1

Language and Culture in English for Business Purposes: Noticing Their Importance
Through Television Advertisements.

Farrah Diebaa Rashid Ali
Universiti Teknologi MARA Pahang
diebaali@yahoo.com

Farrah Ahmad
International Education Centre (INTEC), UiTM Malaysia
farrah_leo2008@yahoo.com


ABSTRACT
This study aimed to look at the awareness of Malaysian English for Business Purposes (EBP)
students on the importance of using appropriate language in relation to cultural differences in an
international business setting. This research was conducted as a result of several stressful hours
of restating and reinforcing the importance of understanding cultural differences in written and
spoken business communication to the EBP learners. Prior to the study, the students failed to see
that the world communities are built of general and personal cultures. The term culture and
subculture did not really bother them as they were not able to see what culture constitutes of.
Hence, miscommunication caused by cultural bias was often seen in their outcomes. However,
once they were able to notice the different cultural elements presented in the nine culturally-
embedded television advertisements, it has been observed that the students were more sensitive
towards their selection of words, phrases, sentence structures and their written or spoken styles.
They were more careful when using vernacular language, idioms, over-generalization and under-
generalization words. Hence reducing the number of miscommunication possibilities caused by
wrong selection of words, phrases and written or spoken styles. Thus, by arriving at such
conclusion, it can be assumed that now the students have realized the important roles played by
both language and culture in EBP settings.

Keywords: English for Business Purposes, Language, Culture, Television Advertisement.
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1 INTRODUCTION
1.0 Introduction
Culture is undeniably important in everyday aspects of life. However, the young generations are
seen to be ignorant on the sensitivity of culture, may it be theirs or others. This is resulted from
their lack of awareness towards the concept of culture itself. The young generations might have
been informed about certain culture especially in their own country but the understanding of the
existence as well as the significance of those culture are ignored. Therefore, to introduce a
culture especially global culture to the second language learners is a difficult attempt. This is
because; most of the learners are used to the secondary sources of learning a language.
The second language learners or the respondents of this research are the students of business. In
order for them to complete their written or spoken tasks successfully, they have to be sensitive to
their surroundings i.e. cultural differences. Their sensitivity is very important where at some
level, they have to associate the language use with the element of culture. By understanding the
culture, the students/respondents will respect and also apply their knowledge (of culture) in their
studies of English language. In a broader scope, having the knowledge and understanding the
culture, would allow an individual to apply it in a more appropriate form and situation. For
instance, a business deal could be secured if the individual practices the above-mentioned
strategies.
All this is in accordance with Blooms Taxonomy which stated that there are six (6) categories or
levels in ones cognitive behavior. The simplest or the lowest level is the knowledge where most
of the students have had in them. Then, it is followed with the second lowest level which is
comprehension. Through the presentation of nine (9) culturally-embedded television
advertisements, the students comprehension and sensitivity are being observed. But, in order for
the students to actually perform in their written and spoken tasks, they have to apply what they
have understood into their tasks completion. Once they managed to apply both knowledge and
comprehension, they are now in the third category of Blooms Taxonomy which is application.
Thus, this research is done so as to identify the students of business comprehension on what it is
meant by culture and how they apply their understanding in completing given tasks and
assignments.

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1.1 Statement of problem
Majority of English as Second Language learners in Malaysia learn the language locally while
attending the government primary and secondary school. Almost all these schools were taught by
Malaysians and direct contact with a native speaker is not a common scene especially those of
rural areas. Thus, the only sources of culture learning for the Malaysian ESL learners are
secondary printed and mass media. With this limited sources, learners often face difficulties in
identifying culture especially those of personal or individual culture of the native speaker.

Another contributing factor is majority of the learners perceive that culture only constitutes
unique tradition which is indigenous, old or ancient. The students often easily identified things
which they are not accustomed to as culture.

The processes of globalization and glocalization have also caused cultures to spread around and
become popular in its new community. Thus it makes the process of culture identification
becomes more difficult as the existing culture has now become integrated with the new one and
thus may form a brand new culture. And this makes it more difficult for the learners to identify
culture.

And most important of all, learners often do not associate language with culture. Failure to
bridge the relationship between language and culture has caused many misunderstandings. For
example, when one write a straight-forward letter to an English correspondence, he/she will be
regarded as being cold. Whereas when an American received a letter from a Japanese
counterpart, he/she will see the Japanese as being too personal/emotional.

