PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 4(2): 141-146 (1996)ISSN: 0128-7702

© Penerbit Universiti Pertanian Malaysia

The Use of English by Malaysian Business Executivesin the COlIllIlercial Sector

SHARON GOH SENG PANG and CHA SWEE HE TGDepartment of English Language

Faculty of Moden Language StudiesU niversi ti Pertanian Malaysia

43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

Keywords: English for Specific Purposes, needs analysis, business executives, itnportance andextent of the use of English, English skills and sub-skills

ABSTRAK

Kajian ini adalah sebahagian daripada kajian yang luas ten tang isu penting dan penataran penggunaanbahasa Inggeris dalam ekonomi Malaysia. Walaupun bahasa Inggeris sering diperkatakan sebagai bahasayang penting, tetapi kajian yang mendalam tidak diusahakan untuk menyokong dan memberi huraianten tang situasi ini. Kajian yang dijalankan ini merampilkan maklumat berdasarkan tanggapan eksekutifperniagaan yang menggunakan bahasa Inggeris dalam dunia pekerjaan mereka. Data yang diperolehimempermantap hakikat pentingnya penggunaan bahasa Inggeris di tempat kerja komersial. Secara am,eksekutif peniagaan menunjukkan keyakinan dalam penggunaan bahasa Inggeris. Ini bermakna bahawabakal pekerja-pekerja mestilah juga mempunyai penguasaan bahasa Inggeris untuk diterima masuk kedalam pasaran dalam sektor komersial. Kekerapan sub kemahiran bahasa yang tertinggi yang digunakanialah: kemahiran mendengar perbualan sosial dalam perniagaan, kemahiran bertutur yang melibatkanpenggunaan telefon, membaca dan menulis surat dan memo perniagaan yang lazim. Dari segi urutankepentingan, kemahiran bertutur menduduki tangga teratas. Kepentingan kemahiran bertutur yangditunjukkan dalam kajian ini membuktikan bahawa kejayaan dalam profesional mempunyai kaitan yangrapat dengan keupayaan bertutur dengan baik. Matlumat ini mempunyai implikasi yang mendalam kepadaprogram pendidikan dan latihan.

ABSTRACT

This study is part of a larger survey on the issue of the importance and extent of the use of the Englishlanguage in the Malaysian economy. While the use of English has often been said to be important, large-scalestudies to support and to provide details about the situation are lacking. This present study presentsinformation from the perspective of business executives who use the English language in their jobs. The dataobtained confirm the importance of the use of the English language in the commercial work-place. Thebusiness executives claim to have confidence in the use of the language. Thus potential employees must alsoachieve a level of proficiency that would enable them to use the--l.anguage confidently and efficiently. Themost frequent language sub-skills used are: listening to social conversations in business, speaking on thetelephone, reading and writing routine letters and memos. In terms of order of importance, speaking wasranked the highest. This attachment of importance to speaking suggests that job success is very much relatedto the ability to speak well. This information would have deep implications for education and trainingprogrammes.

INTRODUCTION

This study complements an earlier studycarried out by the researchers on theimportance and extent of the use of Englishin the commercial sector of the Malaysianeconomy (Goh and Chan 1993). In the earlierstudy, the focus was on 197 companies and

158 undergraduates from the Faculty ofEconomics and Management, UPM who did

their practical training in these companies.These companies, therefore, represented po­tential employers in the commercial sectorand the undergraduates, potential employees.I t was felt that another survey was needed on

Sharon Goh Seng Pang and Chan Swee Heng

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Background Information

I t was found that the nature of business of thecompanies was very varied with the largestnumber falling under the 'others' category. Inthis category, the nature of the companies'business was found to include public account­ing, auditing, plantations, market research,co-operatives and telecommunication. Thusthe population was not very clearly involvedin the pre-defined categories of finance,manufacturing, shipping and distribution.Table I shows the classification.

Responses to the Use of English

The business execu tives confirmed theiremployers' expectation of the importance ofEnglish in their work. The figure of 98.9%who said that they believed it was importantto know English was similar to the 97.1 % ofemployers who said likewise in the 1991 study(Goh and Chan 1993).

