The teaching of English in secondary schools in Malaysia with specific reference to workplace needs

Abstract

This study examine English use in the workplace in Malaysia through the analysis of job advertisements, a questionnaire survey of 34 companies, and case studies of an urban based, multi-national electronics factory, and a local, rural based sugar-cane plantation. The findings from the workplace procedures provide a set of criteria that form the basis for the analysis of the case studies of two fourth form classes in an urban secondary girls' school of mixed ethnic group (formerly English medium), and two form four classes in a predominantly Malay rural co-ed secondary school.

The main findings from the workplace procedures indicate that English proficiency was implicit in the job advertisements for managerial/professional posts or received a general mention such as 'good communication and social and interpersonal skills' and those for non-professional jobs such as secretarial and clerical jobs tended to receive explicit mention, such as 'good command of spoken and written English' while there was no significant difference in requirement between industries located in rural and urban areas. Both the questionnaire survey and case studies reveal that the use of English is dependent on the nature of the company's business, i.e. scientific, technological, or international; and 27 out of the 34 use 75% English or more in their daily operations. Apart from slight variations with regard to the lower categories, English is essential for managerial and professional jobs, technical, secretarial, sales and accounts and generally not needed for manual or unskilled job categories.

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