As a result of all the above, the students are less sensitive towards cultural differences held by
different countries, societies, organizations and even at smaller structural unit such as family and
club. Therefore, they are not aware of problems and misunderstanding that can take place as a
result of incorrect or inappropriate choice of words, phrases, sentence structure and style.

To avoid such misunderstanding, teachers have spent hours training the students selecting the
most appropriate words, but the problem is the students still do not see any difference between
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them and their business correspondence, so they assume the writing style would be the same as
theirs and will have no effect on the message transferred. By being aware of the cultural
differences, the student were expected to be more careful in selecting words, phrases and avoid
culturally-embedded idioms and vernacular language in their business dealing. With such
problems in hand, the researchers decided to embark on current research.

1.2 Research objectives
The objectives of this research are to look at the different elements of culture that may present in
an advertisement and how such advertisement helps the English for Business Purpose students to
be more sensitive of cultural differences in completing written and spoken tasks. It also aims to
observe any effects the noticed cultural elements have towards the learners purchasing power.

1.3 Research questions
Research questions of this paper were divided into sets of primary and secondary. There were
four primary research questions and two secondary research questions.

Primary research questions:
a. Were the students able to notice the different cultural elements presented in the
advertisements?
b. What were the different cultural elements noticed by the students?
c. Was there any differences in term of cultural awareness observe in the students
assignments prior and after the study was conducted?
d. Were the students able to perceive the importance of minor culture interference in
business setting?

Secondary research questions include:
a. Did culture have any effect on viewers perception on the products/services/messages?
b. Did culture have any effect on customer purchasing power?



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1.4 Significance of the study
As teenagers nowadays are closer to the different types of media than it has ever be, the current
methodology is believe to be of high potential in helping easing up the burden of EBP trainers.
This is due to the fact that both EBP trainers and learners are surrounded by abundance of
television advertisements available on television channels and on the internet for their easy
access. Thus, by using these television advertisements to build culture awareness among the
learners, it is hope that the learners will become more sensitive of culture differences in their
writing therefore minimizing such error in both written and spoken tasks, which are the ultimate
objectives of an EBP course - to increase accuracy and appropriateness. Ultimately, it helps to
contribute to current body of knowledge in which such method has not yet received a plausible
acceptance among ESP practitioners.

1.5 Limitation of the study
As the respondents were of two institutions and majoring in business related courses only, the
findings of this study cannot be generalized to the overall population. The used of different
advertisements from different countries than the one used in this study might also resulted
different findings. This study also tend to focus more on the individual or personal culture held
by an organization the advertisement belongs to rather than the general culture shares by the
citizens of a country at large.

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Relationship between language and culture
Communication is a process of message transfer from the encoder to the decoder through various
channels. In this process, transferring the right message intended by the encoder is the ultimate
goal. However, this process of transferring messages from one party to another is not as easy as
it is seen especially those involving two or more different cultures. Most of the world languages
are fully loaded with culturally-embedded words and phrases. Thus they often disrupt the process
of meaning transfer. This is due to the fact that language and culture is highly associated with
each other.

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One of the arguments supporting the above statement is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. They
believe that no language can exist unless it is steeped in the context of culture; and no culture
can exist which does not have its center, the structure of natural language (Bassnett, 1992:14).
This hypothesis stresses that the structure of a language determines how people view their
atmosphere and surroundings. Thus it suggested that if one language classifies orange and brown
as yellow, and another language looks at those colours as three different colours, it proves that
the structure of a language helps people to register the difference between the three colours and
helps them to see each colour differently. However, if all three colours are viewed simply as
yellow, the speaker of that language would not perceive the difference between what is called
orange, brown and yellow (Wardhaugh, 2002; Steinberg, 1993).

Even though all three colours are expressed in a single term, it does not necessarily mean that the
speaker cannot differentiate between orange, brown and yellow. The differences in their view or
concept of colour actually lies with the environment and the culture of the speaker, Within their
speech community, they can differentiate between orange, brown and yellow without having to
express it in specific terms as all the members of the society share the same background
knowledge. A detailed explanation is only needed when someone from a different culture
participates in the conversation. This is not only limited to the concept of colour, but it also
includes time, perception, action, proper and abstract noun (Wardhaugh, 2002; Steinberg, 1993).

