马来西亚教育类留学生本科毕业dissertation范文：Using socical media to improve Business English among first year students in Facu

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09-25, 2013

马来西亚教育类留学生本科毕业dissertation范文：Using socical media to improve Business English among first year students in Faculty of Business at University of Malaya

Abstract:

Following the economic globalization, the use of Business English has become and more frequent and important. Globalization is a major obstacle facing the language of communication skill and writing skills, so a great number of colleges and universities in the world set up the course- Business English in Faculty of Business so that more students can be bring to suit for the development of the economic globalization. It is necessary that Business English proficiency is improved. Therefore, social media can be a tool of learning Business English. By social networking, students can know more information and knowledge about Business English, and communicate with each other to improve their Business English proficiency.

The paper focuses on the educational role of social media. It discusses whether social media can help improve Business English communication skills among year one Business students in the Faculty of Business at University of Malaya. 随着经济全球化的发展，企业使用英语越来越频繁和重要。全球化是一个主要的障碍沟通的语言和写作技巧，所以在世界高校大量设置课程商务英语在商务学院让更多的学生可以将适应经济全球化的发展。这是必要的，商务英语能力的提高。因此，社会媒体可以是商务英语的学习工具。通过社交网络，学生可以了解更多关于商务英语的信息和知识，并互相交流提高商务英语能力。

本文对社会媒体的教育作用。讨论了社交媒体是否能帮助提高商务英语沟通技巧在马来亚大学商学院一年级学生在商业。

It continues by providing an overall aspect of information and analysis and ends up by introducing some of them to readers to develop using social media in learning Business English.

Chapter 1 Introduction:

1.1 background of the study

In the title, there are two critical words which are social media and Business English. Social media are used very frequently in modern education, especially learning Business English. “Computer technologies and the Internet are powerful tools for assisting language teaching because Web technology is a part of today's social fabric, meaning language learners can now learn thorough writing e-mail and conducting online research”(Wang, 2005). Some information of Business English have changed so rapidly, and they are spread by social media. So, if you want to master Business English, you need to pay attention to social media. On the other hand, different culture will influence on Business English application. The next, let me explain the background of social media and Business English. First of all, what is the social media? Kaplan and Haenlein(2009) think that “ a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web.2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.” Secondly, “the background of social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures, video, rating and bookmarking”. (Kaplan and Haemlein,2010.weber ,2009)For example, there are some social media to Facebook, BBC, Twitter and Youtube. We can catch up with new information and knowledge by social media and communicate with our friends, classmates and group member.在标题中，有两个关键字是社会媒体和商务英语。社会媒体在现代教育中的使用频率很高，尤其是学习商务英语。“计算机技术和互联网辅助教学由于Web技术是当今社会结构的一部分的功能强大的工具，学习者可以学习语言的意义，深入写电子邮件和进行在线研究”（王，2005）。商务英语的一些信息也变的如此迅速，并通过社交媒体传播。所以，如果你想掌握商务英语，你需要关注社会媒体。另一方面，不同的文化会对商务英语应用的影响。接下来，让我来解释一下背景下社会媒体和商业英语。首先，什么是社会媒体？卡普兰和亨（2009）认为，“一组基于互联网的应用，建立基于Web的思想和技术基础。2，并允许用户创建和交换生成的内容。”其次，“社会媒体的背景可以采取许多不同的形式，包括网络论坛，博客，博客，维基，博客，照片，视频，评级和书签”。（卡普兰和haemlein，2010.weber，2009）例如，有一些社会媒体的推特和脸谱网，英国广播公司，YouTube。我们能赶上社会媒体的新的信息和知识，与我们的朋友和同学交流。#p#分页标题#e#

Secondly, let me introduce the background of Business English. Following the economic development, Business English is more and more attention by people. People increase the awareness which people communicate with each other using Business English in marketing areas. So, there are many language schools offer increasing Business English courses. More than 150 Business English titles are put on the UK publishers lists; the Business English special internet group has over 1500 members from the world. “Yet despite this enormous interest, Business English is an area often neglected by linguistic researchers, who prefer to work on other- more easily defined-areas of special English. Business English must be seen in the overall context of English for special purpose.” (Eillis 1994; Hutchinson 1987) Actually, Business English implies a special language library and emphasis on particular kinds of communication in special context. Business English communication skills are expressed very frequently in current social.

