FACULTY OF EDUCATION & SOCIAL SCIENCES

BACHELOR OF EDUCATION (B.Ed) TESL

CES2233: TEACHING OF ESP

RESEARCH:

NEEDS ANALYSIS ON ENGLISH USE FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE EMPLOYEES

IN KUALA LUMPUR: PROMETRIC SDN BHD

PREPARED BY :

AFIQAH BINTI AMIRUL 4144008411

MOHAMAD AIZAT BIN MOHAMAD YUSOF 4144005451

NUR SHAZWANI BINTI SUKRI 4144001151

PREPARED FOR :

MR.SOO RUEY SHING

NEEDS ANALYSIS ON ENGLISH USE FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE EMPLOYEES

IN SABAH: GLENEAGLES HOSPITAL KOTA KINABALU

-Abstact-

This study focused on the need analysis on English language use for customer service

employees in Sabah which based on Gleneagles Hospital Kota Kinabalu. This research

attempts to answer two research questions i.e., i) what are the perceptions of the customer

service employees on English language needs in their sector? and ii). What are the difficulties

that they encounter by using English as their medium of communication. The questionnaires

given to the participants regarding their needs on the English language as a medium of

communication were examined and analyzed. A purposive sampling was used in selecting 10

customer service employees as respondents for in-depth interviews, and also to know their

personal observation regarding this research. These respondents were selected from various

educational backgrounds for gaining variety of information. From this research, it is revealed

that employees' perception on English language needs does give an impact towards

employees’ performance in this sector. Anonymously, all are in favor if contributing a series

of ways that can boost up students motivation in learning English as a second language.
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 INTRODUCTION

English is the world language, the dominant lingua franca in commerce and media.

The language cruises at the apex of globalisation, technology and pop music, and is arguably

at its most dominant position in its history.That is the main reason why most of the industry in

the job markets requires employees to be skilled in providing customer service through the

medium of English. To do this effectively, an employee, especially one who has constant

contact with customers, has to be competent in English language communication skills.

(Chan,2002)

Quality customer service has stated as one of the hottest issue in the jobs market. This

leads from the undeniable fact that today’s customers are increasingly sophisticated and

quality conscious. They want service and value they can depend on and they don’t want to

spend a lot of time looking for it. The quality of the service is neccessity to survive in this

fierce industry because its the key to attract and maintain the customers.That is because of the

fact that thhe voice of the customer provides the only true direction for any organization.

(Rashid,2008)
 In Malaysia, customer services quality has been recognised as an important issue in

both public and private sectors. This matter had became an attention where natiojn put more

focus on the concept of customer services quality as they begunto understand the necessity of

it. The importance of this sector had increased due to the enlargement in the number of jobs

which requires customer services that exist from both public and private sectors. (Yap,2006)

Customer service sector has received considerable attention from many areas of

organisations.. It is a main force that leads customers distinguish between competing

companies, customer service quality is one of the major contributor to customers’

satisfaction. Thus, the pursuit of quality customer services in both private and public sector

organizations is driven by the need to survive and remain competitive. (Agus, Barker

&Kandampully, 2007)

Private company organizations have embraced the principles of quality customer

service at a much faster rate than those in the public sector. This can be seen through

differences between the sectors in terms of their historical and environmental contexts. In

particular, the primary objective of most public sector organizations is to provide a social

benefit within a limited budget and reduce costs. It is different with private sector

organizations which focused on increasing profits. It is not surprising, that private sector

organizations have higher productivity and profitability than public sector organizations.

(Agus, Barker & Kandampully, 2007)

 By looking at the overall perspectives, this research is conducted to measure the

quality of customer service in private sector and to provide recommendations where

improvements can be made.

1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

In recent times, English communication has become very significant especially in

customer services industry. Gleneagles Kota Kinabalu, a newly-built hospital in the capital

city of Sabah, the hospital offers diverse range of healthcare services and patient care from the

compassionate and highly trained medical professionals.

Gleneagles Kota Kinabalu is assimilated with regionally well-established premium

Gleneagles brand inculcating a facility with high-quality amenities and comforts, service

levels to match, be infused with modern technology and have a highly-trained team of

consultants and staffs..This company is built to comply with all content of local and national

regulations. Their main goal is to be the new referral center in East Malaysia and target

international patients from Indonesia, Brunei, Korea and Japan seeking quality and reliable

medical care.

Gleneagles Kota Kinabalu sees customer service aspect as an important part of its

business activities and consistent with being a responsible organisation. Caring for their

customer or in this context it mainly focuses on their clients, taking care of the welfare of the
employees and business partners while delivering commitments to the clients, are in harmony

with their values.

