English Language Skills and Becoming a Global Entrepreneur: Lessons for Entrepreneurship Education

Ismail Sheikh Ahmad, Zarinah Jan Yusof Khan

Abstract


This paper discusses the results of a case study that focused on the importance of English language skills in helping students become global entrepreneurs. A critical element that is often missing in courses on Entrepreneurship Education is the inclusion of the language component that helps build oral English proficiency. In the entrepreneurship education courses, the importance of teaching English skills to prepare students to become global entrepreneurs is seldom instilled among students—an especially crucial aspect when teaching students for whom English is a second or foreign language—as it would not only motivate them to use English more, but also help them overcome their challenges in using English. By using an online survey and focus group discussions, this study obtained the views of 177 undergraduate students of an Entrepreneurship Education course conducted by the Faculty of Economics of a Malaysian public university. The attitudes of the students towards using English for entrepreneurship and the challenges they faced in doing so are highlighted, and implications are drawn for teaching English in entrepreneurship courses.

https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.22.6.11


Keywords


English for business communication; English for Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship Education; oral English skills; global entrepreneurship

Full Text:

PDF

References


Abbasi, M.H., Siddiqi, A., & Azim, R.U.A. (2011). Role Of Effective Communications for Enhancing Leadership and Entrepreneurial Skills in University Students. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(10), 242–250.

Abdullah, N.H., Shamsuddin, A., Wahab, E., & Hamid, N.A.A. (2014). The relationship between organizational culture and product innovativeness. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 129, 140–147.

Abu Sufian, M. (2012). Corporate social responsibility disclosure in Bangladesh. Global Journal of Management and Business Research, 12(14), 149–155.

Ahmad, S.Z. (2013). The need for inclusion of entrepreneurship education in Malaysia lower and higher learning institutions. Education+ Training, 55(2), 191–203.

Ahmad, S.R. (2016). Importance of English communication skills. International Journal of Applied Research, 2(3), 478–480.

Alberti, F., Sciascia, S., & Poli, A. (2004, July). Entrepreneurship education: notes on an ongoing debate. In Proceedings of the 14th Annual IntEnt Conference, University of Napoli Federico II, Italy (Vol. 4, No. 7).

Altan, M.Z. (2019). EFL Classes for Cultivating Entrepreneurial Mind-set. Language Teaching Research Quarterly, 11, 20–30.

Audretsch, D.B., Kuratko, D.F., & Link, A.N. (2016). Dynamic entrepreneurship and technology-based innovation. Journal of evolutionary economics, 26(3), 603–620.

Brian, J., and Norma, I. (2010). Enterprise education as pedagogy. Educ. Train. 52, 7–19. http://doi.org/10.1108/00400911011017654

Byrne, J., Fayolle, A., & Toutain, O. (2014). Entrepreneurship education: What we know and what we need to know. In Handbook of research on small business and entrepreneurship. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Cardona, J.T. (2015). Effective Oral Communication Skills in Business: An Action Research on Course-Content Enrichment of English 14 of BSBA Students of The College of Business, Entrepreneurship and Accountancy at The Cagayan State University, Andrews Campus. International Journal of Advanced Research in Management and Social Sciences, 4(11), 242–253.

Carree, M., Van Stel, A., Thurik, R., & Wennekers, S. (2002). Economic development and business ownership: an analysis using data of 23 OECD countries in the period 1976–1996. Small business economics, 19(3), 271–290.

Cheng, M.Y., Chan, W.S., & Mahmood, A. (2009). The effectiveness of entrepreneurship education in Malaysia. Education+ Training, 51(7), 555–566.

Cheng, C., & Yang, M. (2017). Enhancing performance of cross-border mergers and acquisitions in developed markets: The role of business ties and technological innovation capability. Journal of Business Research, 81, 107–117.

Dwerryhouse, R. (2001). Real Work in the 16-19 Curriculum: AVCE Business and Young Enterprise. Education+ Training, 43(3), 153–61.

European Commission (2008). Commission Recommendation of 3 October 2008 on the active inclusion of people excluded from the labour market (notified under document number C (2008) 5737) (2008/867/EC), OJ L 307, pp 11–14.

Fatoki, O., & Oni, O. (2014). Students’ perception of the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education at a South African University. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(20), 585–585.

Fayolle, A., & Gailly, B. (2008). From Craft to Science: Teaching Models and Learning Processes in Entrepreneurship Education. Journal of European Industrial Training, 32(7), 569–593.

Galloway, L., Anderson, M., Brown, W., & Wilson, L. (2005). Enterprise skills for the economy. Education+ Training, 47(1), 7–17.

