Exploring Factors that Affect English Proficiency Level among University Students: A Case Study in Universiti Utara Malaysia

Masnita  Misiran; Zahayu  Md. Yusof; Massudi  Mahmuddin; Ibnu Affan  Jaafar; Ahmad Firdhaus  Joferi; Nor Suhada  Manap

Authors

Masnita Misiran School of Quantitative Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia
Zahayu Md. Yusof School of Quantitative Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia
Massudi Mahmuddin School of Computing, College of Arts and Sciences, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia
Ibnu Affan Jaafar School of Quantitative Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia
Ahmad Firdhaus Joferi School of Quantitative Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia
Nor Suhada Manap School of Quantitative Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia

Keywords:

Proficiency, questionnaire, factor analysis, language, cultural and educational

Abstract

English has become one of the important languages in the era of globalization. In order to compete well in the world demand, Malaysia has put lot of efforts to make sure that young Malaysian are prepared with the English language as medium of communication. As such, an investigation on the factors that affect the level of English proficiency among university students is being conducted in this study. Exploratory factor analysis was used to analyze the data. Our findings recommend that there are three main contributing factors that affect the English proficiency among Malaysian university students, which are Language, Cultural and Education.