The fact that this company serves clients which came all around the globe make it is

essential for the employees to have a good foundation in English communication skills.

English is an international language and it is used widely in the Contact Centre Department

thus it requires the employees to speak English effectively and fluently in order to serve

customer needs and expectation.

1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT

Customer service industry in one of the field that needed an employees to be skilled in

English language. In Malaysia, the quality of customer service companies has a tremendous

influence on public perceptions. Gleneagles Hospital,Kota Kinabalu is a private based

company that provide services throughout Malaysia and Singapore.

In this company, the customer service employees were under contact centre

department. The employees were expected to be fluent and competent in English language

communication skills because they have constant contact with customers. But in reality, the

employees of this particular department especially customer service, are not proficient in

English language eventhough English is their main medium of communication.They

somehow faced difficulties to communicate fluently and accurately with the customers. The

customers feedback on this matter may affect the productivity and reputation of the company.

It has become a necessity to consider a constant training among the employees in the area of
English language communication skills. It is very essential for upgrading or even maintainng

the quality of customer service in the company.

Thus, this research will determine the perceptions and difficulties that the customer

service employees encounters in medium English communication and to recommend on the

areas of improvement for this matter.

1.4 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES:

The general objectives of this research is to study the impact of needs analysis on English

language use for customer services employees in private sector which mainly focuses on

Gleneagles Hospital Kota Kinabalu. The following is the specific objectives for this research :

1. To find out the perceptions of the customer service employees on English language

needs in their sector.

2. To discover the difficulties that they encountered by using English as their medium of

communication.
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

The following research questions is formulated simultaneously based on the objectives of the

study. The questions are:

1. What are the perceptions of the customer service employees on English language

needs in their sector? (TSA)

2. What are the difficulties that they encounter by using English as their medium of

communication? (PSA)

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This research investigate the real situation that occurs to customer service employees

especially on private sector. This study will help the public generally and the employees on

how they encounter the difficulties that involved English language as medium of

communication. The aim of the study is to give clear explanation regarding the importance of

English language for customer service employees so that they can improve their job

performance in future.In addition, it is to exposed the importance on how the English

language skills are needed to become a good and qualified customer service employees. The

result of this study can be a guideline for those who wants to join this field of work. This

reseacher will vary from other researcher as it will be carried out in Kota Kinabalu and it

focusing on one particular company which is Gleanegles Hospital.

 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 INTRODUCTION

This chapter deliberates in depth information gathered from previous research on

needs analysis. It is to allow readers to acknowledge the purpose of this research being carried

out. The aim of this chapter is to convey the ideas that have been proposed by previous

researchers and scholars. In other hand, it also allows the readers to identify the limitations

and gaps contain in previous studies to be followed by the strength and weaknesses of the

research.

2.1 COURSE DESIGN

Course design is mainly about planning and structuring of a course to achieve the

desired goals. Hutchinson and Waters (1987) defined course as an integrated series of

teaching-learning experiences, whose ultimate aim is to lead to the learners to a particular

state of knowledge. Basically, course design is the process which data about learning need is

collected in order to produce an integrated teaching-learning experiences.

Brown (1995, cited by Christopher, W.S, 2007) stated that curriculum development is

a series of activities that help grows the unity among lecturers, administrators, faculty and

students. Thus, he came out with a systematic curriculum development model (Figure 1)

which consist of 5 main features; need analysis, objectives, testing, materials and teaching. He

further explains that these features will provide a frame work that helps educators create an

effective lesson in order to meet learners’ needs and at the same time helps learners learn

efficiently to the target situation.

While Richards (2001, cited by Christopher, W.S, 2007) describes curriculum

development as” the range of planning and implementation processes involved in developing

a curriculum”. He stated that the focuses of this process is on the need analysis, needs

analysis, situational analysis, planning learning outcomes, course organization,

selecting and preparing teaching materials, providing for effective teaching and evaluation”

(Richards, 2001, p. 41).

Figure 1: Brown’s view of curriculum development

Figure 2: Richard’s view of curriculum development.

 Based on both views of curriculum development there are similarities in terms of need

analysis, settings of objectives, materials and preparation and teaching and evaluation. Based

on Christopher W. Storey, 2007, he stated that Brown’s views differ from Richard’s, as

Brown’s include testing which described as the important element in the curriculum

development. In other hand, Richard added on the elements of situational analysis and course

organization separately while Brown groups the situational analysis in need analysis and

course organization into materials.

