Students’ Perceptions on Card Game (LXpress Card Game) Usage in English Communication Skills

Abstract

According to the survey conducted by Malaysian Employers Federation (2016), 73.2% of the respondent companies indicated that our graduates lacked problem solving and English communication skills. This issue creates a mismatch between what the employers want in a graduate and what skills a graduate actually possesses. It is without doubt that communication skills are important in order for school leavers and graduates to secure a job. To address this issue, a deck of cards was invented to facilitate ESL students’ speaking practices. The objective of this invention is to help students to be familiar with the language functions in interaction. Four (4) basic language functions focused in this game are Explaining/Describing, Expressing Agreement, Expressing Disagreement and Drawing Conclusion. In order to evaluate ESL students’ perceptions on this card game, a survey has been conducted. It was found that the ESL students perceived the card game usage as a way to improve their communication skills positively with an average mean of 4.31. The ESL students also agreed that the game provided an environment that was conducive to learning (Average Mean = 4.40) and 5 aspects that can be improved on the card game which were appearance, content, monitoring, timing and availability were also suggested by the students. Recommendations for future studies are also proposed at the end of this paper.