A large percentage of the respondents(73.8%) reported that English is essential totheir job, confirming the findings of the 1991study, where a large percentage of theemployers (69.3%) felt that it was essentialfor their employees to know English.

A question on whether the businessexecutives had attended English languagecourses was used as a gauge to indicate thedesire to improve or to show continuedinterest in the use of the language. Only12.3% replied in the affirmative, and of thisfigure, 65% said they h;ld to pay for theircourses themselves. Twenty-six per centreported that they were sponsored by theircompany. This reaffirms the low figure in the1991 study which found that 18.2% of the

Percentage

the use of English by business executivescurrently employed by those companies. Itwas deemed important to investigate thetarget situation so as to obtain the necessaryinformation to validate the data on languageuse of the potential employees. This informa­tion would indicate firmly the target require­ments and facilitate efforts to prepare thelearning of the appropriate dimensions inlanguage use in business situations (Adams­Smith 1986).

Thus, this study provides the link andbridges the gap of prediction and actualiza­tion in the tripartite connection of potentialemployers, potential employees and actualemployees in the various commercial enter­prises. This survey was funded by UniversitiPertanian Malaysia (UPM) and assisted bythe British Council Language Centre, KualaLumpur.

METHODOLOGY

The questionnaire survey method was used to

obtain the data for the study. Questionnaireswere mailed to 197 companies throughoutMalaysia (see Appendices A and B ). Thesecompanies, which were the practical trainingcentres for UPM undergraduates from theFaculty of Economics and Management, wererequested to return one or more copies of thequestionnaire received. The questionnaireswere filled in by business executives in thecompanies and a total of 187 copies werecollected. The data yielded information onthe use and need for on-job skills of thebusiness executives in the English language.The data comribu te to the field of research inEnglish for Specific Purposes (ESP) whereneeds analysis forms a crucial approach forthe collection of information (Robinson 1991)and provides guidelines for ESP syllabusdesign (Riddell 1993).

An attempt was made to classify thenature of the business carried out by thecompanies in order to have a clearer pictureof the extent of the industries covered. Fivepre-determined categories were used: ma­nufacturing; trading, shipping and distribu­tion; services and construction; finance; andothers.

TABLE 1Nature of the companies' business

Business

ManufacturingTrading, shipping and distributionServices and constructionFinanceOthers

7.07.0

29.47.0

49.1

142 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 4 No.2, 1996

The Use of English by Malaysian Business Executives in the Commercial Sector

Speaking

The least used sub-skill in speaking (Table 3)was giving an oral presentation in business(40.1 %) while the most used sub-skill in the1-5 hour category was speaking on thetelephone about technical or specializedtopics related to the job (75.9%). A similartrend was observed in the previous study.From the data, it appears that the telephoneis frequently used in specific job situations. Ittherefore suggests that in the learning of oralEnglish, telephone skills should be empha­sized. Speaking in social situations wasobserved to be also an important sub-skill asmore than 70% reported that it was used inthe 1-5 hour category. This was furtherreinforced by the highest percentage ofresponses (12.3%) in the 6-9 hour category.

TABLE 3Speaking in English

40.1 58.3 1.6

15.5 75.9 8.5

6.375.5

Hours (%)o 1-5 6-9

18.2

16.0 71.7 12.3

Giving an oralpresentation in business

Speaking on the telephoneabout technical orspecialized topics relatedto the job

Speaking to businessassociates/clients inbusiness meetings

Speaking in socialsituations in business

Sub-skill

TABLE 2Listening in English

Listening

The least used sub-skill was listening to anoral presentation in business from theelectronic media (3.7%), as in the previousstudy. The most used sub-skill in the 1-5 hourcategory in the present study was listening toa social conversation in business (78.7%).This suggests that social English plays animportant role in the work-place. Thisconclusion is further strengthened by thehigh figure (77.1 %) recorded for telephoneconversations about social matters (Table 2).

