skills. 
This is further supported by the finding of the question, `What kind of skills 
do you use more often?’, was asked. In response to the question, 80% of the 
respondents rated Rarely used English in speaking. While 20% did not use 
English at all in speaking. This is the only language skill that no score was 
recorded for Mostly used. As for reading, writing and listening, the highest 
scores recorded were for Rarely used which were 90%, 70% and 60% respec-
tively. Even though the scores were high, there were still some workers who 
rated Mostly used for these three skills (10% - 30%). Thus, the lack of usage 
of the speaking skill at the workplace has resulted in the workers rating the 
speaking skill as the weakest skill. 
CONCLUSION 
 
The respondents agreed that they need English to communicate and to 
improve their performance in English. Besides that, they also need English to 
read English materials, to watch English programs and to be more fluent in 
English. A high majority of the respondents need English to study in the 
language, to get a job and also to be promoted. There are quite a significant 
number of respondents who need English for traveling abroad. Based on the 
responses it can be concluded that the respondents are aware that English is 
important because they need English for a variety of purposes.
However, regarding which language is used in the workplace, only a minority 
of the respondents used Only English in correspondence at the workplace. As 
93
Samsiah Bidin & Aishah Musa / Voice of Academia Vol. 6(1), 2011
for Filing and documentation, and Communication with other colleagues and 
Dealing with public relations, Malay is mostly used. Therefore, it can be 
concluded that Malay is the language used at the workplace. This is in relation 
to other researches made by Morais (1990 & 1998); Nair Venugopal (1997) & 
Tiong & May (1996) which highlighted that “… support staff are less likely to 
speak English in the workplace” (as cited in Ting, 2002,137). In addition, 
Al-Khatib (2005, 175 - 176) stated 
All the respondents felt that they need all the different skills required in 
English (vocabulary, grammar, writing, reading, listening, speaking and skills 
in using the internet).  This shows that although they did not actually use 
English in performing their duties, they did not deny that they need all the 
skills to improve their English proficiency.
The results revealed that the speaking skill was rated as the weakest skill 
among the other language skills. In answering the question on the kind of 
skills they used more often, a high majority of the respondents rarely used 
English in speaking. Surprisingly, there were also respondents who did not use 
English at all in speaking. This further support the conclusion made earlier 
where the speaking skill was the weakest skill discovered among the respon-
dents. As for reading, writing, and listening skills, the respondents rarely used 
these skills at their workplace. 
Therefore, a general conclusion can be made that English is rarely used among 
the workers working at the counters at the public universities. This shows that 
although the employees know the importance of English, English is not used 
in their everyday dealing at the workplace. This supports the notion made by 
Krahnke, Hoffman and Krahnke (2003), “In any situation in which there’s one 
language that is socially regarded as the most common, other languages are 
often accorded little importance” (p.148). 
In general, English is viewed positively; however, in performing their daily 
duties, as the support staff in the public universities, it is not necessary. 
English is still considered important but only for individual development and 
94
“…it has been observed that the type of language used by 
each worker is influenced by the workers’ working instru-
ment (see for example Pogner, 2003; Zak and Dudley-Evans, 
1986), by his aims and professional constraints, as well as by 
his specializations and the types of duties assigned to him, 
and by the texts the worker produces and deals with (example 
Edwards, 2000; Macintosh, 1990)”.
not for workplace use or organization.
Recommendations
Based on the findings, English is considered as an added value to the workers. 
This is because English is not necessary in their everyday duties at the work-
place. However, the knowledge of English would be an advantage to the 
workers. They would have higher chances of being promoted. Perhaps when 
the number of foreign students is higher, then the need to use English at the 
workplace would increase. 
Employers should provide English courses that could enhance the workers’ 
communicative abilities. Apart from that, employers should also expose the 
workers to the type of English for personal use for example for watching 
English movies, listening to English news and reading English materials. In 
this context, learning English is considered as a move towards lifelong learn-
ing. Since the findings of this study were based on the workers’ perceptions 
who work at the counters of public universities therefore, this does not reflect 
their employers’ perceptions and this also does not reflect other institutions or 
organizations. Hence, future research should investigate the employers’ 
perceptions and the workers who work at the counters at private universities 
or colleges.
REFERENCES
Bobanovic, M. K., & Grzinic, J. (2009). The importance of English  
 language skills in the tourism sector: A comparative study of  
 students/employees perceptions in Croatia. Retrieved from  
 unibo.it
Hyeson Park & Bora Jung. (2006). The use of English in the Korean  
 workplace: A case study. The Journal of Linguistic Science,  
 37, 113 – 138.
Krahnke, K., Hoffman, L. & Krahnke, K. (2003). Managing language  
 use in the workplace . The Journal of Behavioral and Applied  
 Management, 4(1),148.
Mahmoud A. Al-Khatib. (2005). English in the workplace: An analysis  
 of the communication needs of tourism and banking personnel.  
95
Samsiah Bidin & Aishah Musa / Voice of Academia Vol. 6(1), 2011
 The Asian EFL Journal Quarterly, 7 (2), 174 – 194.
Ting, S. H. (2002). Is English needed in a Malay workplace? RELC  
 Journal, 33(1), 137-153.
Tiong, S., & May, L.W. (1996). Language needs of the blue collar  
 workers in a multinational company. Paper presented at the 1st  
 Malaysia International Conference for English Language  
 Teaching (MICELT), Penang, Malaysia.
96


Perceptions of support staffs on English usage at

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