2.2 NEED ANALYSIS (NA)

As cited by Ozek, Y & Akyel, A.S (2010) the answer to how educators or practitioners

develop effective curricular often lies in needs analysis because NA is a powerful tool that

helps clarify and validate true needs. It enables educators and practitioners to shape the

curriculum development that bases the content of language courses on the communication

needs, wants and interests of the learners (Lepetit & Cichocki (2002). There are three main

approaches in NA which is target situation analysis (TSA), learning situation analysis (LSA)

and present situation analysis (PSA).

According to Chambers (1980), “TSA is a communication in a target situation” which

originally concentrated on how much the language is use and what is the use of the language

to the learners. In 1987, Munby established a Communication Needs Processor (CNP) which

is the basis of needs analysis by placing the learner’s need in order to produce effective

outcomes according to the target situation. Hutchinson & Water (1987) adopted (Allwright,

1982) ideas and stated that there are 3 major features to look at the target situation analysis.

Firstly, necessities which determined by the crucial need learner have to obtain in order to
function effectively in target situation. Next is the lacks which refer to the absence of learner

target proficiency and learner existing proficiency. Lastly, the term wants which is the

learners’ view about their needs in the target situation.

Present Situation Analysis (PSA) may be opposite to target situation analysis (TSA)

(Robinson, 1991). If target situation focused initially on what the learners need to do in target

situation, present situation analysis aim to identify on what the learners are like at the

beginning of the course and also to investigate their strength and weaknesses (Dudley-Evans

& St. John, 1998). Brindley (1989, as citied by Mehdi Haseli Songhori, 2008) refers present

situation analysis as “means needs” and “end needs”. Means needs refer to the learners’

purpose in learning the language while ends needs refers to the target needs.

In 1980’s a big shift of language learning happen when it focused on the learners

preferred learning styles, motivation, attitudes and expectation thus created the learning

situation analysis. Learning situation analysis (LSA) is used to obtain the strategies learner

requires in order to master another language. West (1998, quoted by Vali Mohammadi &

Nasser Mousavi, 2013) mentioned that this type analysis tries to determine how the learners’

wish to learn rather than what they have to learn. Bower (1980, citied in Jordan 1997) noted

the importance of learning needs;

If we accept…that a student will learn best if what he

wants to learn, less well what he only needs to learn,

less well still what he either wants or needs to learn,

it is clearly important to leave room in a learning

programme for the learner’s own wishes regarding

both goals and processes.

 Allwright (1982, qouted in West, 1994) stated that it is crucial to investigate the

learner preferred learning styles and strategies in order to give a clear picture on what the

learners want to learns rather than just teaching what they needs to learns. In addition (St.

John & Dudley-Evans, 1998) argued that learners should be taught the skills that they need to

acquire the language and it is crucial to consider the process and learners’ motivation as

different learners have varies of learning abilities and styles.

2.3 PREVIOUS STUDIES

Studies on needs analysis has been carried out widely by various scholars and

researchers. They have been looking into the issues of how English for Specific Purpose

(ESP) course design affecting the tertiary level students, the English Language needs in

courses such engineering, nursing and also language needs analysis in job requirements

especially in terms of oral communication.

Moslemi Fatimah (2011) has carried out a study on Iranian MA students regarding

English language needs.. Based on the research done, most of the students find that their ESP

course design still lacking in meeting their needs toward English language. The participant

was dissatisfied with the current course design because it is inadequate in addressing learner’s

needs both in professional setting and academic. The revision of the existing ESP curriculum

seems extremely timely and students do not have enough exposure to English in a way that

can help fulfill their subjective and objective needs at MA level. From the findings, it can be
concluded that they need to restructure the course by giving more attention on English course

in the MA entrance exam in order to improve the students motivation’s in improving their

proficiency. In fact, joint teaching of the ESP course would be very helpful to meets the

student needs in English language.

In Greek tertiary level, a study has been conducted by Chostelidou, D.(2010) to

identify the needs of the target group of learners and introduce the needs based course design.

The study aimed to record students suggestions for better ESP training, elicit the students’

preferences with respect to learning styles, methodology and teacher roles and also to identify

students’ deficiency concerning language skills. The findings of this study revealed the needs

for developing a highly specific ESP language course with clear focus on the target discipline

accountancy. There was also a call for provision of ESP training which addresses the learners’

immediate needs as students and their long term needs as professionals in the accountancy

business industries. This research no doubt gave a huge guidance for the academicians in

Accountancy faculty to adjust their current curriculum accordance to the needs of students for

both their academic and jobs specifications.