It is observed to the first year students in Faculty of University of Malaya. As I know, some teachers use social media to teach Business English, and students who come from different countries built some group on the Facebook for the course of Business English so that they can discuss some proficiency knowledge of Business English, sometimes teachers will guide students on the Facebook. There are a relax atmosphere to learning Business English. Students can gain more information and knowledge from Internet than from book. Actually, “much research has focused on the benefits and effectiveness of online education, often in comparison with the traditional face-to-face mode of study “(Hiltz, 1998; Warkentin, Sayeed, & Hightower, 1997). As a result, whether social media can improve Business English communication skills are explored.

1.2 Statement of Problem

Chris Lawson(2011) notes “your English language skills can actually be improved by participating in social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter”. It indicates social media can improve English skills. Business English is a special language, and students will come across some problems in the learning process. In Business English, students need to master academic knowledge about Business English, especially communication skills. Business English communication is constantly changing following economic development. Whether social media can improve Business English communication skills or not, which is worth of controversial problem.

Hisham(2008) investigated the problems that “Arab students of business might have at University. Utara Malaysia. He found that those students face problems in vocabulary register, grammar in Business English skills” They exist a relationship between social media and Business English. In the traditional education, Business English is studied across books, notes. But, if social media are used in education, students or teachers can get the newest information and knowledge. Ypsylantis (1995) said that "the computer as tool unlike the computer as tutor does not make the teacher redundant, as does the computer as tutor nor does it suggest a clear- on line role of the teacher. In either case it seems to leave the freedom to the teacher for class-work with the computer.”. “It can handle a very large volume of interaction and can deliver to student’s feedback of some subtlety, at more frequent intervals than would be possible for a human teacher in all but individual tuition session.” (Ahmat et al 1985:4). This indicates the advantage of learning Business English to use social media. To sum up, we can see that social media is an important factor to improve Business English. We can see that the social media can improve general English. Whether can the social media improve Business English communication skills? How do using social media improve Business English communication skills? These are two problems which we should discuss.#p#分页标题#e#

1.3 significance of the study

The study is significant because it is going to study on the best way of improving

Business English communication skills by using social media. It provides the real difficulties facing to business students’ performance in learning Business English communication skills. It promotes the idea of using social media, as well as its relation to improving students’ Business English communication skills.

Many students have strong the foundation of English language communication skill, but the Business English is a special language. Some students think that it is difficult to learning Business English communication skills because of different culture, economical knowledge and so on. As Scott suggest, “effective international Business skills are the backbone that supports the transaction of Business around the world”. Therefore, they use social media to improving Business English communication skill effectively. For example, E-mail is a tool for communicating with all of people. It “provides students {with) an excellent opportunity for real, natural communication” ( Warschauer, 1995:2) It proves that the social media has close relationship with communication skills. In modern education, social media is not lack of part. As I know, a great number of teachers use video and Facebook in their teaching, and students use Facebook or Youtube to acquire more knowledge. “Social networking and other forms of digital communication have radically transformed learning, giving students unprecedented access to a world of knowledge”. (Brydolf, C. 2007) Business English is constantly changing following with economical development, and it relate with current economic. In Business English, there are many academic vocabularies and methodology is how to communicate others. So, social media is important for improving students’ communication skills, because we can find some newest materials about Business English communication skills by social media.

1.4 The aim of the study

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether social media can solve the current problems Business students’ face among first year when they learn Business English communication skills. Other than that, researcher will also discover how social media can help improve students’ communication skills in learning Business English. The students’ reflections will be analyzed by adopting both quantitative and qualitative research method.

1.5 Research Question

In order to prove that social media can improve Business English, this research aims to investigate whether using social media can improve Business English communication skills among first year students when they learn Business English in the Faculty of Business at University of Malaya. #p#分页标题#e#

Two research questions will guide this study:

1. How do Business students use social media to improve Business English communication skills?

2. Is social media a successful method to improving Business English communication skills?

Chapter 2 Literature Review

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a review of literature relevant to this study. It investigates the theoretical frameworks and experience research that support this research. The chapter will express the brief definition of social media and Business English, and the importance of these social media and Business English, so that we can get some research to help us study. In addition, there is the relationship between social media and Business English communication skills.

2.1 Definition of social media and Business English

2.1.1 Definition of social media

Wikipedia defines social media as: “media designed to be disseminated through social media interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media use web-based technologies to transform and broadcast media monologues into social dialogues. They support the democratization of knowledge and information and transform people from content consumers to content producers”(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Social-media. Retrieved 100420) at the same time, Kaplan and Michael Haenlein(2010) define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content."

