Communication
skills among Malaysian University students
Waning communication skills among fresh
university graduates are among some of the unspoken concerns employers have
brought up in recent years. "We have encountered many graduates who cannot speak nor write proper
English. Many are not able to transfer their academic knowledge or articulate
their thoughts during interviews due to poor command of English and this have
cost them jobs in the corporate sector.” says Melissa Norman, Managing Director
of Kelly Services , one of the top head-hunter agencies in Malaysia.
English and the
importance of communication skills took a shift from the British colonisation era
when the national language Bahasa Malaysia was implemented as the common
language medium in lower and higher tertiary education sometime in the 1980’s. It apparently used to be easier for Malaysian students in
Britain to get a part-time job or internship there. An Engineering lecturer at
a local public university who only wants to be known as Mar recalls how it was
back then. “Mention you are Malaysian and you will get one foot in the door. In
fact, we spoke better English then than most Europeans. But, of course, that
was in the1980s.”
Steady Decline of Communication skills
The declining standards of English among
the young in Malaysia is mainly
attributed to policies that have not emphasized this importance. According to former Human Resource Minister Tan Sri Dr Fong Chan
Onn, who related his experience as an external examiner “In the 1980s, the
standard of English in most of the answer scripts was still good but in the
1990s, there was a marked decline, so much so the examiners agreed to only
assess the facts and leave the writing style and grammar alone. If they had
marked the language as well, many of the students would have had low marks.”
A stern measure or solution has to be design and implemented to salvage the current status quo. Multiple teaching aids are already in place especially for countries who practices English as second language.
What are your thoughts on this ? Do you think communication skills among Malaysian students today has taken a hit ?
- article written in support of International Universities Debating Tournament MMU UADC 2012 (http://www.mmuuadc2012.org/)