In addition, there is also a studies carried out for Engineering students in Korea

regarding ESP course design development by Hyun, H.K (2013). As Korea has been

implementing export- oriented economy policy, it is essentials for the Engineering industries

to master the English language skills especially in terms of oral communication and a little bit

of writing skills. Thus, the study is aimed to identify the English language need for

engineering students from various sources. In other hand, the study also aimed to provide

detailed description of the needs analysis to develop and ESP course for engineering students
in Korea. Total of 173 respondents were involved during the survey. 99 of them were

students, 30 engineering professor and 43 industry workers. Since the survey was done on

three different groups there are three major findings in this study. From the Engineering

professor perspective most of them have very low level of satisfaction on the students’

English ability. Both professor and industry workers think that the ESP course should be

restructure and focus more on speaking skills because speaking is very required skills in the

industry of engineering. Both the workers and professors think writing is also very important

but it doesn’t for the students. Most of them students think the ESP course should focused on

improving their speaking ability as it is important both in their academic and professional

setting.

In recent studies done by Chen, I Ju. Chang, Yung Hao. Chang, Wei Huan. (2016) in

Taiwan, they investigated the needs analysis on English learning from the viewpoints of

students and the real needs of employers regarding English use in the workplace. Overall

results from this research find that there were significant differences between the students’

perceptions and the employers’ expectation toward specific tasks language needs especially in

listening and reading skills. In summary, the finding reveal discrepancies between what is

taught at school and the requirements of the workplace therefore students should seek the

needs of English skills that the employers expect for the workplace. In addition teacher also

should acknowledged the course design and provide more adequate materials to improve

students English abilities to prepare them for their future careers after graduation.

A number of ESP researchers have agreed that as language in different context varies,

methods and contents of second language teaching should vary to meet the needs of learners
in specific situation (Gatehouse, 2011; Hutchinson & Waters,1987). According to the study

done by Choi, K (2005) the study discussed the English needs analysis of freshman students

in Hanyang University who studied tourism English. The paper discusses details such as;

what the students want to do after graduation; what should be taught during the next two

years in accordance with their aims of getting a job and how much they are motivated to

learn English. End results showed that the students still facing difficulties in verbal

communication and lacking in English grammar. Thus this help the department to

reconstruct their courses structure in accordance to students need as to help the students

mastered and have a good foundation in English skills.

2.4 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, all the information from this chapter will help people especially

academicians and students to get useful information regarding course design, need analysis

and English language analysis based on previous researchers. It also helps academicians to

design suitable strategies to design and restructured their curriculum accordance to the needs

of English language use. In present study, the researchers aim to investigate the perceptions

of the customer service employees on English needs in their sector, and to discover the

difficulties that they encountered by using English as their medium of communication.

 CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.0 INTRODUCTION

This chapter explains in detail the methodology being used in the process of

completing this research. The chapter starts with the background of the study, participants

involved, instrument used, data collection procedure and data analysis. This study aims to

identify the need of English language for contact center staff of Gleneagles Hospital and

Medical Centre, Kota Kinabalu. This research attempts to answer the following questions;

i. What are the perceptions of the customer service employees on English language

needs in their sector?

ii. What are the difficulties that they encounter by using English as their medium of

communication?

3.1 BACKGROUND OF THE COMPANY

Gleneagles Hospital and Medical Centre, Kota Kinabalu is a newly- built leading

hospital that offers healthcare services and patient care from highly trained medical

professionals. On their behalf, Gleneagles is a well establish private medical center where it

provides the patient with high quality amenities, service levels to match, being infuse with

modern technology and recruited a highly-trained team of consultants and staffs. This

organization aim to provide the highest level of healthcare experience, service and safety not
only to local people in Kota Kinabalu but also aim to be the new referral center in East

Malaysia and international patients from Indonesia, Brunei, Korea and Japan.

Gleneagles had gained a good reputation and making it a new leading hospital in East

Malaysia in providing good healthcare quality and service. Therefore, the employees of the

organization, specifically the customer service employees who serve as the frontline of this

organization have to establish a good service in order to preserve its good performance and

quality.

The customer service department serves as the contact center department for

Gleneagles where they need to make and receive a call from their patient. They are focusing

on giving a good service to the local and international patient in term of accommodation,

flights bookings, airport transfer arrangement, third party and insurance assistance, visa

application and post treatment tour.

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN

This research uses both qualitative and quantitative method to gather data where the

study takes on a non-experimental design. The data collected will reflect the respondents’

perception on the implementation of English language in their sector to see whether it is

positive or negative. The data will be analyzed and few main factors will be extracted from

the data to support this study. A set of questionnaire will be given to the targeted respondents

and an interview is conducted on them to get a more accurate data.

