Investigating EFL students’ EAP needs on productive skills in Malaysian universities

Many international students are currently pursuing their post-secondary studies in Malaysia. At the beginning of each study programme in Malaysian universities, international students typically attend EAP courses for a better performance on campus. However, it is believed that these courses do not s...

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Main Authors: Gholami, Reza, Noordin , Noreen, Mustapha, Ghazali
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universiti Putra Malaysia Press 2013
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/39764/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/39764/1/81.%20Investigating%20EFL%20Students%E2%80%99%20EAP%20Needs%20on%20Productive%20Skills%20in%20Malaysian%20Universities.pdf
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author Gholami, Reza
Noordin , Noreen
Mustapha, Ghazali
author_facet Gholami, Reza
Noordin , Noreen
Mustapha, Ghazali
author_sort Gholami, Reza
building UPM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Many international students are currently pursuing their post-secondary studies in Malaysia. At the beginning of each study programme in Malaysian universities, international students typically attend EAP courses for a better performance on campus. However, it is believed that these courses do not satisfactorily meet the EFL international students’ needs, and this is probably because such courses do not take into consideration a comprehensive need analysis. This survey is one of the forerunning efforts to find out what tasks of English writing and speaking skills are actually needed by EFL international students in order to improve their ability of English as these two skills have been reported to be the most essential ones in academic settings. To this end, a Need Analysis questionnaire was employed to examine EFL international students’ needs over productive skills. The questionnaire was sent to respondents via email and 60 post-secondary students responded and returned the questionnaire. The data analysis revealed that the majority of the participants considered speaking as the most important language skill that they needed to improve. Also, they reported that Explaining Ideas, Giving a Presentation, Giving Reasons, and Discussing in Meetings ranked on top of their speaking needs. In addition, the most needed writing tasks in EAP classes included Taking Lecture Notes and Writing Journal Papers/Articles. Moreover, gender was found to be significant in determining speaking tasks needed by EFL international students. Finally, PhD students reported to have different speaking needs compared to students studying Master and Bachelor programmes. Findings of this study are majorly congruent with other studies on international students’ needs in academic settings, which can be of worth for the current EAP/ESP courses offered in Malaysia for EFL international students.
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spelling upm-397642015-12-02T01:11:16Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/39764/ Investigating EFL students’ EAP needs on productive skills in Malaysian universities Gholami, Reza Noordin , Noreen Mustapha, Ghazali Many international students are currently pursuing their post-secondary studies in Malaysia. At the beginning of each study programme in Malaysian universities, international students typically attend EAP courses for a better performance on campus. However, it is believed that these courses do not satisfactorily meet the EFL international students’ needs, and this is probably because such courses do not take into consideration a comprehensive need analysis. This survey is one of the forerunning efforts to find out what tasks of English writing and speaking skills are actually needed by EFL international students in order to improve their ability of English as these two skills have been reported to be the most essential ones in academic settings. To this end, a Need Analysis questionnaire was employed to examine EFL international students’ needs over productive skills. The questionnaire was sent to respondents via email and 60 post-secondary students responded and returned the questionnaire. The data analysis revealed that the majority of the participants considered speaking as the most important language skill that they needed to improve. Also, they reported that Explaining Ideas, Giving a Presentation, Giving Reasons, and Discussing in Meetings ranked on top of their speaking needs. In addition, the most needed writing tasks in EAP classes included Taking Lecture Notes and Writing Journal Papers/Articles. Moreover, gender was found to be significant in determining speaking tasks needed by EFL international students. Finally, PhD students reported to have different speaking needs compared to students studying Master and Bachelor programmes. Findings of this study are majorly congruent with other studies on international students’ needs in academic settings, which can be of worth for the current EAP/ESP courses offered in Malaysia for EFL international students. Universiti Putra Malaysia Press 2013-09 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/39764/1/81.%20Investigating%20EFL%20Students%E2%80%99%20EAP%20Needs%20on%20Productive%20Skills%20in%20Malaysian%20Universities.pdf Gholami, Reza and Noordin , Noreen and Mustapha, Ghazali (2013) Investigating EFL students’ EAP needs on productive skills in Malaysian universities. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 21 (3). pp. 995-1017. ISSN 0128-7702; ESSN: 2231-8534 http://www.pertanika.upm.edu.my/Pertanika%20PAPERS/JSSH%20Vol.%2021%20(3)%20Sep.%202013/10%20Page%20995-1018.pdf
spellingShingle Gholami, Reza
Noordin , Noreen
Mustapha, Ghazali
Investigating EFL students’ EAP needs on productive skills in Malaysian universities
title Investigating EFL students’ EAP needs on productive skills in Malaysian universities
title_full Investigating EFL students’ EAP needs on productive skills in Malaysian universities
title_fullStr Investigating EFL students’ EAP needs on productive skills in Malaysian universities
title_full_unstemmed Investigating EFL students’ EAP needs on productive skills in Malaysian universities
title_short Investigating EFL students’ EAP needs on productive skills in Malaysian universities
title_sort investigating efl students’ eap needs on productive skills in malaysian universities
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/39764/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/39764/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/39764/1/81.%20Investigating%20EFL%20Students%E2%80%99%20EAP%20Needs%20on%20Productive%20Skills%20in%20Malaysian%20Universities.pdf