Actually, social media can divide traditional media and modern media. Social media are brief about traditional media. For example, newspapers, television, and film both belong to the traditional media. Maria Johansson(2010) said that “ they are relatively inexpensive and accessible to enable anyone to publish or access information.” They ask for importance research to publish information. Nowadays, modern social media already has transformed in online, and social media still contain traditional media. More and more people see some mews from online. Modern social media has some new technologies. “ social media technologies include: blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-posting, email, instant messaging, music- sharing, crowdsourcing, and voice over IP, to name a few. Many of these social media services can be integrated via social network aggregation platforms like Mybloglog and Plaxo” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media. Retrieved 100420)

Nowadays, “social web” instead of social media, Maria Johansson(2010) defines the social web as “the online place where people with a common interest can share thoughts, comments and opinions.” The “social web” contain social networks such as Facebook, Twitter. “Online tool that people use share content, insight, opinion, profiles, experiences, perspectives and media itself. Social media facilities conversation and online interaction between groups of people.”(solis,2007) this indicates the social media is a huge communication industry. In social media, people can publish their ideas and talk with each other so that people achieve something, such as experiences, knowledge, skills and so on. Now, I introduce some social media.#p#分页标题#e#

Facebook is a social networking site. More and more people use Facebook to communicate with others and get some new information. “Developed by sophomoreMark Zuckerberg of Harvard University in 2004, Facebook.com was originallyTheFacebook.com” (Facebook, 2007). “Purchasing the domain name of Facebook.com in August of 2005 for $200,000 the site was originally developed for college and university students as a way to connect with each other”(Facebook,2007). These are both the background of Facebook.

Twitter is another social networking, it can text messages and also get some new information, so that students can gain some new knowledge. “Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 character displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access.”(http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries/76460.Retrieved 2010-04-25. http://blog.twitter.com/2009/10/theres-list-for-that.html. Retrieved 2010-04-25)

Blog is a type of the social media, and it is online journal. People can read other people’s journal to post their thinking, or they post some images and ideas in the blogs. “Some appear on personal or corporate sites, while others are hosted on blogger, BlogHer, Weblog, Tumblr, and other blogging sites.”(Weber2009)

Youtube is a video website, and students can get some new knowledge by some teaching videos. “Memberscan pretty much upload anything they want on to YouTube.com to be viewed byanyone who comes across it.” (youtube,2007) It demonstrates many people use YouTube to find what they want. Students can find some teaching video to help their Business English study.

2.1.2 Definition of Business English

“Business English is classified into English for General Business Purposes(EGBP) and English for specific Business Purpose.” (Dudley-Evans and St. John,1998) the sentence tells us that the Business English is a specific language. Pickett(1989) has two particular suggestion to Business English communication: “Communication with the public and communication within a company or between companies. Communication with the public is likely to be in the first language.” It demonstrates communication is used in all of Business area, and it also expresses the importance of communication in Business English.

Business English has an important role in the international trade. Students need to experienced in English language knowledge, and have great Business academic knowledge. So, students should good fundamental in English aspect, and need to master Business knowledge so that they can learn Business English very well.

#p#分页标题#e#

2.2 the importance of social media

As we know, social media is lack in our life. Nowadays, people get new information from online. In the word, the “social web” has become a great number of parts in peoples’ lives, because people get news more convenient and frequent. According to a research from the year 2003, (Hörner 2006, 2-3) “23% of people would not be able to stop using the Internet. When compared to other forms of media, only television got a higher rating of 44%, whereas 57% of the people interviewed for that re-search said that the Internet is the first media form they use for getting information every day.” From the sentence, we can see that people already have chosen the Internet as the first media to get new information every day. In the same time, the sentence means that the using of traditional social media is reducing. “More American adults now consider the Internet their favourite and most reliable source for reading the news. Internet is now more popular than television, radio, and newspapers combined.” (War-holic 2011.) The sentence also demonstrates the point. To sum up, we can know that our life are lack of social media. On the other hand, the social media can not only provide news to people, it can but also let people get the newest knowledge.

