Professional Documents
Culture Documents
INFORMATION PROPOSAL
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
PAGE 3
PAGE 4-5
PAGE 10-19
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
PAGE 20
PAGE 21-27
PAGE 28
INTRODUCTION
ii)
iii)
ii)
iii)
Teknologi Mara, it is aimed at equipping the Malay and Bumiputera students with
the English language in order for them to be able to compete in the working world
with other overseas graduates (New Straits Times, 2000). Ironically, the result of a
government survey in Malaysia finds that the most unemployed graduates in
Malaysia are the Malay graduates because they do not have good communication
skills in the English language (New Straits Times, August 27, 2009). So, what have
gone wrong and could be wrong?
It is hoped that the findings from this study will provide insights to this issue
and may help instructors to help the students to improve their critical thinking skills
as well as communication skills in order for them to be fully prepared when entering
the real world.
Dependent variables - The values that result from the independent variables.
For this research the independent variable is the student while the dependent
variable is the communication.
1.9 Conclusion
This chapter has covered the background of study, the statement of the
research problem, the research objectives, the research questions, the significance
of the research, the operational definition of terms used in this study and the
limitation of this study. The literature review of the topics related to this study will
be presented in the next chapter.
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction
In this study, the researcher examines how communication apprehension
(CA) is related to classroom participation. Although the topic on classroom
participation has received little attention at the higher education level but due to
the poor communication skills being the major reason why graduates and young
jobseekers are unemployed, students' participation in university classrooms has
been the focus of several studies. Summarized in the following review of the
literature are the definition of classroom participation, types of student
participation, benefits of classroom participations and factors that make the
students to be reluctant to participate in class discussion, the definition of
communication apprehension (CA), causes of communication apprehension (CA)
and ways to overcome students communication apprehension (CA).
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about and what task they are actually required to do are classified as the civil
attention participators. Students who only use the knowledge taught by the
educator for instrumental purpose and memorize the knowledge that has been
gained in the class only for the sake of answering the test as well as examination
belong to the third type of participation, that is, knowledge transmission orientation.
The only type of student participation that involves students active engagement in
the classroom discussion is interactive facilitative orientation. This type of
participation is claimed to be the only type that engages students in the classroom
discussion hence making them active participants in the classroom because these
students are provided with alternative forms of assessment in order for them to
understand what is being discussed in the class. The researcher believes that a lot
of students do not belong to the fourth type of student participation because
students, in Malaysia, specifically, have been conditioned to go to school or
university for the sake of passing the test and exam in order to please their parents,
educators, or the society as a whole. Besides that, our culture emphasizes on the
need to protect the face. For example, students who belong in the first type of
participation refuse to share their opinions and thoughts as well as answering the
educators questions because they fear should their answers or opinions are wrong
and unimpressive, they would just embarrass themselves. Students who belong in
the second type of participation pretend to be paying attention to the educator in
the classroom because they simply want to please the educator and make the
educator to have good impression on them. While students who belong in the third
type of participation attend classes with only one goal, that is to study to pass the
test or examination. These kind of students will not participate orally in class
discussion because they are too busy jotting down every single thing that the
educator and the other classmates say for they believe they could use the notes for
the test and examination.
Classroom participation is crucial as it affects the learning outcomes of the
students positively (Rogers, 2009). This is because when students participate in the
classroom actively, they will have to be responsible for their own learning. For
instance, they will have to be prepared before attending classes such as doing some
reading before attending a class in order for them to be able to answer the
educators questions and contribute their two cents in the discussion (University of
New South Wales Assessment Toolkit. Apart from that, active participation in
classroom discussions affect students' academic achievement positively as the
materials that have been discussed in the classroom by the students are proved to
help the students to perform better in the test (Rau and Heyl, 1990 in Rogers,
2009). This claim is supported by Handelsman, et al. (2005) in Rocca (2010), in
which it is claimed that the increment of students' participation in the classroom is
aligned with the increment of their grades. It is also being argued by Brookfield and
Presskill (1999) in Howard (2004) that class participating in class discussion will help
students achieve a more critically informed understanding, enhance students' self
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of the reticence among the students in the classroom and educators should provide
the students with more chances to speak and create a learning environment that is
friendly and supportive in order to encourage them to speak. Apart from that, it is
also recommended that the lesson should be on interesting topic as it will grab the
students interest to contribute their ideas and opinions regarding the topic. In a
study by Fakhri Khader (2011) on the effect of cooperative learning strategy in the
reduction of the oral communication apprehension, it is claimed that communication
apprehension can be reduced by using cooperative learning approach. Cooperative
learning is defined as a teaching strategy which involves students of different levels
of learning ability which are then put together in a small group consisting of four to
six students and the educators will act as the facilitator. This approach is believed to
be successful in improving the students' learning and developing their oral
communication as well as higher order thinking skills. Besides that, this approach
can also intrinsically motivate the students to learn and it provides them with equal
participation and simultaneous interaction (Davis and Murril, 1994; Philips, et al
2004 in Fakhri Khader, 2011).