3.3 RESPONDENTS

The respondents of this study consist of customer service staffs in Gleneagles Hospital

and Medical Centre which is located in the heart of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The number of

subjects that participate in this study will consists of 10 staffs in the customer service

department.

3.4 INSTRUMENTS

This research uses two techniques in order to obtain the necessary data from the

respondents. The techniques used are questionnaire and interview. The questionnaire included

3 parts which are participant general opinion about English language, needs of English

language for their job specification and problems in using English while working. All the

questionnaire is based on 5-rating checklist and open- ended form. After that, an interview

was carried out to gain more information regarding their perception and difficulties in using

English as their medium of communication. The results from those techniques will provide

enough data to answer the research questions that has been stated earlier. The relevance of

using this data is to observe the respondents’ reaction and feedback towards the subject given

where numbers only will not do enough justice to it.

3.5 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES

After sending the official letter to request for permission and cooperation to gather the

data a set of questionnaire are given to the target respondents in Gleneagles Hospital and

Medical Center and they are required to complete it. Then, an interview session is conducted

with the presence of the respondents. The respondents are required to respond to the questions

posted to them which are related to the study and a set of standardized questions is used to

perform the interview. All the data collected from both the questionnaire and the interview

will be analyzed.

3.6 DATA ANALYSIS

The information gathered from both the questionnaire and the interview will be

analyzed manually. The main factors identified from all the data collected will be narrowed

down into three themes. The themes are perception of the usage English language in their

working sector, difficulties in using English as their main medium of communication and

suggestion in improving their English skills. Those themes created would be able to answer

the research questions stated earlier and provided good information for employees’

improvement in the target sector.

3.7 CONCLUSION

In short, this chapter discusses the methodology used in this study to collect the

necessary data. The technique and instrument used in this study is also being discussed here in

detail. The data analysis was also explained to justify how the result of the study will be

analyze
 CHAPTER 4

DATA COLLECTION AND FINDING

4.1 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the researcher looked into the participants’ responses using a

questionnaire. The researcher also stated the results of the interviews sessions with the

participants. The purpose of the questionnaire was to discover what were the participants’

perception about English language needs and the interview were used to gain more

information about difficulties in using English as medium of communication. Both results

from the questionnaire and interview were then broke down into several themes in order to

answer the research questions in this study.

4.2 RESULT OF QUESTIONNAIRES

In the analysis, a Likert 5-scale method has been adopted. The total number of

questions in this questionnaire is 20. The questionnaire was divided into 4 parts which is; Part

I Needs of English language skills, Part II Difficulties of English language skills, Part III

Problems in using English while working. The participants were required to choose the

relevant option according to their own perspective and understanding regarding the issues.
4.2.1 English language skills need of customer service employees.

The findings of the questionnaires indicated that customer service employees primarly

rated all four English language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) as the most

important skills in their working field.

Figure 1: English language skills need of customer service employees

4.2.2 Difficulties of English language skills

Table 1.Difficulties of English language skills

Items Frequency Percent (%)

Listening 7 70%
Speaking 4 40%
Reading 6 60%
Writing 5 50%

This section presents the perception of customer service employees towards

difficulties of English language skills. As shown in Table 1, the vast majority of the
participants highly rated listening (f=7,70%) as the most least difficult skill for them to be

proficient in followed by reading (f= 6,60%) , writing (f=5,50%) and speaking (f=4,40%),

respectively.

4.2.3 Problems encountered by employees in using English at the workplace

This section analyzed the problems encountered by customer service employees in

using English at their work place. The employees were asked to choose which problems faced

by them mostly at work. The results were illustrated in table 2-5 below.

Table 2. Listening problems encountered by customer service employees

Frequency
Listening Problems Least A Little Moderate A lot Most Total
1. Following presentation/ 1 4 3 1 1 10
talk.
2. Following instructions. 1 4 3 1 1 10
3. Following training sessions. 1 4 3 1 1 10

Table 2 decipts the listening problems faced by the employees in their profession. The

data shown explained that most of the participant responses lead to a litte (f=12) and followed

by moderate (f=9) problems faced by employees in following presentation/ talk, instructions

and training sessions heard.

Table 3. Speaking problems encountered by customer service employees

Frequency
Speaking Problems Least A Little Moderate A lot Total
1. Giving instructions. 1 3 3 3 10
2. Doing a task. 1 3 4 2 10
3. Giving a formal 2 2 4 2 10
presentation.
4. Talking on the phone 1 3 3 3 10

The above table demonstrates that some of the employees encountered a lot of

speaking problems in giving instructions (f=3) and talking on the phone (f=3). Where as in

doing task that involving speaking english and giving a formal presentation was reported as

moderate (f=4). To conclude more than half of the employees had chosen moderate as their

response towards all the problems that they faced in speaking English.