Nowadays, social media connects with the new type of learning. In so many universities, students maintain connection by social networking, such as Facebook, Twitters,ect. Students or Faculty build some profiles and groups, so that they can convey some news or discuss some problem which students come across. The way can share resources and express “learner voice”. . As Mason and Rennie (2007: 199) reason, “shared community spaces and inter-group communications are a massive part of what excites young people and therefore should contribute to [their] persistence and motivation to learn”. From the sentence, it tells us how young people use social networking, and let us understand we can use social networking to learn. By the quotation, it actually has an important educational implication of social media is transforming nature of learner’s relationship between knowledge and information. In university, as we know, we need to find out some resource to solve some problems which we do not know when we write assignments or answer some teacher’s questions, so social media has become our learning tool. “Many educationalists believe that universities are in a good position to utilize social media practices to support the collective creation of knowledge amongst students and the wider community” (Moskaliuk et al., 2009). “Many universities are now striving to develop ways of using social media to support these new forms of learning” (see Conole and Alevizou, 2010). From these quote, it illustrates that social media become the new learning tool in universities. By using social media, let students solve some problems which they come across in their learning process more convenient. From the former perspective, many educators maintain that social media can be used successfully to support the provision of what Goodyear and Ellis (2008) term ‘serious student-centered learning’. It demonstrates that social media can improve students’ learning, and social media has become important learning tool. Actually, students already have regarded social media as learning experience, because students can find some resources about complex knowledge or some experience which they never know to help their learning. For example, about the positive effect of Twitter use on college student engagement and grades (Junco et al., 2011), and the ability of social networking sites to engender ‘favourable feelings regarding learning experiences’ (Hung and Yuen, 2010: 703). , Hargittai (2008) reports that US college students’ preferences for an application such as Facebook as opposed to MySpace appear to be patterned consistently along lines of social class and educational background. Clear socio-economic differences also exist in individuals’ predilection to produce (rather than consume) online content, be it posting to blogs, sharing resources or creating profiles (see Schradie, 2009). From the point of view, it tells us that students use different ways to get knowledge or solve some complex problems. It expresses social media is used very frequently by students. In the quote, it mentions preferences. For instance, recent studies advise students can use social media which they like, but they need to follow with the class-based patterns. It demonstrates that students use different ways of social media to learn knowledge, and people can based on their preferences to choose social media to learn knowledge. On the other hand, it tells us that social media is used very frequently. #p#分页标题#e#

2.3 Whether social media can help improving Business English Communication skills?

Actually, Business English is a type of special English, and it is used in marketing. A variety of businesses need to use Business English communication. In the importance of social media, we knew that social media is a great learning tool. So, when we learn Business English, social media is not lack. On the other hand, Business English is a type of marketing communication, and current people use social media to communication for Business very frequently. In marketing communication, they need to focus on customers. Some students often practice in online. A blog is a type of content management system (CMS) that makes it easy for anyone to publish short articles called posts (Zarrella, 2010, p. 9). They are wide open and ready to interact with all kinds of people. Blogs let customers know what your business is about, and they create a space for customers to tell you exactly what they are thinking about. (Wright, 2006, p. 4). In the quote, “Blogs” is just an example; many students often do some practices in online. By the way, they can practice and improve their Business English communication skills. For example, students regard themselves as a business man. They build some advertising words, or write a Business letter, so that others give some advice to them. In the content community, students often do some activities. As we know, Youtube is an example of a content community. It is a video sharing service. “Students usually upload some Business video to share with other people.”(Malin Fridolf, Alem Arnautovic,2011) By the way, students can evaluate whether their using Business English is very well by audience rating. “You can constantly update people interested in your business in YouTuBe”. (Clapperton, 2009, p. 88-89). In social networking, These personal profiles can include any type of information, such as photos, video, audio files, and blogs. (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2009). Social networking sites are a hot topic for marketers right now, as they present a number of opportunities for interacting with customers, including via plug-in applications, groups and fan pages. (Zarrella, 2010, p. 53). So, students have a new area which they can practice Business English, including via plug-inapplications, groups and fan pages. (Zarrella, 2010, p. 53). Students often build groups in social networking to discuss some problem about Business English, or do some selling practices. The report on a study at Athabasca University found online group discussion helps students “experienced greater cognitive and explanatory learning” (Pasky, 2001). Let students can know some right or wrong Business English communication so that they can improve their Business English

Chapter 3 Methodology

In the study, it investigates the role of the social media in improving Business English. In the same time, it also examines whether social media can help students to improving Business English. This is selected the method which is quantitative. By the method, it can build an entire picture and analysis of the studying phenomenon. “It is not possible to become a social scientist without an understanding of statistics.” (Diamond and Jefferies,2001:1) From the quote, it expresses quantitative is easily for analyzing the data, and we can get a clear data. “In non-laboratory situations where experiments are often neither neither feasible nor ethically defensible, surveys give that reassuring scientific ring of confidence. Associated with surveys is a satisfyingly complex set of technological concerns about sampling, question-wording, answer-coding etc.” (Robson RWR:230) In the quantitative method, the variables are very important and quantified. The questionnaire is a type of instrument. It helps to confirm or cross-validate relationships discovered between variables as when quantitative methods are compared to see if they converge on a single interpretation of a phenomenon.#p#分页标题#e#

3.1 The participant

This study expresses using social media to improving Business English communication skills by students. According to the themes that expressed, the experiences of the participants are presented. “A theme is an over arching concept or theoretical formulation that has emerged from data analysis.”(Merriam, 1988) It is large enough to according to much of the data collected and analyzed.

