ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

IDENTIFY THE FACTORS THAT LEAD ACCOUNTING

STUDENTS TO CHOOSE SPORTS AS U4 SUBJECTS

ABSTRACT
Education is a systematic process through which a child or an adult acquires knowledge,
experience and skill. Education can be divided into academics and co-curricular activities.

MMU Melaka provides co-curricular activities which are U4 subjects such as basketball,
badminton, Taekwondo, squash and so on. U4 subjects is compulsory for every students who
pursuit their study in MMU Melaka. Every students have chance to choose U4 subjects. The
objective of this report is to determine the main factor that will lead accounting students to
choose sport as U4 subjects. 50 accounting students have been selected from MMU Melaka.
The survey targeted students of Faculty of business who are majoring in the Bachelor of
Accounting. Since most of the accounting students are Chinese, 25 males and 25 females
have been selected in order to conduct the research. The surveys have been held in MMU
Melaka in week 6 of 24th November 2014 to 30th November 2014. 3 members conduct the
survey and another 3 members tabulate the result. The questionnaire maximum 2 pages and
consists of 3 sections. Three variables which are self-interest, socialization, health, and
academic performance were used to test the factor that lead accounting students to choose
sports as U4 subjects. Researcher tested the frequency for the demographic information of the
respondents and the mean for each variables which had the most influence factor that lead
accounting students to choose and participated in sports subjects. Last but not least, summary
and recommendation have been provided in this report.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We have taken a lot of effort in this assignment. However, this assignment would not be
succeeding without the kind support and assistance from any individual and a number of
people. Firstly, we would like to express our deepest appreciation and special gratitude
toward our BAE1014 English for Business Communication lecturer, Madam Kavitha
Balakrishnan for the precious time she spent with us and her valuable guidance as well.
During this assignment period, she always behaves like a lighthouse and always shows us the
true path. She has constantly motivated and stimulating suggestion for us throughout entire
assignment period.
Moreover, we would like to extend our gratefulness to our group members who have shown
their hard work and sacrifice their own time to making this assignment complete. Without the
effort and co-operation from our group members, this assignment cannot be done before the
due date. Last but not least, we would like to thank to respondents for the support and
willingness to spend some time to fill in the questionnaires.

TABLE OF CONTENT
No
.

Title

Page

INTRODUCTION

a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
II

Background
Terms of reference
Purpose
Scope
Methods
FINDINGS

5
7
7
7
8
9

III

CONCLUSION

15

IV

RECOMMENDATIONS

16

LIST OF REFERENCES

17

VI

APPENDICES

19

LIST OF TABLES
No
.
1

Table

Page

Table 1 - Respondents profile and demographic result (N=50)

LIST OF FIGURES
No
.
1
2
3
4
5

Figure

Page

Figure 1 The mean for self-interest factor that lead accounting

students to choose sports as U4 subjects
Figure 2 The mean for socialization factor that lead accounting
students to choose sports as U4 subjects
Figure 3 The mean for health factor that lead accounting
students to choose sports as U4 subjects
Figure 4 The mean for academic performance factor that lead
accounting students to choose sports as U4 subjects
Figure Other factors that lead accounting students to choose
sports as U4 subjects

