Nikitina, Larisa and Mar, Ma Tin Cho and Furuoka, Fumitaka (2018) Russian language needs among university students in Malaysia. Problems of Education in the 21st Century, 76 (5). pp. 693-705. ISSN 1822-7864,
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
In the context of higher education foreign language courses are viewed as skills-oriented subjects that aim to enable students to communicate in a foreign language. The main four language skills to be developed are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Until recently, decisions about which of the linguistic skills should be emphasized in a foreign language program have been taken without seeking the opinions of language learners. To address this issue, the present research examined needs for learning the Russian language among students in a Malaysian public university. To achieve this research aim, a survey questionnaire was distributed among prospective learners of Russian. Four different statistical methods were performed to analyse the data, namely, the descriptive statistics, the independent t-test, the exploratory factor analysis and the reliability test. The findings from the descriptive statistics revealed that the respondents considered developing face-to-face interactive skills, such as the speaking and listening skills, as most important. The findings of the t-test suggested that demographic variables might have some influence on the students' perceptions of the skills' importance. For example, the students who spoke Malay at home placed a higher value on developing their ability to speak in a polite manner and to understand non-verbal communitive acts, such as gestures. The results of the exploratory factor analysis revealed that the language skills as perceived by the students formed several dimensions where interactive and non-interactive skills tended to form distinct clusters. This research concludes with a discussion of pedagogical implications to be drawn from the findings.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Funders: | UNSPECIFIED |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | higher education; language needs; Malaysia; Russian language |
| Subjects: | P Language and Literature > PG Slavic, Baltic, Albanian languages and literature |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Languages and Linguistics Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic & International) Office > Asia-Europe Institute |
| Depositing User: | Ms. Juhaida Abd Rahim |
| Date Deposited: | 07 May 2019 03:03 |
| Last Modified: | 07 May 2019 03:03 |
| URI: | http://eprints.um.edu.my/id/eprint/21126 |
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