The study participants are 30 first year students in the Faculty of Business at University of Malaya enlaced in “Business English”course. In the first year, when Business students learn Business English, they came across a lot of problems, especially communication skills. Business English is different from general English. It is more academic than general English. When they go into University, they immediately learn academic English; they cannot master or very well. As I know, they build group on Facebook and often find some videos to learning for improving their Business English communication skills in Faculty of Business at University of Malaya.

The classes with international students of mixed abilities and mixed level of proficiency in English are selected. Business students’ experiences are known in learning Business English, and how they use social media to improve Business English. And then, it is observed how Business students use social media improve Business English communication skills and whether social media a successful method improve Business English communication skills.

3.2 Data Collection Procedures

In order to get an entire analyzing picture, researcher chooses quantitative method, and the instrument which is questionnaire is selected.

3.2.1 questionnaire design

The quantitative part involves a questionnaire (refer to Appendix A) that is adapted from Ying’s (2009) study. The questionnaire consists of three sections. In the first part, let Business English fulfill to the background information of participants such as the use of social media Business students experiences. Section A will investigate Business students’ personal opinion during using social networking to improving learn Business English, and it contains 12 statements. Sections B will investigate Business students’ personal experience while using other social media to improve learn Business English, which includes 10 statements. In the end, section C will give three questions about using social media to improve Business English, and these filler questions are that free questions based on the questionnaire. Let students can write their opinions so that more information can be collected.

3.2.2 The procedure

The questionnaire was distributed to the 30 Business international students in Business Faculty and they are based on their learning experience to finish them. The researcher managed to collect the questionnaires. Participants are asked the statements based on their experience which is about whether using social media promote their Business English communication skills. The answer choice is provided by Likert scale ranging from “strongly disagree agree” to “ strongly agree”. The alternatives available are: 1= strongly disagree 2= disagree 3= agree 4= strongly agree The respondent need to answer to each statement in the questionnaire by circling one of the four number 1 2 3 4 . Dornyei (2003) remarked that to follow a systematic approach to questionnaire construction, it is that some theoretical guidelines be established for the selection of content that the questionnaire will address. Dornyei(2003) point out that doing a literature review is one way that can help achieve this purpose because through the literature review, important concepts for investigation can be identified. These concepts can serve as the theoretical guidelines for writing the questionnaire statements. The questionnaire can divide several aspects to construct these questions so that respondents can have clear idea to ask these questions. #p#分页标题#e#

Dornyei(2003) elaborated that questionnaire which allows the researcher to collect a great number of data in a short period of time and the results of a questionnaire are easier to quantify and analyze. However, it often does not allow an in a depth examination of a topic. Numan(1989) described the responses are framed by the researcher’s perspective and respondents’ opinions cannot be freely expressed, while a qualitative method is used for more detailed importation to be obtained from the respondents.

3.2 Data Analysis

Nunan(1991) describe data analysis as a body of methods that help to describe facts, detect patterns, develop explanations, and test hypotheses. It is a process checking, cleaning, transforming and modeling data. It has three goals that are useful information, supporting decision making and suggesting conclusion. It will give answers to the research questions in conclusion. The data analysis is showed into the quantitative data.

3.3.1 Quantitative Data

The analysis of the quantitative data followed the procedure described by Pallant(2001). In the questionnaire, there are three parts. Reasearcher will choose the frequency and the percentage of option to calculating. The frequency option will be recorded and the percentage of the highest- frequency choice will be calculated.

Following with the steps, whether social media can help Business students to improving Business English communication skills are got. Firstly, the questionnaire responses are registered on the scale from 1 to 4 ( 1= strongly disagree, 2= disagree, 3= agree, 4= strongly agree). Scores in each statement are added to produce a composite score.

Using social media to improve Business English among first year students in Business Faculty at UM

Questionnaire

1. Do you use social media to improve your Business English?

Yes _________ No_____________

2. What are the social media you use ?

A. Facebook B. Youtube C. Blogs D. Twitter E. Google+

E. others( specify )______________

3. Do you use social media in your Business Communication course?

Yes _____________ No_______________

3. What are the social media you are in the course?

A. Facebook B. Youtube C Blogs D. Twitter E.Google+#p#分页标题#e#

E. others( specify)__________

5. How often do you use social media for Business English communication skills improvement?

A. every day B. twice or third a week C. others_____________

(A) Tick the answer which best describes your personal opinion during using social networking to improve or learn Business English.

1. I feel that using social networking has a great effect on improving my Business English.