10

11
12
13
14

Background
Education is a systematic process through which a child or an adult acquires knowledge,
experience and skill. Education in Malaysia can be divided into academics and co-curricular
activities. Co-curricular activities for students are beneficial in a variety of ways creating an
enhanced quality of student life (Smith, 2008). MMU Melaka provides extracurricular
learning experience by offering U4 subjects such as tennis, basketball, badminton,
Taekwondo, squash, fencing and theater. The factors of choosing sports as U4 subjects among
accounting students are self-interest, socialization, health, and academic performance.
The factors that lead students to choose sports as U4 subjects are self-interest. The reason is
in any activity a self desire to do it is the most important. So for self-interest, challenge and
hyper competitiveness would be a potent reason to play sports, this is especially true among
boys as research has shown that boy are hypercompetitive when it comes to sports (Kelinske,
Mayer & Chen, 2001). Besides, building good teamwork coordination also can lead students
to choose sports subjects. It is obvious that when playing sports student can always monitor
his or her personal performance to further improvement in the future. Furthermore, selfimprovement, some people play sports just to simply be better at it, for either self-satisfactory
reason or to impress others. This is only human nature. Moreover, the inspiration from others
also can lead students to choose and involve in sports subjects. Many people are often
inspired by professional athletes and are ultimately inspire to be like them; hence, they will
start playing sports in hopes to be one day like them.
Socialization also can be one of the factors that lead students to choose sports as U4 subjects.
Many of the students choose and participate in sports subjects because they want to be with
teams or friends (Allen, 2003). This will lead them to feel more comfortable when they are
together with their teams or friends. Furthermore, interpersonal factors include support from
family and friends influence students to choose sports subjects in U4. It is well established
that support from family and friends is significant for student sport participation (Eime,
Casey, Harvey, Sawyer, Symons and Payne, 2014). In addition, building friendship is also
one of the reasons that students involve in sports, especially female students. According to
Kerr, Au and Lindner (2004), female students rated friendships as being a significantly more
important reason for engaging in their sport when compared with males. This research has
shown that female students choose sport subject in U4 in order to make friends or meet new
people.
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Moreover, health is also the factors that lead students to choose sports as U4 subjects.
According to The Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee, exercise and participate
in sports regularly will bring a lot of health benefits to students (Khan, Thompson, Blair,
Sallis, Powell & Bauman, 2012). Therefore, students may gain a healthier body through
conducting to sports. Besides, students choose and participate in sports of U4 subjects
because it can help to prevent obesity. Students who are actively involved in sport can
definitely help alleviate in obesity (Khan, Thompson, Blair, Sallis, Powell & Bauman, 2012).
Furthermore, Smith (2008) studied that sport participation can support the mental health of
students by providing outlets for students to handle with the increasing pressures and stress of
college life. Obviously, it is clear that U4 subjects can lead to mental health initiatives.
Lastly, students academic performances also affect the choice of sport subject in U4.
Participate in sport subject in U4 can increase students learning effectiveness because
students will acquire learning skills which compliments their academic success. Since their
learning effectiveness increase, they will improve GPA in examination because learning
effectiveness affect students academic performance and outcome such as academic selfesteem, efficacy, and confidence (Leung, Ng, and Chan, 2005). Based on a research
conducted by education department of the US of America, students who actively contribute in
co-curricular activities are more likely to have a GPA of 3.0 or more as compare to those who
are not involved in co-curricular activities (Daniyal, Nawaz, Hassan and Mubeen, 2012).
Therefore, MMU Melaka offers sport subject in U4 because it can improve students
academic performance. Besides, students can learn extra knowledge that cannot find in the
textbooks. Students want to gain knowledge such as skill in playing sport, rules of sport and
others instead of knowledge in book. Students will choose sport subject in U4 that can release
stress so that they able to perform better on their studies. They will choose the sport subject in
U4 that they feel can release stress in academic rather than choose the one that will make
them feel stressful.
In the nutshell, we are targeting to identify the main factors that lead accounting students in
MMU Melaka to choose sports as U4 subjects. Student involvements in sport have positively
affected the educational gain and academic achievement and retention (Smith, 2008). The
involvement in sports subjects do bring a lot of benefits to everyone that can last for a life
time. As so, once you get the equilibrium point among this two components- academics and
co-curricular activities, succeed will never be far away anymore.
6

Terms of Reference
The report entitled Identify the factors that lead accounting students to choose sports as U4
subjects was requested on Monday week 1, 20 October 2014 by Madam Kavitha
Balakrishnan, the lecturer of BAE1044 English for Business Communication for Trimester 2
2014/2015. This report is required to be submitted on Friday week 10, 26 th December 2014.
This report is prepared and completed by six members which are Jasmeen Chan
(1132702478), Lim Choon Hao (1132702217), Lam Sze Yee (1132701113), Lim Sze Yin
(1132700990), Pong Jia Yong (1132700775), and Chee Teng Ho (1141327317).

Purpose
The objective of this report is:
i. to determine the main factor that will lead accounting students to choose sports as U4
subjects.
ii. to identify the social factors that influence accounting students to involve in sports as U4
subjects.
iii. to recommend the main factor that students should consider before choose sports as U4
subjects.

Scope
Our research is to identify the factors that lead accounting students to choose sports as U4
subjects. We will select 50 accounting students randomly to conduct our research. Since most
of the accounting students are Chinese, we will choose 25 males and 25 females who are
Chinese. The reason is we want to get a fair result. However, we did not choose International
students because there are lesser international students who are majoring in the Bachelor of
Accounting. In addition, we will conduct all the research in MMU Melaka as our topic is
related to MMU students. Finally, we will use 1 week as per our research plan which is week
6 from 24th November 2014 to 30th November 2014, because it is enough for us to collect the
data.

