Performances in English Proficiency Course with Students’ Ability in Answering Higher Order Thinking Skills Questions

Abstract

The English language is the medium of instruction and knowledge deliverance in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). This study looks into whether or not English writing skills affect the students’ performance in answering Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in the final examination of Molecular Biology (BIO615). The samples comprised BSc (Hons) Biology students from two consecutive semesters in two of UiTM campuses (UiTM Shah Alam and UiTM Jengka). Mean percentage between students answering the December 2015 and June 2016 final examinations in the respective campus was obtained and correlated with marks obtained in English for Academic Writing course (ELC550). The results demonstrated a weak correlation between students’ achievement in ELC550 and their ability in answering HOTS questions in BIO615 final examination in UiTM Shah Alam. In contrast, in UiTM Jengka, the moderate correlation was shown in Semester Sept-Jan 2015. The results of this study are hoped to assist biology educators in crafting appropriate and effective teaching approaches, especially in teaching complicated subjects as well as in strengthening English language proficiency.   

Keywords: Higher Order Thinking Skills; Molecular Biology; English Proficiency; Bloom’s Taxonomy.   

eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.   
DOI:https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5iSI1.2314