English exit test: An analysis of the test-takers’ performance in the speaking component

Abstract

The workplace-readiness of the Malaysian graduates is unarguably an issue that the local employers and the Higher Education Providers (HEPs) have a consensus upon. It has been reported by the Malaysian Employers’ Federation that more often than not the disability or handicap lies in the poor communicative ability of the graduates who failed to impress their future employers despite their sterling academic performance. One of the hiring criteria for the future employers is that these graduates must be trained to be more verbally competent and eloquent. Hence, this study attempts to conduct a performance analysis of a group of local undergraduates in their English Exit Test (EET) that is made up of written and spoken assessments for them to be workplace-compliant. However, the result has indicated that the test-takers tend to be inhibited when it comes to expressing themselves verbally, which has resulted in a dismal performance in the speaking component. As such, it is a cause for concern to rectify the situation and figure out the solutions to tackle their weak performance. This study also analyses the different performance between the Engineering as opposed to the Hotel Management and Tourism undergraduates, in which a slight difference in their achievement of grades was found. The five dissimilar disciplines of speaking tasks also recorded a difference in their score means achieved by the test takers, which could suggest that treatments are in need to be tailored for those weak performers.