Table 4. Reading problems encountered by customer service employees

Frequency
Listening Problems Least A Little Moderate A lot Total
1. Reading emails/letters. 3 2 3 2 10
2. Reading training manuals. 3 2 3 2 10

As shown in Table 4, the data results showed reading emails/letters and training

manuals in English language was rated highly as least(f=3) and moderate (f=3). While the

remaning participants responded a little(f=2) and a lot (f=2). Thus conclude that most of the

employees does not encountered major problems in reading skills

.
Table 5. Writing problems encountered by customer service employees

Frequency
Listening Problems Least A Little Moderate A lot Most Total
1. Writing emails/letters. 1 4 3 1 1 10
2. Writing specific text. 3 2 3 1 1 10

The table above indicates that the employees mostly faced a little (f=4) problems in

writing emails or letters and the remaning participants had chosen moderate (f=3), least (f=1),

a lot (f=1) and most (f=1). On the other hand, when it come to writing specific text in English,

most participant responded are moderate (f=3), followed by least (f=3) , a little (f=2) , a lot

(f=1) and most (f=1).

To sum up all , the data shown above showed that when considering the problems of

English use among customer service employees, the inadequate in giving instructions using

English language and inable to talk with customer on the phone were regarded as the major

problems.

4.3 INTERVIEW RESULTS: EMPLOYEES PERCEPTION

The main goals of this interview is to look upon employees perception towards the

needs of English language in customer service sector, specifically in Gleneagles Hospital

Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and also to look into the issues and difficulties that they encountered in

this field of work. Based on the interview conducted on 8 respondents which came from

different educational background, there are 2 major elements on their perception in English
language needs, 2 major difficulties in communication along with the personal suggestion

from the employees.

Employees Perception

4.3.1 English Language 4.3.2 Difficulties in

Needs Communication

4.3.1,1 Mastery of English 4.3.2.1 Oral communication

Language Skills
4.3.1.2 English Training and 4.3.2.2 Communication Issues
Effectiveness

4.3.3 Suggestion

Table 4.0 : employees perception on English language needs

4.3.1 English Language Needs

Based on the information gathered, there are 2 major themes that found from the

employees perception of the English language needs in the customer service sector. These

themes were recognized by the employees due to their experiences in this particular area of

works.
4.3.1.1 Mastery of English Language Skills

In this theme, our main focus is to find out how mastery of English language skills can

highly affects the needs in this arena of work. As the private sector companies are gaining

ground and becoming more competitive due to changed world economy, the employees are

always kept on their toes. In Gleneagles Hospital, especially in customer service department,

their ability to use a language efficiently is very much required to remain employable. From

the interviews conducted, all respondents agree on how English language skills are highly

needed in their job. The knowledge of English is one of the most important employability

skills. It is because in Gleneagles, they use English as a main language in all areas in the

hospital. (Respondent 7).

Proper English skills do not mean only the ability to make grammatically correct

sentences. It means other related skills for effective communication like presentation skills,

convincing and negotiation skills and interpersonal skills using that language. As we quoted

from one of the respondents:

“English is highly required here because not only in papers,

but we communicate it on a daily basis.” –Respondent 5

4.3.1.2 English Training and Effectiveness

In this theme, we are focusing on how does the training and its effectiveness can be

related towards the English language needs. As we know, compelling communication skills

are important in a customer service industry regardless of some staff members not being

guest-facing. A few companies spend considerable amount of money on training their staff to
interact with the guests. Good communication skills are a learned art and not a natural skill so

one should consider training to enhance employees’ skills.

Based from the interviews conducted, all respondents had stated that there were no

training provided in this company. But some of them agree on how English training would

help the staff to perform better in their job scope. As mentioned by one of the respondent:

“I got training from my previous job which is in a Telco

company. Its somehow help me to communicate better.

Most of the guests here were English speakers, so yeah, it

helps.” –Respondent 2.

As the matter of fact, few of the staff members might be able to speak in manageable

English because of the work environment but those who don’t have English as their first

language suffer due to their inability and fail to understand simple instructions and

information. (Respondent 5). In this context, effective training would be helpful to develop

employees English language skills. The company should emphasize on providing English

language skills training courses which cover everything from basic techniques to advanced

empathy skills programmes

4.3.2 Difficulties In Communication

Excellent customer service is all about communication. Not only have the staffs

needed to communicate successfully with the guests but also with other department

employees. However, difficulties in commucation typically arise in this field of work. Based
on the information gathered from the interview, we are focusing on the oral communication

and the issues that lead to the difficulties from the employees’ perspective.