Methods
7

Our research will have two types of method which are primary method and secondary
method. For primary method, we have decided to use the survey method by making use of the
self administered survey questionnaires. We will first select 50 accounting students randomly
to conduct our research. Since most of the accounting students are Chinese, we will choose
25 males and 25 females who are Chinese. The survey will be held for 1 week in MMU
Melaka Campus starting from week 6 of 24th November 2014 to 30th November 2014. Our
group leader will separate into 2 groups, 3 girls will conduct the survey and 3 boys will
tabulate the results. The length of our questionnaire will only be 2 pages. Our question will
have three parts, which is section A, B and C. Section A include demographic info, section B
include question involving measurement of intensity while section C involve a
recommendation from respondents. The respondents are requested to tick at the appropriate
answers. The questionnaire should be able completed by respondents in 5 minutes and we
will collect the survey forms directly after the respondents finish the question. Moreover, our
secondary method is to collect vital information by using journals that we find which
supports our research. The medium that we use for collecting information is online journals.
We have used 8 journal articles from the internet to support our research.

FINDINGS
Table 1: Respondents Profile and Demographic Result (N=50)
Items
Age
Gender

Current Degree
Year

CGPA

Frequency
27
18
5
25
25
27
14
5
4
0
3
15
21
11

19-20
21-22
23-24
Female
Male
Beta
Gamma
Delta
Epsilon
Below 2.00
2.01-2.50
2.51-3.00
3.01-3.50
3.51 Above

Percent (%)
54
36
10
50
50
54
28
10
8
0
6
30
42
22

Based on the data collected from questionnaire, Table 1 shows the respondents profile and
demographic results of 50 accounting students. All of the respondents are Chinese. There are
54% respondents is fall into a group of 19-20 years old which is 27 of respondents, 36%
respondents is fall into a group of 21-22 years old which is 18 of respondents, and 10%
respondents is fall into a group of 23-24 years old which is 5 of respondents. Besides, there
are 50% of female and 50% of male. With regard to current degree year, there are 54% of
them currently taking Beta year which is 27 of respondents, 28% of them taking Gamma year
which is 14 of respondents, 10% of them taking Delta year which is 5 of respondents, and 8%
of them taking Epsilon year which is 4 of respondents. Among of these accounting students,
6% of them have the CGPA between 2.01-2.50 which is 3 of respondents, 30% of them have
the CGPA between 2.51-3.00 which is 15 of respondents, 42% of them have the CGPA
between 3.01-3.50 which is 21 of respondents, 22% of them have the CGPA between 3.51
and above which is 11 of respondents, and no one below the CGPA of 2.00.

Factor that lead accounting students to choose sports as U4 subjects

Interested in that sport
To take up sports activities that is challenging for me
Self-interest factor
To take up sports activities that involve individual performance
To take up sports activities that involve teamwork
0

Mean values for self-interest

Figure 1: The mean for self-interest factor that lead accounting students to choose sports as U4 subjects

Findings:
From the bar chart above it is evident that students who are interested in sports and also take up sports
because of the challenge have a mean 4.64 and 4.46 in agreeability. However, students somewhat

disagree for taking up sports because of their individual performance have the lowest mean of
only 3.62. On the other hand, students somewhat agree for taking up sports because of
teamwork make have the highest mean of 4.86. The overall mean for self-interest is 4.40 which
means that students somewhat agree self-interest is the factor that lead them to choose a sport subject
in U4.

Discussion:
In the bar chart it is shown that most students have chosen to play sports because of
teamwork and this is a right reason because, this will help them most in their tertiary
education life. The reason being that teamwork is vital in succeeding tertiary education and
this can be carried to the working life. I would recommend students to rethink about the
reason for choosing sports and choose the reason to improve teamwork over other reasons.
Conclusion:
From the table and discussion above, we can conclude that the number one reason students
take up sports as their U4 subject is teamwork.