Time Spent on the Use of English

The respondents were asked to indicate thenumber of working hours per week they spenton the use of each of the four English skills ­listening, speaking, reading and writing.From the data collected, three categorieswere used to group the data. The first was 0hour, the second was 1-5 hours and the thirdwas 6-9 hours. In interpreting the data, thehighest percentage of responses in the O-hourcategory would indicate the least used sub­skill. Most of the responses were accountedfor in the second category (1-5 hours). Thefrequency of use diminished noticeably afterfive hours. The responses were as follows:

companies had sponsored English courses.Thus employees wishing to pursue anyfurther learning of English must still do soat their own initiative.

oSub-skill

Listening to a socialconversation in business

Lis tening to a businessdiscussion

Listening to a telephoneconversation about socialmatters

Listening to an oralpresenta tion on businessfrom the electronic media

12.8

20.9

17.6

37.4

Hours (%)1-5 6-9

78.7 28.5

66.8 12.2

77.1 4.8

58.8 3.7

Reading

Reading job-related materials in order toinform/instruct co-workers was found to bethe least used sub-skill (Table 4). Theprevious study, which involved undergradu­ates, also reported this as the least neededskill. Unlike the previous study which foundreading business reports was the mostpractised skill, this study revealed thatreading routine business letters was the mostused skill for the business executives (1-5 hourcategory). Thus on-job requirements appearto stress this sub-skill of reading.

PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 4 No.2, 1996 143

Sharon Goh Seng Pang and Chan Swee Heng

TABLE 4Reading in English

Hours (%)Sub-skill 0 1-5 6-9

Reading routine businessletters and memos 12.3 78.1 9.6

Reading business reports 18.7 76.7 3.7

Reading technical orspecialized materials relatedto the job 19.8 73.7 6.4

Reading job-related materialsin order to inform/instructco-workers 26.2 71.7 2.1

Writing

In view of our bilingual situation, a questionwas asked about the need to translate writtenbusiness documents from English into Malay.This was found to be not very necessary.Writing routine business letters and memoswas found to be a regular task for the businessexecutives. This can be seen not only in thehighest percentage found in the 1-5 hourcategory but also in the 6-9 hour category.Writing business reports was the second mostfrequently used sub-skill in the 1-5 hourcategory. Writing was generally was a lesserpractised skill than reading.

Order of Importance of English Language Skills

Speaking was found to be the most importantskill (Table 6). This skill was also deemed tobe the most important in the study whichinvestigated the perceptions of undergradu­ates and employers. Therefore, the presentstudy confirms the importance placed onspeaking skills. In all three sample groups ofrespondents (employers, undergraduates, andbusiness executives) writing was rated as thesecond most important skill. Reading andlistening were ranked as third and fourth bythe business executives in the present study aswell as by the employers in the previousstudy. However, the undergraduates (poten­tial employees) rated lis tening as moreimportant than reading. This could be aresult of the undergraduates seeing themselvesas 'apprentices' in their practical training stintin which they probably took on a more passiverole and practised listening skills to derive themaximum benefit from their situation.

TABLE 6Order of importance of English language skills

Order Skill Rank Percentage

I Speaking 26.32 Writing 17.53 Reading 6.64 Listening 5.1

TABLE 5Writing in English

Sub-skill 0

Writing routineletters and memos 21.9

Writing businessreports 33.7

Translation of otherlanguages (e.g. Malay) 51.9into English

Writing about technicalor specialized topics 41.7related to the job

Hours (%)1-5 6-9

66.8 11.2

60.9 5.3

48.0 0

52.4 5.9

Rating of English Proficiency

To assess the level of English proficiencyachieved by the business executives, theywere asked to carry out a self-rating exer­cise. About a third of them stated that theywere good or average in the language. Only12.3% rated themselves as excellent. Very fewconsidered themselves as being poor in thelanguage. One can infer that business execu­tives need to possess a reasonably goodcommand of the language in order to behired. The 'fair - good' band in fact encom­passes 87.7% of the responses. Potentialemployees in the first study admitted theirlack of confidence in the use of the languageand noted that if they were to aspire to bebusiness executives, they must achieve anadequate level of English proficiency in order

144 PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 4 No.2, 1996

The Use of English by Malaysian Business Executives in the Commercial Sector

to meet on-job demands.I t was also noted in the first study that

English proficiency was an important con­sideration in job interviews and promotionexercises for business executives. The impor­tance of English as an entry requirement aswell as for further career advancement forbusiness executives is clearly supported.

