Malaysian Workers’ Difficulty In Communicating In English In The Workplace

Importance of Oral Communication in the Workplace

Business communication can be defined as the receiving and sending of non- verbal and verbal messages within the context of an organization. Effective communication plays an important role in the workplace for the workers for the purpose of securing their jobs and in being more productive and increasing the chances of promotion. English language is adopted for workplace communication which, in turn, significantly improves the quality of workplace communication (Brink & Costigan, 2015).

In Malaysia, English plays an important role for communication in higher institutions and businesses. The national language of Malaysia is Malay and English is considered to be its second language. English language is used for the purpose of generating effective communication abilities among the learners in different professional and social contexts. In Malaysia, communication skills are considered to be necessary for resolving various workplace situations. Success cannot be achieved in the management sector without efficient communication skills.

I agree with the statement that Malaysians are facing difficulty in communicating in English in the workplace especially in the context of business related matters. However, this problem is mostly faced by the Malaysian workers during oral communication. This report focuses on the causes of the problems faced by the Malaysians during oral communication in the workplace.

In the recent years, employers have started to prefer employees having good oral communication skills in English language in order to fulfill the current demands of workplace communication. Furthermore, it is believed by the employers that low proficiency language skills results in difficulties in the business context. In order to be successful in the jobs, employees need good oral communication skills in English language for the purpose of carrying out diverse communicative tasks such as meetings, presentations and negotiations. In other words, oral communication skills play an important role in the organizational context. Most essential communicative activities include arguing for an issue involving colleagues or superiors, establishing social relationships with the customers or clients and providing training by way of workshops, discussions, etc. (Addams & Allred, 2015)

The business world is becoming more competitive with each passing year. Today’s businessmen are not only required to convey only technical information but it is also essential to have communication and social skills for the purpose of achieving expertise in the workplace. Businessmen also describe the immense importance of formal presentations and oral communication in their day to day work routine (Kuen, Rafik- Galea & Heng, 2017). Business communication can be defined as the receiving and sending of non- verbal and verbal messages within the context of an organization. In other word, it is a process generation, transmission, receipt and interpretation of messages in public, interpersonal group and mass communication contexts through verbal and written formats. If difficulties are faced by the employees within the workplace in conversing well in the workplace in the business related matters, there are chances that the organization misses a number of opportunities and may often fail in the business battle (Ladegaard & Jenks, 2015).    

Globalization and the Role of English Language

With the passage of time, the on- going globalization of markets have forced the companies to do their business internationally. For this purpose, businesses employee people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. In such situations, negotiators, businesses along with the persons involved in international business usually make the use of English language in multilingual settings. Therefore, effective English language skills are required to be possessed by the Malaysian workers for the purpose of completing diverse tasks in their workplaces, especially in cases of the vibrant economy like Malaysia. There are a number of multinational companies which have established their base in Malaysia. An important role is played by such companies in the economy of Malaysia (Zahari, Zain, Bakar, Basri & Omar, 2016). Furthermore, such companies have increased the share of Malaysia in the world trade in the global economy and therefore are required to make a conscious decision in respect of their employees. English language plays a key role in fulfilling the organizational demands of multinational companies and assist in communicating with the employees belonging to different cultural groups and in undertaking international business operations (Cook, 2016).

In the modern world, English has become lingua franca which means it has been accepted as a common language by the speakers whose native language is different (Nickerson, 2015).  The use of English language has subsequently increased in the field of businesses, new technologies, travel and tourism and it dominance across the globe has encouraged the speakers of other languages to adopt this language at least for working use across fields. However, number of problems are being faced by the staff and those working in the Human Resource Department of the companies while communicating in English. In other words, they encounter problems while delivering public speeches, speaking fluently in meetings and giving oral presentations. A study was conducted on the multinational companies in Malaysia for the purpose of examining their needs with regard to English communication. The study provided the findings which highlighted the requirement for equipping the graduates with oral communication skills in order to ensure their effective functioning at the workplace. Moreover, the Malaysian companies were also hesitating in hiring the local graduates due to the fact that they have poor command over English language. Along with this, they have poor skills in respect of problem solving and also lack general knowledge. It has further been reported that the majority of the Malaysians have poor English communication skills which, in turn, places a significant impact on their employability (Lee & Koo, 2015).  

Challenges Faced by Malaysian Workers in Communicating in English

The HR staff of the multinational companies of Malaysia also faces various difficulties in the interpretation of English language due to their weak vocabulary and limited English language proficiency. Other problems constitute speaking English at an intermediate level, having satisfactory writing skills, experiencing problems in understanding the meaning of the language spoken by the native speakers who speak fast. The Malaysians are only competent in listening skills and do not match the criteria of the English language skills required for functioning well at the workplace. However, they want to attend English classes for further enhancing their language abilities.

Among the communication skills, ability to listen is considered to be most important in the context of an organization. This is due to the fact that a number of problems are faced at workplaces due to lack of listening skills. Some supervisors, executives and workers have a tendency to talk more and therefore they fail to listen and not comprehend the notions of hearing and listening. A serious obstacle can be created in carrying out the responsibilities by the individuals as a good worker as a result of challenges in establishing effective communication at the workplace. The message is influenced by the intonations, nuances and facial expressions of every person. The challenges that surround effective communication in the workplace require ensuring the effective and accurate delivery of written and verbal messages (Saleh & Murtaza, 2018).

