Listening And Writing Skills Essay

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

English is now widely used among humankind as a global language (Abdul Rashid Mohamed, Goh & Wan Rose Eliza, 2004). This is evident when there is an exchange of knowledge and technology between countries (Saadiyah Darus & Kaladevi Subramaniam, 2009). For this reason, it is important to have the language knowledge so as to comprehend one another. In Malaysia, English is also used as one of the ways to communicate among various nationalities in the country though it is not the first language. So, the need for English as a means of communication is incredibly demanding. In fact, Malaysian Education Ministry is carrying out a “rapid turnaround programme” (Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025,

C. Brown (2000) explained that learners have to learn the four language skills first before they can master English language (as cited in Firas Ali Suleiman Zawahreh, 2012). Listening and reading skills are receptive skills whereas speaking and writing skills are productive skills. Writing skills are regarded as the most difficult skills to be mastered by learners (Sarfraz, 2011). It requires them to create novel ideas and transform information as they draf, revise and edit. Yau (2014) said that having these skills will ease learners to convey their messages to the readers in written form. Consequently, the capability to write well becomes more essential, especially in academic environment where learners need to complete written assignments (Surina Nayan & Kamaruzaman Jusoff,

This will lead to the causes, thus, revealing the best step to be taken in order to overcome the problem arose. This study has advantages on teachers as well as students. It does not only guide teachers on providing feedback to students on the errors in their writing, it also helps teachers to evaluate their instructional materials used in teaching English. As for the students, they can try to avoid making the similar error repeatedly after referring to the result of the study. Hence, this study is a useful reference for teachers and one of the guides for students to self-correct themselves.

1.2 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this study are:

1. to analyze subject-verb agreements errors in argumentative, descriptive and narrative English essay writing by a selected sample of Bachelor of Education (Hons) Teaching English as Second Language third year students from Universiti Selangor.

2. to find the sources of those errors and ways for remediation.

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

This study will answer the following research questions:

1. What is the frequency of subject-verb agreement errors found in the narrative, procedure and descriptive essays written by the