Abstract
In many universities in Malaysia and abroad, various law courses are incorporated into the syllabus for non-law programmes such as accountancy. This paper examines the challenges experienced by accountancy students in a Malaysian university in relation to the English language (which is not the students’ first language) as the medium of instruction and content of a company law course. Questionnaire surveys were administered to 215 students who were pursuing or had taken the company law course. In the context of language and content, the findings revealed that more students experienced difficulties understanding the text books and reference materials, rather than understanding lectures and tutorials. There are significant positive correlations between content and language difficulties encountered in relation to the topics covered in the law course. A majority of the students found reading law books boring and preferred courses involving calculations. While students agreed that the lecturers had made the law course easy to understand, they were of the view that simple reading materials and the use of technology could enhance their learning.
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Notes
- 1.
In this study, the second language refers to English.
- 2.
A copy of questionnaire is available upon request.
- 3.
For the purpose of reporting the findings, the responses for “very difficult to understand” and “difficult to understand” are consolidated and reported as “difficult”. Similarly, the responses for “very easy to understand” and “easy understand” are consolidated and reported as “easy”.
- 4.
For the purpose of this study, the ranking is re-defined, whereby the ranking of 1, 2 and 3 are collectively defined as “easy”; the ranking of 4, 5, 6 and 7 are defined as “moderate” while, the ranking of 8, 9 and 10 are defined ad “difficult”.
- 5.
For cross tabulation analysis, the rankings are also similarly re-defined into “easy”; “moderate” and “difficult”.
- 6.
For the purpose of reporting the findings, the responses for “strongly agreed” and “agreed” are consolidated and reported as “agreed”. Similarly, the responses for “strongly disagreed” and “disagreed” are consolidated and reported as “disagreed”.
- 7.
These and other comments reported are those made by the students in the questionnaires.
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Ern Chen, L., Nasrijal, N.M.H., Salleh, S., Joni, E.K.E. (2016). Language and Content (Subject Matter) Challenges Experienced by Accountancy Students in Law Courses. In: Fook, C., Sidhu, G., Narasuman, S., Fong, L., Abdul Rahman, S. (eds) 7th International Conference on University Learning and Teaching (InCULT 2014) Proceedings. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-664-5_22
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