Addressing English Grammar Learning Challenges Among Malaysian Islamic Studies Students

Abstract

Previous studies have reported that students with Islamic studies backgrounds in Malaysia often exhibit low performance in the English language, which is associated with negative attitudes and low motivation to learn the language. Many of these students question the need to learn the language, making it essential to investigate whether this issue persists in the current era. Therefore, the present study aims to study the problems that these students face in learning English grammar and how it influences their language learning at the tertiary level. A questionnaire was specifically designed and distributed to 61 students from the Faculty of Islamic Studies of a public university in Malaysia before transferring the data into Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPPS) for analysis. The results from the questionnaire reveal that even at the tertiary level, students still struggle with learning English. They felt that learning English was difficult as they could not find similarities between English and any other languages they knew. Moreover, their negative perception of the language hindered them from putting effort into improving their proficiency. Hence, it is recommended for a specific module to be designed for this group that can cater to their needs towards learning English grammar efficiently, with the hope that it will also positively change their perception of the language.