A Preliminary Study on English Grammar Proficiency Knowledge of Diploma Students

Abstract

The aims of the study were to determine the most frequent grammatical errors made by students and their performance in a grammar test. Hence,183 diploma students from a local university were chosen to assist in this study. The instrument of the study was a final test consisting of two reading comprehension passages and a grammar section. For the purpose of the study, the students’ answers of the grammar section were analysed. The grammar section consists of 10 questions covering different parts of speech and tenses which were randomly chosen. It was found that the majority of the students’ performance in a grammar test is in the middle range. Most of them did not perform badly but neither did most of them excel at English grammar. Based on the findings there seemed to be a need for a more enhanced focus on the teaching and learning of English grammar for Malaysian ESL students. However, because this is a small study that examined only one batch of students, the results of this study may not be too significant for a more generalised conclusion. Thus, continuous study should be done with regard to aspects of grammar knowledge and its teaching and learning in Malaysia.

The role and involvement of NGOs in activities related to humanitarian issues in Palestine

“…Malaysian NGOs are united in the impartiality of all perspectives regardless of the background of any individual to jointly support the Palestinian struggle, especially in raising awareness of the issue of emancipation of the land of Palestine. Besides that, this wealth can indirectly receive donations from Malaysian NGOs to Palestine (Ngo et al, 2021).…”

‘Tense Up?’: A Collaborative Gamification Approach in Enhancing Lower Secondary Students’ Utilisation of English Tenses

“…The teaching and learning of grammar is crucial to ensure English learners are aware of how to use the language properly. Generally, grammar is taught in order for students to obtain an understanding of the structure of the English language (Rao, 2019) but in Malaysia, grammar is taught and learned as a way to gain economic and social mobility (Leng et al, 2021). Even in the nation's Education Blueprint 2013-2025 (Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2013) and the English Language Education Reform Roadmap (Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2015), a lot of emphasis is placed on students to learn English in order to gain better employment prospects.…”

“…This includes the poor grammatical competence of Malaysian students (Hamid et al, 2022;Sarangapani & Hashim, 2022) and a sociolinguistic-related issue such as an inability to choose an appropriate form for spoken grammar purposes (Ruivivar, 2022). Furthermore, the Malaysian education syllabus focuses more on the four skills of English, namely, reading, writing, listening, and speaking, rather than on grammar (Leng et al, 2021).…”