Abstract
This study explores Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Sarawak graduating students’ oral proficiency, focusing on grammatical accuracy. Oral proficiency in English has always been the benchmark of language proficiency, and in the context of UiTM’s language teaching curriculum, efforts to enhance students’ oral proficiency are implemented through various languages proficiency-based and ESP courses. A small corpus of group discussions was analysed to identify and classify grammatical errors and other performance factors in students’ oral communication. The analysis was carried out using text analysis software used in corpus linguistics (Dagneaux et al, 1998, Scott, 1996). The software was used to classify grammatical errors into general categories such as grammar, word, lexical, formal, style, lexico grammar and register. It was found that the students who took part in group discussions displayed frequent lexical, grammatical and formal errors. Also there was much evidence of performance phenomena such as hesitation, repetitions, incomplete structures and redundancy. This provides evidence that, despite many years of ESL input, some UiTM graduating students still seem to require a great deal of practice with basic grammatical structures. The practical implications derived from the findings of the study suggest that teachers and curriculum developers ought to help students develop their proficiency in English language learning by giving them ample opportunity to use, produce and practice English language structures or sentences through simulated situations in various immersion activities in class and outside the classroom as well as introducing consciousness-raising techniques to sensitise learners to the various forms and meanings of structures used in everyday conversation in English.
Highlights
Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia (UiTM) is one of the nation’s rising tertiary institutions with ‘an international reach’, and is the largest university in Malaysia
A majority of current students in UiTM completed both their primary and secondary education in the national language, Bahasa Melayu (Malay). They have gained formal exposure to English for ten or more years prior to their tertiary education. These are students who are the products of an English language curriculum that places emphasis on communicative skills, meaning the majority of them do possess some general proficiency in the language
The primary objective of this research is to determine the level of oral proficiency of final semester first degree students in UiTM Samarahan, Sarawak by focusing on grammatical accuracy
Summary
Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia (UiTM) is one of the nation’s rising tertiary institutions with ‘an international reach’, and is the largest university in Malaysia. UiTM is currently on the move to be one of Malaysia’s premier universities with world class status in the not so distant future It is crucial for UiTM and its extensive branch campus network to brace itself for the new challenges facing the global academic and professional community which necessitate mastery of English as the world’s ‘lingua franca’, and the development of social communicative skills. A majority of current students in UiTM completed both their primary and secondary education in the national language, Bahasa Melayu (Malay) They have gained formal exposure to English for ten or more years prior to their tertiary education. Even though they may achieve reasonably ‘high’ overall scores, ranging from B to A- in their semester exams for English, there still remains much to be desired with respect to their real performance in the oral domain, i.e., the aspect of oral proficiency
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