1.1 Introduction
The English Language skills of secretarial students in writing, reading, and speaking at work are very important to know (Kirkkopelto, 2007). Language skills have become more and more essential in all academic and occupational environments in today’s world. The importance of language skills varies in all circles of education and occupation with some requiring very high skills in several languages while others require just the basics in one language (Crystal 2003). English language skills of students are very important in their academic life and subsequently in their professional lives. There are also several different perceptions of English language skill needs in the modern workplace. Employees, employers, as well as prospective employees and employers all need to consider the language needs of their workplace.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Modern secretaries, by the very nature of their job, have often been found playing public relations roles. Most of the time, they also serve as the first points of contact in offices. Possessing good communicative skills in the English language, the main and official medium of communication in Ghana, is very crucial for good customer service. Therefore, having strong communicative skills in English language by secretarial students is a way of ensuring that they have a somewhat guaranteed form of communication for their future professions. Nevertheless, it has been observed that the performance of secretarial students of the Wa Technical University in the English language keeps falling. This is evident among students as they often complain about their poor communicative skills in the English language, though their teachers are trying their best. Most students express worry about their inability to express themselves fluently in the language; knowing that the ability to speak, read, listen, and write is a major requirement in the job market for secretarial students. This implies that there is need to identify the English language skill needs of students offering Secretaryship and Management Studies as a programme of study in order to equip them adequately for the world of work. It is against this background that the researchers considered it necessary to find out the specific English language skills needed by secretarial students and to propose measures that can enhance the acquisition of same. This study sought to establish from Secretaryship and Management students of the Wa Technical University in the Upper West Region of Ghana what perceptions they have about the English Language course; what specific skill needs they have in the subject and suggest interventions that can help improve the impactation, acquisition and use of those skills. Before we do a review of relevant literature on the topic, we deem it expedient to give a brief background of the Secretarial English course.
Therefore, in Nigeria Higher Institutions where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the English Language Skills Needed by Secretarial Students.
1.3 Statement of Problems
English Language as a difficult subject; nonetheless, it is indispensable in their academic and professional lives. They affirmed writing, speaking, reading and listening skills as the most important skill needs and identified speaking as the most challenging skill to acquire. Secretarial profession is absolutely essential and contributes immensely to humanity. But from time immemorial, the profession had encountered a lot of allegation from the society despite its indispensability and its responsibilities to the nation, people tend to have different perceptions towards the profession. Some people feel that the secretarial profession entails some rigid skills that cannot be coped with especially shorthand. Some other thinks that is dominated by dullards, the unfortunate and the unsuccessful. A lot of people believe that secretarial have an indecent affair with their bosses due to intimacy established between the secretaries and their bosses. The researcher intends to investigate some of the above allegation as well as to verify how the secretaries interact with the public to attract positive or negative attitude towards the secretarial profession.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to examine the English Language Skills Needed by Secretarial Students in Higher Institutions. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To examine the spelling and speaking skill needed by secretariat students
- To examine the literary appreciation and punctuation skills needed by secretarial students
- To determine the impact of English language skills on productivity of secretarial students in higher institutions.
- To assess the relationship between English language skills and productivity of secretarial students in higher institutions.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- Does an English language skill impact the productivity of secretarial students in higher institutions?
- Is there any relationship between English language skills and productivity of secretarial students in higher institutions?
- What are the spelling skills needed by secretariat students?
- What are the speaking skills needed by secretarial students?
- What are the literary appreciation skills needed by secretarial students?
- What are the punctuation skills needed by secretarial students?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
- H0: There is no relationship between English language skills and productivity of secretarial students in higher institutions.
- H1: There is a relationship between English language skills and productivity of secretarial students in higher institutions.
1.7 Significance of Study
This study will reveal the problems that the secretarial profession battles with and it will go away in finding ways of improving the performance of the profession which will lead to increased productivity and enhanced prospects. The study will give more light on the major causes of these problems and then highlight what the employer should do to eliminate most of them in order to motivate the secretary towards achieving the corporation’s goals.
This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.8 Scope of Study
The study focuses on the English Language Skills Needed by Secretarial Students in Higher Institutions in Nigeria.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