CONCLUSION

Both studies involving the same 197 compa­nies confirmed the importance of English as ajob requirement for business executives. As forhow much time is spent on the use of English intheir work life per week, it was revealed that therange of one to five hours encompasses the high­est concentration of the percentage of responses.

Research related to ESP invariably leadsto pedagogical implications (Swales 1990).From the evidence given by this study, it issuggested that course design in businessEnglish should give attention to listeningand speaking on the telephone about techni­cal and social matters. Reading and writingroutine business letters and memos aredefinitely other important aspects that needto be taught in business English courses.Students must be prepared adequately in theuse of the English language to meet thechallenges of their intended career in the

business world. The need is all the morecogent with the English language widelyacclaimed as the international language usedin science, technology and trade dealingsUohns and Dudley-Evans 1991).

REFERENCES

ADAMS-SMITH, D.E. 1986. ESP and the localsi tuation. In ESP in Practice, ed. P. W.Peterson, p. 64-72. Washington: U ni tedStates Information Agency.

GOH, S. and S.H. CHAN. 1993. The use of Englishin the commercial sector of the Malaysian eco­nomy: Perspectives from potential employersand employees. ESP Malaysia 1(2): 128-146.

JOHNS, M.A. and T. DUDLEY-EVANS. 1991.English for specific purposes: Internationalin scope, specific in purpose. TESOL Quarterly25(2): 297-314.

RIDDELL, P.G. 1993. Analyzing student needs indesigning specific purposes language sylla­buses. Language Learning Journal 3: 73-77.

ROBINSON, P. 1991. ESP Today: A PractitionersGuide. London: Prentice-Hall.

SWALES, ].M. 1990. Genre Analysis: English inAcademic and Research Settings. New York:Cambridge University Press.

No. State

APPENDIX A

Table ADistribution of accounting companies according to state/town

Town

1. Federal Territory2. Johor '3. Kedah4. Kelantan5. Melaka6. Negri Sembilan7. Pahang8. Pulau Pinang9. Perak

10. PedisII. Sabah12. Sarawak13. Selangor14. Terengganu

Kuala LumpurMuar, Johor BaruAlor SetarKota BharuMelakaSerembanKuantanButterworth, Pulau PinangIpoh

Kota KinabaluKuching, SibuKelang, Petaling Jaya, Tanjung KarangKuala Terengganu, Marang

Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 4 No.2, 1996 145

No. State

I. Federal Territory2. johar

3. Kedah

4. Kelantan

5. Melaka6. Negeri Sembilan7. Pahang

8. Pulau Pinang9. Perak

10. PedisII. Sabah12. Sarawak13. Selangor

14. Terengganu

146

Sharon Goh Seng Pang and Chan Swee Heng

APPENDIX B

Table BDistribution of "other" companies according to state/town

Town

Kuala LumpurBatu Pahat, Bruas, johor Baru, Kluang, Muar, Pontian,

Segamut, SenaiAlor Setar, Baling, jitra, Kota Setar, Kulim, Langkawi,

Pendang, Sungai PetaniBachok, Kota Bharu, Machang, Pasir Mas, Pasir Puteh,

Tanah MerahMelakajohol, Port Dickson, Seremban, TampinBenta, Bentong, Genting Highlands, jerantut, Kuantan,

Pekan, TemerlohBukit Mertajam, Butterworth, Pulau PinangHutan Melintang, lpoh, Kuala Kangsar, Langkap,

Lenggeng, Selama, Slim Village, Sungai Teluk lntan,Taiping, Tapah

Kangar

Bintulu, KuchingBanting, Kajang, Kelang, Petaling jaya, Semenyih, Sepang,

Shah AlamDungun, jerteh, Kuala Terengganu, Kemaman, Kuala Berang,

Marang

(Received 4 August 1995)

PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 4 No.2, 1996