The English Communication Experiences of Accounting Undergraduates During Internships
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1304.11Keywords:
Internship, Accounting Interns, Communication Experiences, English Communication SkillsAbstract
The issue of poor communication skills among undergraduates, which hamper their performance during internship and employment, has been researched extensively in the literature. However, empirical studies on what the interns have gained and learnt from the internship have not been widely explored. This paper presents the findings of a study of Accounting interns’ experiences in their English communication during their six-month internship at respective companies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The study employed a qualitative research method using semi-structured interviews with five undergraduate interns from the Faculty of Economics and Management of a public university in Malaysia. Interviews with the managers and supervisor who were in charge of the respondents were also carried out. The interview data was transcribed verbatim, coded and analyzed into specific themes and subthemes using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-step thematic analysis. The interns’ data was triangulated with supervisor and managers’ views and validated by three independent coders using the Cohen’s Kappa Reliability Test. The findings of the study show that during the internship, the accounting interns gained valuable experience in practicing their English communication skills, which included opportunities to communicate with clients, colleagues and supervisors, enhance professional communication, learn new terms and knowledge and lastly improve their self-confidence. The language and communication skills in which the interns were still lacking need to be addressed by the university in its efforts to produce Accounting graduates who are competent in English communication.
References
Abdul Kadir, K., & Wan Mohd Noor, W. S. (2015). Students’ awareness of the importance of English language proficiency with regard to future employment. World Review of Business Research, 5(3), 259-272.
Abu, M. J., Yusof, K. N. C. K., & Tahir, I. M. (2011). Business and Accounting Students Perceptions on Industrial Internship Program. Journal of Education and Vocational Research, 1(3), 72-79.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77-101.
Creswell, J. W. (2008). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. New Jersey. Pearson
Evans, S. (2010). Business as usual: The use of English in the professional world in Hong Kong. English for Specific Purposes, 29(3): 153-167.
Ghani, E. K., Rappa, R., & Gunardi, A. (2018). Employers' perceived accounting graduates' soft skills. Academy of Accounting and Financial Studies Journal, 22(5), 1-11.
Gribble, C. (2014). Employment, work placements and work integrated learning of international students in Australia. International Education Association of Australia, Research Digest, 2, 1-10.
Gribble, C., Blackmore, J., & Rahimi, M. (2015). Challenges to providing work integrated to international business undergraduates at Australian universities. Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, 5(4): 401-416.
Gu, J. (2020). Problems and Countermeasures of Cooperative Learning in Business English. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 10(9), 1167-1172.
Heang, L. T., Ching, L. C., Mee, L. Y., & Huei, C. T. (2019). University education and employment challenges: An evaluation of fresh accounting graduates in Malaysia. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 9(9), 1061-1076.
Jaafar S. N., Zakaria, N., & Abd Rasheid, N. (2018). Career choice and employability skills for vocational college undergraduates. Journal of Physics Conference Series, 1049(1):012050. IOP Publishing.
Kassim, H. & Ali, F. (2010). English communicative events and skills needed at the workplace: Feedback from the industry. English for Specific Purposes, 29,168–182.
Kolb, D. A. (2015). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Louhiala-Salminen, L. (2002). The fly’s perspective: Discourse in the daily routine of a business manager. English for Specific Purposes, 21(3): 211-231.
Low, M. B., V., Dela Rue. D., & Allen, J. (2016). Accounting employers’ expectations - The ideal accounting undergraduates. e-Journal of Business Education & Scholarship of Teaching, 10(1), 36-57.
Machart, R. (2017). The implementation of industrial training in tertiary education in Malaysia: Objectives, realisations and +outputs in the case of foreign language students. International Review of Education, 63(1), 103-122.
Maelah, R., Aman, A., Mohamed, Z. M., & Ramli, R. (2012). Enhancing soft skills of accounting undergraduates through industrial training. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 59, 541-549.
Maelah, R., Muhammaddun Mohamed, Z., Ramli, R. & Aman, A. (2014). Internship for accounting undergraduates: comparative insights from stakeholders. Education + Training, 56(6), 482-502.
Merriam, S. B. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Mikkola, L., & Valo, M. (Eds.). (2020). Workplace communication. Abingdon: Routledge.
O’Donovan, D. (2018). Bilateral benefits: Student experiences of work-based learning during work placement. Industry and Higher Education, 32(2): 119-128.
Pham, T., Saito, E., Bao, D., & Chowdhury, R. (2018). Employability of international undergraduates: Strategies to enhance their experience on work integrated learning (WIL) programs. Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability, 9(1), 62–83.
Rahmat, N., Ayub, A. R., & Buntat, Y. (2016). Employability skills constructs as job performance predictors for Malaysian polytechnic graduates: A qualitative study. Geografia, 12(3), 154-167.
Rebele, J. E., & Pierre, E. K. S. (2019). A commentary on learning objectives for accounting education programs: The importance of soft skills and technical knowledge. Journal of Accounting Education, 48, 71-79.
Riley, T. J., & Simons, K. A. (2016). The written communication skills that matter most for accountants. Accounting Education, 25(3), 239-255.
Sanahuja Vélez, G., & Ribes Giner, G. (2015). Effects of business internships on students, employers, and higher education institutions: A systematic review. Journal of Employment Counseling, 52(3), 121-130.
Sawani, Y., Abdillah, A., Rahmat, M., Noyem, J. A., & Sirat, Z. (2016). Employer's satisfaction on accounting service performance: A case of public university internship program. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 224, 347-352.
Siriwardane, H. P., & Durden, C. H. (2014). The communication skills of accountants: what we know and the gaps in our knowledge. Accounting education, 23(2), 119-134.
Siriwardane, H. P., Low, K. Y., & Blietz, D. (2015). Making entry-level accountants better communicators: A Singapore-based study of communication tasks, skills, and attributes. Journal of Accounting Education, 33(4), 332-347.
Suarta, I. M., Suwintana, I. K., Sudhana, I. F. P., & Hariyanti, N. K. D. (2017). Employability skills required by the 21st-century workplace: A literature review of labour market demand. Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, 102(58), 337-342.
Szadvari, L. (2008). Management buy-in: The most crucial component of successful internship programs. NACE Journal. 1-8. https://www.uis.edu/sites/default/files/inline-images/managementbuyin.pdf.
TalentCorp Survey on Graduate Employability. (2015). https://www.talentcorp.com.my/clients/TalentCorp_2016_7A6571AE-D9D0-4175-B35D-99EC514F2D24/contentms/img/publication/Matching-Talent-to-Job-1.pdf. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
Tan, L. & Fawzi, L. (2017). Employability Skills Required of Accountants. SHS Web of Conferences. 34. 06001. 10.1051/shsconf/20173406001.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning as a social system. Systems Thinker, 9(5), 2-3.
