Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2016 in the subject English
Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: A, International
Islamic University Malaysia, course: Bachelor of Arts (Honours) English
for International Communication, language: English, abstract: The
purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the level
of English proficiency among International Islamic University Malaysia
(IIUM) undergraduate students. A set of questionnaires were distributed
online and data from a sample of 75 students were collected through
Google Forms. Two demographic factors, namely gender and years of
learning English, were used as the variables. The finding of the study
suggests that the factors affecting the level of English proficiency
among IIUM undergraduate students were not affected by gender but were
affected by the duration of learning English. The factors that were
contributing to the level of English proficiency among IIUM
undergraduate students were language anxiety, students' attitude and
also peers, parental and teacher influences. Besides, the study also
revealed that there is no significant relationship between cultural
stereotypes and students' performance in second language acquisition.
The level of English proficiency among Malaysian students are often
questioned. Despite learning English for almost 10 years in school, the
majority of Malaysian students still encounter difficulties in using the
language effectively especially in tertiary education. Many local
graduates are still unemployed due to their lack of fluency in English.