For the purpose of improving the difficulty faced in communicating in English language in the workplace specifically in business matters, few obstacles are faced by the workers within themselves. Such obstacle is in the form of insecurity in believing in one’s own ability. There are a number of challenges faced by the Malaysians while communicating in the workplace (De Jesus- Rivas, Conlon & Burns, 2016). Some of the challenges are described below.  

Fear- fear of misinterpretation or mispronunciation is faced by the workers by whom English is used as their second language. Such fear is faced from their American counterparts. Employees start feeling that other employees will make fun of them if they will make grammatical errors and this may further lead to their breakdown in communication. For the purpose of improving the English skills, such worker should first need to feel comfortable in their working environment and should stop being afraid of committing mistakes in front of other workers in the organization (Rubtsova, Kapustkina, Karapetyan, Kovalev & Rasskazov, 2015).  

Importance of Listening Skills in Workplace Communication

Time- A lengthy procedure is required to be followed for the purpose of learning any language. A time period of five to eight years is necessary for an individual for learning second language as per the estimation of The Centre for Adult English Language Acquisition. Most of the time, the employers also expect that the workers who use English as the second language may take time in getting up to speed (Ahmad- Tajuddin & Hamid, 2017).

Support- in cases where the empathetic workers surround the worker who use English as a send language for helping in their communication difficulties, the chances of effective communication can be significantly increased. However, an employee feels that the working environment is unsupportive then new opportunities should be pursued by such employees. It is important that there should be diverse group of employees in the workplace, however, lack of the ability to communicate properly can make an employee feel low and depressed (Ladegaard & Jenks, 2015).

Limited Opportunities- the communication skills of the works who use English as their second language can become stagnant in cases where there are not much opportunities for the improvement of skills. Workshops and coaching should be provided for the purpose of providing communication improvement opportunities to the workers. One- on- one training can also play an effective role in improving communication skills in front of co- workers or superiors (Hussin, Nimehchisalem, Kalajahi & Yunus, 2016).

Unrealistic Standards- when unrealistic standards are placed on the workers who use English as their second language can make their job stressful. If perfect grammar is required by the employer in the reports prepared by the employees, this can become an unrealistic expectation and can make the things even worse. This, in turn, will add more anxiety to the already stressed employees (Dawson, Madera, Neal & Chen, 2014).

English is considered to be the language of business and therefore plays an important role in the globalized world where trade and money flow across borders can be appropriately undertaken when there is good command over English language. The non- native English speakers face problems in terms of listening comprehension, accents, fluency, grammar usage, producing word strass misplacements, quality of voice and cultural awareness (Gut & Pillai, 2015).

One of the possible causes of difficulty in communicating in the workplace is lack of motivation. This is due to the fact that the Malaysian employees often hesitate when they use their second language for the purpose of communicating in the workplace. Also, there are communication barriers such as differences in background of the employees. As far as the business related matters are concerned, Malaysians may face difficulties when it comes to the technical terms which are hard to understand by people who use English as their second language. Such employees are often unable to feel comfortable while communicating in English. When English is not the first language of an employee, they face the problem of misinterpretations and assumptions by others as they are unable to express themselves in a proper manner. Slowly and gradually such employees start feeling inferior to other employees due to various problems being faced by them in communication (Millot, 2017).

Conclusion

Bad management is also one of the causes of difficulty in establishing effective communication at the workplace. However, the basic cause of the problem lies in the head of the employees. They do not feel confidence while communicating with the native speakers and therefore they hesitate at the time of communicating their views in English language (Aichhorn & Puck, 2017). The problem arises at the tie of selecting the correct set of words to express the opinion. Furthermore, they also do not have same level of fluency while communication due to lack of natural flow of the language. The lack of command of the Malaysians over English language has increased the number of graduates who are unemployed. This is due to the fact that industries require specific communication skills which are not possessed by such graduates. Moreover, productive skills in respect of speaking and writing are favored in the Malaysian workplaces, where the use of English is made for the purpose of communicating with clients, colleagues and superiors (Nickerson & Planken, 2015).   

In other words, each and every employee is filled with a number of ideas as different employees have different opinions and views due to different levels of understanding. If such kind of communication issue is faced by them, there are chances that the organization may not be able to grab any opportunity that can be offered by the employees working in the workplace by fully expressing their ideas (Nguyen & Oliver, 2015).

Conclusion

Therefore, it can be concluded that Malaysians face difficulties in communicating in English language in the workplace, specifically in the context of business related matters. Oral communication skills play an important role in the workplace. Since, Malaysians use English as their second language, they often face difficulties in speaking it fluently in front of the audience i.e. other workers and higher authorities of the organization. English language plays a key role in fulfilling the organizational demands of multinational companies and assist in communicating with the employees belonging to different cultural groups and in undertaking international business operations. The use of English language has subsequently increased in the field of businesses, new technologies, travel and tourism and it dominance across the globe has encouraged the speakers of other languages to adopt this language at least for working use across fields.

The HR staff of the multinational companies of Malaysia also faces various difficulties in the interpretation of English language due to their weak vocabulary and limited English language proficiency. The challenges faced by the Malaysians include fear, support, unrealistic standards, limited opportunities, etc. Also, there are a number of possible causes of such difficulties being faced by Malaysians which include lack of motivation, bad management, difficulty in interpreting technical terms, lack of confidence, etc.                   

Malaysian organizations should work in collaboration with the government and private institutions which offer education courses in order to enhance the English language skills of the employees. Furthermore, Malaysians should emphasize on the enhancement of the English language skills right from the school days of an individual. Training courses should also be provided for the purpose of boosting the confidence of individuals in communicating in English language in the workplace which will further ensure the effective performance of the individuals in their job functions as well.

References

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