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Communicatio
n
Apprehension
(CA)
Unwillingness
to participate
in classroom
discussion
Poor
communication
skills and
critical
thinking skills
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2.5 Conclusion
Researches from previous studies have proved that communication
apprehension (CA) among students is one of the causes that make students do not
want to participate in classroom discussion and it is crucial to help students
overcome this problem in order for them to be able to become active participants in
classroom discussion so that they can maximize the learning outcomes as well as to
equip them with good communication skills that will be needed when they graduate
from universities.
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction
This chapter explains the research design of this study, the method of data
collection, the population as well as the sample of this study and the data analysis
of the data. The data that has been analyzed will then be presented in the next
chapter.
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3.3 Instrumentation
3.3.1 Questionnaire
The first instrument that will be used in this study is a 21 items - scale
questionnaire that is adapted from a study conducted by Meyer (2009). This
questionnaire is aimed at determining the undergraduate students level of
communication apprehension (CA). The questionnaire is divided into two parts
which are part A and part B. Part A comprises of five questions and the responses
are put in a Likert scale form in which Never, 2 indicates Rarely, 3 indicates
Undecided, 4 indicates Often and 5 indicates All of the time. On the other hand, part
B comprises of 16 items and the responses are also put in a Liker scale form in
which 1 indicates Strongly Disagree (SD), 2 indicates Disagree (D), 3 indicates
Undecided (U), 4 indicates Agree (A) and 5 indicates Strongly Agree (SA). The
questionnaire is aimed at determining the undergraduate students level of
communication apprehension (CA). The questionnaire is included in the appendix
section.
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students participate in the classroom and identify whether or not the responses
given by the samples in the questionnaire as well as during the interview make
sense to what is being observed. Finally, the researcher will interview two educators
from the institution for their views on students communication apprehension and
ways to overcome this problem.
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Pilot survey
Interview fifteen samples, five with the highest score, five with the
lowest score and five with the medium score.
Observe a classroom.
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Research Questions
Instrument
Method of analysis
a)Survey questionnaire
Part A 7 items
1) What is the
level of
Students
communication
apprehension in
the classroom?
b)Observation
Observation scheme
a) Survey questionnaire
Part B 16 items
b) Unstructured interview.
(Questions are prepared to
prompt the interviewees)
a) Unstructured interview.
(Questions are prepared to
prompt the interviewees)
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SPSS program.
Descriptive statistics.
Measures of central
tendency (mean, median,
mode)
Measures of variability
(range, quartile deviation,
variance, standard
deviation)
SPSS program.
Descriptive statistics.
Measures of central
tendency (mean, median,
mode)
Measures of variability
(range, quartile deviation,
variance, standard
deviation)
SPSS program.
Descriptive statistics.
Measures of central
tendency (mean, median,
mode).
Measures of variability
(range, quartile deviation,
variance, standard
deviation)
Describing.
Classifying.
Identifying themes.
Coding.
Describing.
Classifying.
Identifying themes.
Coding.
3.6 Conclusion
This chapter has covered the research design, the sample population, the
instrument, the data collection method and the data analysis. The next chapter will
be discussing on the findings of this study.
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GRANT CHART
JANUARY
2015
FEBRUARY
2015
MARCH 2015
APRIL 2015
1. LITERATURE
REVIEW
2. QUESTIONAIRE
DISTRIBUTION
3. ANALYSIS
4. FINDING AND
CONCLUSION
TABLE 1.2 Research Grant Chart
RESEARCH CONCLUSION
A series of studies are reported which indicate that high
communication apprehension have lower academic achievement in traditional
interaction-oriented educational systems than low communication apprehension,
but that no similar relationship exists in a communication-restricted educational
system. Data are also reported indicating that high communication apprehension
prefer mass lecture classes over small classes while moderate and low
communication apprehension preferences are the reverse. The implications of these
results for choosing or designing instructional systems are discussed. In addition,
unlike public speaking that allows them to prepare their speech beforehand,
meetings or group discussions requires the students to be able to speak English
spontaneously while maintaining the conversation.
Thus, with this findings in this study, it is hoped to help lecturers of
English in attempting to improve learning environments by creating relaxed
atmospheres for students, which can make them feel safe to speak or express their
views.
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