With reference to verbs and nouns, they contribute to half of the problems of cross-cultural
communication. Different speech communities have different sets of words to describe action
and noun. Usually, these sets of words refer to specific objects or actions which are not familiar
to the speaker of other languages, or in other words, these terms are culturally specific object or
action. For instance rokok daun or rokok gulung (leaf cigarette or rolled cigarette is a form of
cigarette made by rolling dried Nipah leaf over dried tobacco). This object is culturally specific
and thus it is impossible to translate literally into English as the English will neither understand
nor picture this kind of cigarette. Furthermore, they do not have any ideas how a Nipah leaf
looks like as the geographical area of the English community does not allow the Nipah tree to
grow.

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Besides concept, object and action, pragmatics is another important element of language that
needs to be carefully understood (Mey, 1993). The same expressions might be understood
differently in different languages as speakers understanding depends on how they view things
and the environment surrounding them. It is also a culturally-related question of what is
considered acceptable or taboo in a particular community. Often each society has substituted
taboo words with euphemism to make them sound more polite (Wardhaugh, 2002; Steinberg,
1993).

All of the above are the evidences which prove that language and culture is two inseparable
entities. One cannot function well using a language if he/she has no background understanding of
the culture. A culture on the other hand cannot be inherited to next generation without a language
as a medium.

2.2 Culture in English for Business Purposes (EBP)
Culture can be national, professional, organizational and personal. It is not easily spotted as it is
integrated within the layers of ones life, behavior and belief (Evan & St John,2001). Even
though the relationship between culture and language is a subject of great debate among the
linguists and sociologists, Evan and John (2001) prefer to say that language reflects culture and
culture can shape language (Evan & St John, 2001; 66). Thus, having Language for Specific
Purpose (LSP) as an important language learning component learnt by learners around the world,
one cannot tear it apart from culture. Ideally, LSP bridges Professionals of different part of the
world who are rich of cultural differences and unite them together. Therefore it is important for
learners to be sensitive of these rich cultures and appreciate these unique differences to avoid
misunderstanding during communication.

Trompenaar (1993) discusses seven dimensions of culture concerning relationships with other
people, time and environment. Out of these seven dimensions, the relationship dimensions of
neutral:emotional; individualism:collectivism; specific:diffuse; and universalism:particularism
are seen as the most important in business setting. Table 2.1 below highlights briefly Trompenaar
four most important dimensions of a business culture.

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Table 2.1: Dichotomy of Trompenaars four most important dimensions
Neutral Emotional
HIGH LOW
Eye contact
Space
Openness in expressing feelings


Individualistic Collective
HIGH LOW
Preference for working alone
Competing with others

Use of I Asian countries

Collaboration with others
Use of we Canada, USA,
Australia


Specific/segregating Diffuse
HIGH LOW
Different aspects of life is treated
individually.
e.g: Autralia Boss is only boss at the
workplace.

No clear boundary between different
aspects of life.
e.g: China Boss is the boss at all
times



Universalism Particularism
HIGH LOW
one good way
The same plan for everybody,
everywhere
Encourage flexibility

Adapted from Evan & St John, 2001

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3.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Sample
A total of 28 Malaysian students participated in this study. These students were currently doing
Diploma in Accountancy at UiTM Pahang and sitting for commerce paper at INTEC. They were
of both female and male students aged 18-20 years old. These students have attended the
Government school since primary one until secondary five. These two groups of students were
chosen due to their future career prospects in business and accountancy settings. Thus, English
for Business Purpose Course has more impact on them as compare to other students. Both groups
were also doing English for Business Purpose Course at their respective institutions. These
groups were also selected mainly because one was currently pursuing their study locally, and the
later was preparing themselves to go abroad.

3.2 Data collection procedure
The students were doing a 14 week courses on English for Business Purpose at their respective
institutions. They were taught and exposed to differences and importance of cultural elements in
business communication. During the first eight weeks, the students have completed several
written and spoken assignments and tasks. At the ninth week, they were presented with a
recording of nine culturally-embedded television advertisements. After watching each
advertisement, the learners were required to respond to a set of questionnaire. The questionnaire
aims to look at students awareness on the elements of culture presented in those advertisements.
The students were again tested on their written and spoken business communication skills to see
whether they were now more culturally sensitive than ever.