Gibb, A. (1999). Can we build ‘effective’ entrepreneurship through management development? Journal of General Management, 24(4), 1–21.

Gomez, E.T. (2003). Affirmative action and enterprise development in Malaysia: The new economic policy, business partnerships and inter-ethnic relations. Kajian Malaysia, 21(1–2), 59–104.

Hebert, R.F., and Link, A.N. (2011). A History of Entrepreneurship. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(9).

Ilie, E., Chira, R., & Marinescu, G. (2015). Mediation in Entrepreneurship. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 186, 660–663.

Jack, S. L., & Anderson, A. R. (1999). Entrepreneurship education within the enterprise culture: producing reflective practitioners. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 5(3), 110–125.

Katz, J.A. (2003). The chronology and intellectual trajectory of American entrepreneurship education: 1876–1999. Journal of business venturing, 18(2), 283–300.

Kirby, D.A. (2002). Entrepreneurship education: can business schools meet the challenge? Education+ Training, 46(8-9), 510-519. DOI:10.1108/00400910410569632.

Kolb, D.A. 1984. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.

Kuratko, D. F., & Hodgetts, R. M. (2004). Entrepreneurship: Theory, Process. Practice, 6.

Lazear, E.P. (2004). Balanced skills and entrepreneurship. American Economic Review, 94(2), 208–211.

Mansor, M., & Othman, N. (2011, November). Consulting-based entrepreneurship education in Malaysian higher education institutions. In International Conference on Social Science and Humanity (Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 163–167).

McKay, S.L. (2002). Teaching English as an international language: Rethinking goals and perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press.

Ministry of Education Malaysia (MoE) (2010). http://www.moe.gov.my/?id=169〈=my

Ministry of Education Malaysia (MoE) (2012). National Education Policy (3rd Edition). Kuala Lumpur.

Ministry of Higher Education (2013). Entrepreneurial Strategic Plan of Higher Education Institutions 2013-2015. Ministry of International Trade and Industry 2014, MITI Weekly Bulletin, vol. 290. 14 May 2014.

Morgan, D. L. (1997). Planning and research design for focus groups. Focus groups as qualitative research, 16, pp. 32–46.

Muhammad, A., Akbar, S., & Dalziel, M. (2011). The journey to develop educated entrepreneurs: prospects and problems of Afghan businessmen. Education+ Training, 53(5), 433–447.

Mydans, S. (2007, May 14). Across cultures, English is the word. Retrieved from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/world/asia/14iht-14englede.5705671.html

Nabi, G., & Holden, R. (2008). Graduate entrepreneurship: intentions, education and training. Education+ training, 50(7), 545–551.

Niyonkuru, R. (2005). Entrepreneurship education at tertiary institutions in Rwanda: a situation analysis (Doctoral dissertation, University of the Western Cape).

Othman, N.H., & Othman, N. (2019). A systematic review on entrepreneurship education in higher learning institutions in Southeast Asia. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 7(11), 2406–2416.

Özdemir, P. (2015). A combined approach to teaching English and entrepreneurship. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 199, 293–297.

Rahim, H.L., Zainal Abidin, Z., Mohtar, S., & Ramli, A. (2015). The effect of entrepreneurial leadership towards organizational performance. International Academic Research Journal of Business and Technology, 1(2), 193–200.

Ronstadt, R. (1987). The Educated Entrepreneurs: A New Era of Entrepreneurial Education is Beginning. American Journal of Small Business, 11(4), 37–54.

Shamsudin, S.F.F.B., Al Mamun, A., Nawi, N.B.C., Nasir, N.A.B.M., & Zakaria, M.N.B. (2016). Policies and practices for entrepreneurial education: The Malaysian experience. The Journal of Developing Areas, 50(5), 307–316. DOI:10.1353/jda.2016.0053.

Shepherd, D. A., and E. J. Douglas (1997). Is management education developing, or killing, the entrepreneurial spirit? United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship Conference, San Francisco, CA.

Smith, P.A. (2001). Action learning and reflective practice in project environments that are related to leadership development. Management learning, 32(1), 31–48.

Vesper, K.H., & Gartner, W.B. (1997). Measuring progress in entrepreneurship education. Journal of Business Venturing, 12(5), 403–421.

Yusuf, B.N.M., & Kamil, S. (2015). Relationships of Big Five Personality Traits and Locus of Control on Entrepreneurship Intentions among Students in Higher Learning Institutions. Global Journal of Research in Social Sciences, 2(1), 65–73.

Yusoff, S., Yusoff, R., & Md Noh, N.H. (2017). Blended learning approach for less proficient students. Sage Open, 7(3), 1–8.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


e-ISSN: 1694-2116

p-ISSN: 1694-2493