The Usage of Colligations of Preposition Among Malaysian Law Undergraduates: A Need Analysis

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building INTELEK Repository
caption Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 134 (2014) 34-43. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.04.222
collection Online Access
collectionurl https://intelek.unisza.edu.my/intelek/pages/search.php?search=!collection407072
copyright © 2014 The Authors show Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
date 2014-06-17 10:44:52
format Restricted Document
id 10402
institution UniSZA
originalfilename 4369-01-FH02-FBK-14-00795.pdf
person Kamariah Yunus
Su’ad Awab
recordtype oai_dc
resourceurl https://intelek.unisza.edu.my/intelek/pages/view.php?ref=10402
spelling 10402 https://intelek.unisza.edu.my/intelek/pages/view.php?ref=10402 https://intelek.unisza.edu.my/intelek/pages/search.php?search=!collection407072 Restricted Document Article Journal application/pdf 10 Adobe Acrobat Pro DC 20 Paper Capture Plug-in 1.7 Kamariah Yunus Su’ad Awab © 2014 The Authors show Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 2014-06-17 10:44:52 Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 134 (2014) 34-43. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.04.222 Needs analysis legalese lexico-grammatical competence colligations of prepositions 4369-01-FH02-FBK-14-00795.pdf UniSZA Private Access The Usage of Colligations of Preposition Among Malaysian Law Undergraduates: A Need Analysis Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences Needs analyses carried out among Malaysian law undergraduates, particularly those investigating the students’ lack of competence in legal English, are rare. This paper aimed to investigate Malaysian law undergraduates’ perceptions and usage of colligations of prepositions, one of the most essential lexico-grammatical components in legalese. 40 third semester Malay law undergraduates from one public university participated in the study. Two types of data were collected for this purpose - an interview and essay writing test. Eight out of the 40 students participated in the interview, while all respondents took the essay test conducted a week later. The interview responses were analysed manually, and Dulay et al.’s (1982) Surface Strategy Taxonomy was employed in the analysis of the subjects’ production of prepositional patterns in the Problem Question essays (of legal contract genre). The results from the interviews and essays demonstrate that the subjects lack knowledge of prepositions and their patterns, resulting mainly from interlingual (L1 negative transfer, i.e. Malay) and intralingual (difficulty with the L2 itself, i.e. legalese) interference, as well as the drilling methods applied in both primary and secondary schools. More needs analyses should be carried out in a specialised field like law in future for the short-term and long-term benefits of the students. While both English and law lecturers may gain feedback on their students’ current lexico-grammatical competence, whereby some actions can be taken to improve performance, the results from the analysis may help in developing materials for ELAP (English for Legal Academic Purposes) courses, or in establishing an ELAP course, especially if the course has not yet been established in the institutions offering law programmes. 0 34-43
spellingShingle The Usage of Colligations of Preposition Among Malaysian Law Undergraduates: A Need Analysis
subject Needs analysis
legalese
lexico-grammatical competence
colligations of prepositions
summary Needs analyses carried out among Malaysian law undergraduates, particularly those investigating the students’ lack of competence in legal English, are rare. This paper aimed to investigate Malaysian law undergraduates’ perceptions and usage of colligations of prepositions, one of the most essential lexico-grammatical components in legalese. 40 third semester Malay law undergraduates from one public university participated in the study. Two types of data were collected for this purpose - an interview and essay writing test. Eight out of the 40 students participated in the interview, while all respondents took the essay test conducted a week later. The interview responses were analysed manually, and Dulay et al.’s (1982) Surface Strategy Taxonomy was employed in the analysis of the subjects’ production of prepositional patterns in the Problem Question essays (of legal contract genre). The results from the interviews and essays demonstrate that the subjects lack knowledge of prepositions and their patterns, resulting mainly from interlingual (L1 negative transfer, i.e. Malay) and intralingual (difficulty with the L2 itself, i.e. legalese) interference, as well as the drilling methods applied in both primary and secondary schools. More needs analyses should be carried out in a specialised field like law in future for the short-term and long-term benefits of the students. While both English and law lecturers may gain feedback on their students’ current lexico-grammatical competence, whereby some actions can be taken to improve performance, the results from the analysis may help in developing materials for ELAP (English for Legal Academic Purposes) courses, or in establishing an ELAP course, especially if the course has not yet been established in the institutions offering law programmes.
title The Usage of Colligations of Preposition Among Malaysian Law Undergraduates: A Need Analysis
title_full The Usage of Colligations of Preposition Among Malaysian Law Undergraduates: A Need Analysis
title_fullStr The Usage of Colligations of Preposition Among Malaysian Law Undergraduates: A Need Analysis
title_full_unstemmed The Usage of Colligations of Preposition Among Malaysian Law Undergraduates: A Need Analysis
title_short The Usage of Colligations of Preposition Among Malaysian Law Undergraduates: A Need Analysis
title_sort usage of colligations of preposition among malaysian law undergraduates: a need analysis