4.3.2.1 Oral Communication

In this context, all respondents agreed that oral communication plays an important role

in their job. In Gleneagles Hospital,the fact that guest relations are mainly facilitated through

the English language made all the employees aware on the importance or needs of it

especially in oral communication. As we quoted from one of the respondent:

“Oral communication is important in all aspects of customer

service position because we are dealing with guests and

patients, as well with the managements too.” –Respondent 4

This is also supported by statement from other respondent where the situations of

English language were needed in this field of work.

“We communicate in English language in every situation

that is possible. Because we have to explain stuffs to the

guests or patients.” – Respondent 5

4.3.2.2 Communication Issues

For those in customer service positions, strong communication and effective problem-

solving skills are must-haves. However, communicating effectively in customer service

situations can involve a number of issues of problems. From the interview conducted, 8 out of
10 respondents stated miscommunication is one of the major issues in that occurred in their

daily situation with the customer. Sometimes they are unable to satisfy customer or patients’

requests due to the misunderstanding of the language and this can be a stressful part of the

job.

Apart from that, the communication issues that typically arise among the employees are

caused by the language barrier. In this context, the employees are dealing with clients from

different countries, especially those who are from China who weren’t really proficient in

English language. As we quoted from one of the respondent:

“To communicate in English is not really a problem for

me. It is when it comes to Chinese patients. Its quite

difficult understands them.”-Respondent 6

That is somehow leads to difficulties of communication in this customer service sector.

The communication became less effective because of the language barrier face by both

parties, employees and customers.

4.3.3 Suggestions

The last part of the interviews is about the suggestions from the respondents. The

respondents were asked to point out any ideas to overcome the issues regarding

communication in their field of work. 7 out 8 respondents agreed that the best way to improve
their communication skill is through training and practising. The company should arrange for

a communication skills program that will be helpful for the employees to communicate

effectively with the guests in crucial circumstances. The training should be conducted once a

month so that they get a chance to improve their communication skills. Also, the employees

also should be encouraged to communicate with each other in English as a part of their

training. (Respondent 1)

Other than that, the respondent also stated that exposure towards English language is

important. The exposure basically refers to the contact that the employees has with the

language that they are trying to practice, either generally or with specific language points

which is English. As we quoted from the respondent:

“Increase the exposure of English really helps. Read more

English book, English newspaper magazine or even just by

listening to English media and entertainment.”

Respondent 4

As stated above, effective communication skills are a learned art and not a natural skill so it

doesn’t mean that the relevant skills cannot be develop. This issue may be lay down by

considering the perception and suggestion from the employees.

 CHAPTER 5:

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.0 INTRODUCTION

This chapter discussed the conclusion regarding the English language needs among customer

service employees in Gleneagles Hospital Kota Kinabalu.. The limitation of the study,

suggestion and recommendation for further research related to this research were also

discussed in this chapter.

5.1 SUMMARY OF MAJOR FINDINGS

This study was on the ‘Need Analysis on English Use for Customer Service

Employees’ which was conducted among employees in Gleneagles Hospital Kota Kinabalu,

Sanah. It was carried out using mixed method which is qualitative and quantitative. An

interview was administered to the employees and shortly after a questionnaire to elicit

responses and perception regarding the need of English language in this field of work. The

number of participants involved in this study was 10 employees. All the respondents were

briefly exposed towards the term of need analysis on English language for the purposes of

ensuring that the result of the study did not astray because the lack of understanding with

regards to the questionnaire and interview.

From the findings of this study it can be discussed in following points.

5.1.1 English language skills need of customer service employees (PSA)

The findings showed that majority of the customer service employees in this study

rated all four major English skills as highly needed. This may be explained as the fact that

Gleneagles customer service centre appointed on giving a good service to the local and

international patient in term of accommodation, flights bookings, airport transfer arrangement,

third party and insurance assistance, visa application and post treatment tour. Therefore, it

could be said that all the four major English skills in handling the customers’ need and

accommodation as to maintain the quality of Gleneagles as the new leading Hospital and

Medical Centre in Sabah. (Tambah interview punya finding summary kt sini)

5.1.2 Difficulties in Oral Communication.(TSA)

(Dkt questionnaire ada ckp yg speaking skill paling tinggi rated as difficult skill so terus

explain psl oral communication problems based on interview)

In conclusion based from above discussion showed that the employees were aware on

the importance of English language needs in their career development. Despite the fact they

have to deal with various difficulties and issues in term of communication, their perception on

this language needs were merely positive. However, by looking thorugh their situation the

customer service employees needs to be a customer-centered person. They should know how
to interact professionally with the customer.Effective communication skill is very important

for those who interact with customers on daily basis.