There are few instruments used in the data collection process which includes a set of television
advertisement, a self-report survey and several written and spoken assignments. These items are
further explained below.

3.2.1 A set of advertisements
A set of twelve culturally-embedded advertisements taken from USA, New Zealand, Malaysia,
German and India were selected for this study. These countries were selected due to their
geographical location and their current economical and developmental state. Even though, these
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advertisements originated from both English and non-English speaking countries, only English
speaking advertisements were selected.

The advertisements were of different themes ranging from festival, tourism, inculcating good
behavior, food and beverages, stationery, sports, and law enforcement. These advertisements
portray both general and personal culture. Some of the cultures were newly accepted by the
society while others were inherited from their ancestors. It was also a combination of obvious
and less-obvious culture.

3.2.2 Self-report survey
Data for this study were collected through a self-report survey. A self-formulated questionnaire
of nine parts was distributed to the respondents during the ninth week of an English for Business
Purposes course. At this moment, the students have completed several written and spoken
assignments and tasks related to business communication. These assignments and tasks served as
medium to elicit information or research data from the research sample.

The questionnaire consists of 13 parts and each part consists of six items. The different parts of
the questionnaire represent the different advertisement used in this research. In each part, the
respondents were presented with five questions. The questions were design to seek answer for
the four research questions posed earlier. The questions comprise an open-ended question, a few
objective questions and likert-scale.

A self-report survey was chosen as the instrument for this research based on several factors.
First, as individual response of each respondent is crucial to ensure high reliability and validity
of this research, it is important for the data to be collected using method in which respondent
confidentiality is highly preserved. This method ensures that each data collected is truly from the
learner with no influence from others. It is also flexible for the learners to record their response
without being afraid of others negative perception especially those from the course instructors
or researchers as no personal information were collected.


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3.2.3 Assessments
The assessment method used is a combination of both summative and formative assessment. The
formative assessment took place through out the 14-week in which students need to present on
business-related issues, participate in a role-play based on authentic situation, and prepare
written assignments.

The assessments began at the third week of the semester. At week nine, the students were
presented with the nine advertisements and the questionannire. Therefore, observations made on
the assignments and presentation done in the first five weeks were set as the benchmark against
the assignments and presentation done at later weeks. Learners awareness of cultural differences
were scored on a scale of four.

1. Extensive used of vernacular language, loaded with culturally-embedded words/phrases.
2. Moderate used of vernacular language, occasionally used culturally-embedded
words/phrases
3. Little used of vernacular language, rarely used culturally-embedded words/phrases
4. Did not use any vernacular language, free of culturally-embedded words/phrases.

At the end of the semester, students cultural awareness scores prior and after the introduction of
the advertisements were compared to look for any significant differences.

3.3 Data Analysis
The findings of this research were analyzed in term of frequency counts and this was done with
the aid of SPSS version 17. The findings of this study were presented and further discussed in the
following chapters.

4.0 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The findings of this study are discussed in two headings which are the primary and secondary
research findings:



4.1 Primary research findings and discussions

4.1.1 Were the students able to notice the different cultural elements presented in the
advertisements?

The findings suggested that the students were able to notice the existence of cultural elements in
the advertisements with the frequency of 87%. It was ea
to notice the cultural elements presented in Malaysian
and 6) as compared to those of American (advertisements 2 and 9). This is maybe due to the fact
that the cultural elements presented in
However, it was quite difficult for them to
advertisements were lack of Asian
the students were aware of the cultural elements presented in advertisement 5 even though the
advertisement was of Indian origin. This is maybe due to the fact that they were well exposed to
Malaysian Indian culture, thus making the advertisement less perplexing to them.




0
5
10
15
Table 4.1: Number of respondents who were able to notice
cultural elements in the advertisements (n==28).
Primary research findings and discussions
Were the students able to notice the different cultural elements presented in the
suggested that the students were able to notice the existence of cultural elements in
the advertisements with the frequency of 87%. It was easier for the students of both
to notice the cultural elements presented in Malaysian-made advertisements (advertisements 4
and 6) as compared to those of American (advertisements 2 and 9). This is maybe due to the fact
that the cultural elements presented in advertisement 4 and 6 were of familiar to the students
However, it was quite difficult for them to notice it in advertisement 2 and 9 maybe because both
were lack of Asian-like or indigenous cultures. It was also interesting to note that
the students were aware of the cultural elements presented in advertisement 5 even though the
sement was of Indian origin. This is maybe due to the fact that they were well exposed to
Malaysian Indian culture, thus making the advertisement less perplexing to them.
Table 4.1: Number of respondents who were able to notice
cultural elements in the advertisements (n==28).
UiTM INTEC
12
Were the students able to notice the different cultural elements presented in the