5.3 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

There were some limitations throughout the completion of this particular study.

Firstly, time constrain where the researcher needed to find a suitable time which fitted with

the schedule of the respondents in order to conduct the interviews. This was because the

interviews needed to be conducted in a real test taking situation so it would not affect the

result of the study. Another time constrain led the study to be conducted on a limited scale

where only 10 participants participated.Overall, the data for the interview and questionnaires

was able to be collected by the researcher in trying to complete this particular study.

5.4 RECOMMEDATION FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

Based on the limitations of the study that had been discussed above, there were a few

recommendations that could help in assisting future researchers who might want to pursue this

topic. It is recommended that the study can be conducted on a larger scale for example,

through an increase in the number of participants.

Besides the number of participants, the study could also be conducted for different age

groups to ensure an increase in the reliability and validity of the findings. Future researchers

could conduct the research by adding a few extra factors that might yield a different result

regarding background knowledge. Some of the factors that could be added towards this study

were gender, race and also scope of English skills. These were because these factors might
have contributed towards the background knowledge of the participants and gave a new

insight regarding the subject matter.

Lastly, it was recommended that the study could be carried out in a broader scale of

area. The study could be conducted in other sector of companies so that they could gain the

benefits from the findings of this research.

5.5 CONCLUSION

Based on the findings of this research, it could be concluded that English language use

were mainly needed in customer service sector. Although the number of participants involved

in this study was only limited to 10 participants. The result from this study might have shed

some answers in assisting the customer service employees on the use of English language

skills. This research had shown that English language is highly needed is this field of work.
APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE

English language needs of the customer service employees of Gleneagles Hospital Kota
Kinabalu, Sabah.

Please kindly complete this questionnaire with regard to your information by placing (/) to
indicate your answer.

Part 1: General Information

Please mark the appropriate box

1. Sex
Male Female

2. Age
21-30 31-40 41-50

3. Educational background
Lower than Bachelor Bachelor degree Master degree
degree

4. Duration of working in customer service sector

Less than 5 years 5-10 years 10-15 years More than 15 years

5. How important is English in your job?

Most A lot Moderate A little

6. What is your proficiency level?

Advanced Very good Good Elementary Beginner
Part 2: General Opinion

Please indicate your attitude towards the following topic areas by ticking the appropriate
numbers by

1 Not 2 Fairly 3 Necessary 4 Very 5 Extremely

necessary necessary necessary necessary

1. How necessary are the following skills of English language in your job?

5 4 3 2 1
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing

Please indicate your attitude towards the following topic areas by ticking the appropriate
numbers by

1 Not difficult 2 Fairly difficult 3 Difficult 4 Very difficult 5 Extremely

difficult

2. How difficult are the following skills of English language?

5 4 3 2 1
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
Part 3: Problems in using English while working

Please indicate your attitude towards the following topic areas by ticking the appropriate
numbers by

1 Least 2 A little 3 Moderate 4 A lot 5 Most

How much do you have problems with each of these English language sub-skills in your job?

1. Listening

5 4 3 2 1
Following presentation/talk
Following instruction
Following training sessions

2. Speaking

5 4 3 2 1
Giving description and
explanation
Giving instructions or doing a
task
Giving a formal presentation
Talking on the phone

3. Reading

5 4 3 2 1
Reading emails/letters
Reading training manuals

4. Writing

5 4 3 2 1
Writing emails/letters
Writing specific text

Suggestion
Do you think Glenagles should provide English language training course?
Yes No
APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

PART 1: PERCEPTION ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEEDS

1. Does mastery of English highly needed in your job? If yes, in which area?

2. What language skills (reading, writing, listening & speaking) that is highly required to

perform your job? Why?

3. Did your company provide any English training before? If yes, how do you find the

course is effective?

4. In the future, what would you suggest to your company in order to English courses?

PART II: DIFFICULTIES IN COMMUNICATION

5. Is oral communication important in your job? (With who/ why?)

6. In what situation that communication important in your job? Why?

7. What communication issues/problems typically arise in your job?

8. In your opinion, what are the other aspects that lead to difficulties in English

communication in this sector?

9. Can you suggest the best way to overcome this issue of communication?
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