suggested that the students were able to notice the existence of cultural elements in
sier for the students of both institutions
ts (advertisements 4
and 6) as compared to those of American (advertisements 2 and 9). This is maybe due to the fact
familiar to the students.
notice it in advertisement 2 and 9 maybe because both
It was also interesting to note that
the students were aware of the cultural elements presented in advertisement 5 even though the
sement was of Indian origin. This is maybe due to the fact that they were well exposed to
Malaysian Indian culture, thus making the advertisement less perplexing to them.
13

4.1.2 What were the different cultural elements noticed by the students?

As it can be seen in the Table 4.2 above, the students were able to identify 17 different cultural
elements presented in the nine television advertisements. Among the cultural elements, clothes
and accessories received the most plausible attention from the students as 76 occurrences were
recorded by the students. This was followed by the American football culture (NFL) and
Superbowl, environment and geographical qualities such as night-market, villages, islands,
forests and snowy regions. The students also recorded some elements of culture which relies
heavily on social acceptance, for instance smoking woman, alcoholic abused and public nudity.
They can also easily identify cultural elements related to birth, marriage and death. However,
only slightly more than half of the students were able to identify ghostly appearance as culture.

Among other cultural elements which did received attention from the students were cutlery
chopsticks, rice and soup bowl, attitude and behavior - social respect, driving style, stereotyping
of different hair colours, and varieties of food and languages. In addition to the above, it is
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Clothes/dress/accessories
American football
Environment/ geographical qualities
Social acceptance
Festival/ celebration
Birth/marriage/death
Ghost
Cutlery
Attitude and behavior
Hair colour
Food
Language
People/race
Architecture and home decoration
Name
Transportation
Music
Table 4.2: The different cultural elements identified by the
students
Frequency
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interesting to note that only some of the students were able to identify the architecture of
buildings, design of houses and decoration as part of culture and only a handful were able to
recognize name, transportation and music as one of cultural elements.

4.1.3 Was there any differences in term of cultural awareness observe in the students
assignments prior and after the study was conducted?

Table 4.3: Students performance before and after the study was conducted


In term of learners awareness of cultural differences before and after the research was
conducted, Table 4.3 showed that the occurrence of culturally embedded words, idioms, and
colloquial language has reduced gradually as have been observed in the students assignments
and presentations. In the table above, assignments 1 and 2 were done prior to the introduction of
culturally-embedded advertisements to the students. However, assignments 3 and 4 took place
after the students responded to those advertisements. The learners awareness of cultural
differences in the table above were scored based on this scale;-
1. Extensive used of vernacular language, loaded with culturally-embedded words/phrases.
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
Assignment 1 Assignment 2 Assignment 3 Assignment 4
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Group 5
Group 6
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2. Moderate used of vernacular language, occasionally used culturally-embedded
words/phrases
3. Little used of vernacular language, rarely used culturally-embedded words/phrases
4. Did not use any vernacular language, free of culturally-embedded words/phrases.

Even though, students performance varied across the groups, it can be concluded that television
advertisements helped the students to notice and identify different culture posses by various
communities and societies in the world. Through this identification practice, the students were
more aware of what they write and speak when completing their written and spoken tasks. It has
been observed, the students tried hard to avoid fillers like lah (a common filler used by
Malaysians while speaking in English) and English translation of Malay idioms and proverbs in
writing. As a result, they produced carefully-structured texts or discourses with minor
interference from culture.

4.0.1 Were the students able to perceive the importance of minor culture interference
in business setting?
With reference to the other research questions, the researchers believe Were the students able to
perceive the importance of culture in business setting? is the most important question to be
answered as this is the sole reason why the research has been conducted - to highlight the
importance of cultural awareness among the learners while preparing business related documents
and presentations.

By looking at and evaluating the findings of earlier research question (sub-heading 4.1.3), the
researchers strongly believe that the students have now understood the important role played by
culture in business setting. Culture may promote or impede business relation between two
international companies. As a result, when two parties of different culture are meeting each other
to secure a deal, it is better if both parties try to be as neutral as they could to avoid any
misunderstanding caused by different concepts and elements of cultural.



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4.2 Secondary research findings and discussions

4.2.1 Did culture have any effects on viewers perception on the
products/services/messages?

Table 4.4: The effects of culture on viewers perception on the products/services/messages


From the above Table 4.4, it can be concluded that in the majority of the advertisements, the
students felt that culture did have an effect on their perceptions towards the product, services and
messages. It is interesting to note that all students agreed that advertisement five did affect their
perception on the message the advertisement is trying to convey. Advertisement five really
appealed these young adult learners might be due to the fact that this advertisement highlighted
the importance of the young generation to uphold and be proud of their own culture.

Advertisement 7 did have tremendous effect on the learners perception on the product because it
highlighted the beautiful culture of New Zealand. As a result of watching such beautiful and
unique culture, most of the learners felt excited about putting New Zealand in their must-visit-
countries list.

0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
NO
YES
17

In contrast to the above, the soft drink advertisement (advertisement 9) did not manage to capture
the students attention because Superbowl is not a culture they were accustomed to. Thus, it can
be concluded culture does play an important role in capturing the attention and altering the
perception of the audience on the product it is trying to sell.


4.2.2 Did culture have any effect on customer purchasing power?
Table 4.5: The effects of culture on customer purchasing power


More than half of the students agreed that the cultural elements presented in those advertisements
did affect their purchasing power. For instance, all of the students agreed that they will become
more aware of their own behavior in the present of a child so that the child will not be negatively
influenced by them. And this was the message, the advertisement tried to put forward.

However, the students viewed that such strategies of using culturally-embedded advertisement to
promote soft drinks (advertisements 3 and 9) and NFL (advertisement 8) were not effective. This
could be due to the fact that they are accustomed to the drink and they have little interest on the
sports as it was not part of their culture. Thus, it can be concluded that only with carefully
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
NO
YES
18

selected cultural elements, the advertisement will achieve its objective. And of course to the
learners of English, they now know that their works are subjected for the same criticism too.

5.0 CONCLUSION
As a conclusion, with the introduction of culturally-embedded television advertisements to the
English for Business Purposes students, the students were now more aware on their selection of
words and sentence structures. They have understood the importance of why a text needs to be
free of culturally-embedded phrases and information. Their understanding has been translated
into action and these positive findings have been observed in their spoken and written
assignments and presentations. Even though, it is undeniable that there are many factors that may
lead to such positive improvement, the researchers believe that the introduction of culturally-
embedded advertisements as part of teaching aid did help the students realize the importance of
understanding cultural differences in a business setting.


REFERENCES
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Haynes, J. (1989). Introducing Stylistics. United Kingdom.
Kramsch, C. (1998) Language and culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mey, J. L. (1993). Pragmatic - An Introduction. United Kingdom: Blackwell.
Renzetti, C. M., & Curran, D. J. (2000). Living Sociology (2nd ed.). USA: Allyn and Bacon.
Scollon, R., & Scollon, S. W. (1995). Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach.
Oxford: Blackwell.
Steinberg, D. D. (1993). An introduction to psycholinguistics. London: Longman.
Wardhaugh, R. (2002). An introduction to sociolinguistics (4th ed.). Oxford: Blackwell
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Wiersma, W. (2000). Research Method in Education. USA: Allyn and Bacon.


ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Farrah Diebaa Rashid Ali (Ms) received both her Master of Human Sciences (TESL) and
Bachelor of English Language and Literature (Hons.) from International Islamic University
Malaysia. Currently, she is teaching at the Academy of Language Studies, Universiti Teknologi
MARA, Pahang. She has attended and presented in several international conferences. She co-
authored a few books, among others The Goblins of English Grammar published by McGraw
Hill Education Asia (2009) and Inter-faith Dialogue: A Quranic Approach published by ABIM
(2010).

Farrah Ahmad (Ms) is a graduate from International Islamic University in Bachelor of Human
Sciences (Hons) in English Language and Literature. Currently, she is an AUSMAT (Australian
Matriculation Program) lecturer at International Education Centre (INTEC) UiTM Section 17,
Shah Alam. She has attended several conferences and this is her first research to be presented
with co-author.