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Factor that lead accounting students to choose sports as U4 subjects

To have fun and enjoy with others
To meet new people
Socialization factor

Recomended by family
Friends has also chosen it
0

Mean values for socialization

Figure 2: The mean for socialization factor that lead accounting students to choose sports as U4 subjects

Findings:
Figure 2 shows the bar chart for the mean of social factor that lead accounting students to
choose sports as U4 subjects. Students somewhat agree choose a sports subject because they
can have fun and enjoy with others has a higher value of mean, 4.88. Besides, students
somewhat disagree because of the family recommended it has a lower value of the mean,
3.16. Furthermore, students somewhat agree choose sport subject in order to meet new people
have an average value of 4.30. Last but not least, students somewhat agree because their
friends have also chosen it had an average value of 4.11. The overall mean for socialization is
4.11 which means that students somewhat agree socialization is the factor that lead them to
choose sports as U4 subjects.
Discussion:
Students choose a sports subject because they can have fun and enjoy with others has a higher
value of the mean. Students somewhat agree with this because they can avoid from bored.
Besides, they also can relax and forgetting about problems. Furthermore, students are able to
release stress when they have fun and enjoy with their friends. However, students choose
sports subject because of the family recommended it has a lower value of the mean. Students
somewhat disagree with this because their family is more focus on the students academic
performance rather than co-curricular.
Conclusion:
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Base on the above finding and discussion, we can conclude that the social factor that are
most influenced students to choose sports subjects is to have fun and enjoy with others.
Factor that lead accounting students to choose sports as U4 subjects
To think before acting and make the right decision
To vent unpleasant things
Health factor

To train not to give up easily in every situation

To maintain right body shape
3.8

4.2

4.4

4.6

4.8

Mean values for health

Figure 3: The mean for health factor that lead accounting students to choose sports as U4 subjects

Findings:
Based on Figure 3, accounting students who choose a sport as U4 subject because it can lead
students to think before acting and make the right decision occupy a mean of 4.28 in
agreeability. There are also students who take sport subject to help them to vent unpleasant
things in their daily life. This has taken a mean of 4.50 in agreeability. There are also students
choosing sport subject to train themselves not to give up easily in every situation. It occupies
a mean of 4.68 in agreeability for this reason. Last but not least, students choose sports as U4
subject due to maintain the right body shape of them has occupied the highest mean in
agreeability which is 4.86. The overall mean for health is 4.58 which means that students
somewhat agree health is the factor that lead them to choose a sport as U4 subjects.
Discussion:
Based on the bar chart Figure 3, it shows that most of the students have chosen to play sports
due to maintain right body shape, this is reasonable because most of the people wants to seek
for a better look in themselves, nobody prefer to gain fat. Besides, students who play sports
may gain a lot of health benefits in daily life other than maintaining a right body shape.
Therefore, it is reasonable to agree that the reason for accounting students to choose sports as
U4 subjects because of maintaining a right body shape are a rational choice since healthiness
is important for everyone.

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Conclusion:
We can conclude that the health factor that are most influence students to choose sports as U4
subject is to maintain the right body shape.
Factor that lead accounting students to choose sports as U4 subjects
To relax
To release stress
Academic performance factor

To maintain GPA
To gain knowledge
3.9

4.1

4.2

4.3

4.4

4.5

4.6

Mean values for academic performance

Figure 4: The mean for academic performance factor that lead accounting students to choose sports as U4 subjects

Findings:

The bar chart shows the mean for academic performance that lead accounting students to
choose sports as U4 subjects. Students somewhat agree choose sport will gain knowledge that
cannot find in the textbook has an average of 4.56. Students somewhat agree that involve in
sport will help to release stress has the mean of 4.54. Students somewhat agree choose sport
subject can maintain their GPA has an average of is 4.12. Finally, students choose sport
subject somewhat agree that sport helps to relax have an average of 4.44. The overall mean
for academic performance is 4.42 which means that students somewhat agree academic
performance is the factor that lead them to choose a sport subject in U4.
Discussion:
The highest value of mean is students choose sport subject in U4 is to gain knowledge.
Knowledge in the sport did not teach in class, therefore students gain this knowledge by
choosing sport subject in U4. With this knowledge, they will not only know the knowledge in
textbook but also know how to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Besides, the lowest mean is
students somewhat agree sport can help them to maintain in GPA. Students will choose a

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sport that they are good in, so that they can maintain their GPA. However, not everyone has a
sport that they are good in. Therefore, this is the reason the mean is the lowest.
Conclusion:
We can conclude that the academic performance factor that are most influence students to
choose sports subject is to gain knowledge that cannot find in the textbook.
Others factors that lead accounting students to choose sports as U4 subjects (n=50)

To improve team working skills

To gain experience
To get another achievement
beside academics
Influenced by sport star

14
23

Figure 5: Others factors that lead accounting students to choose sports as U4 subjects.

Findings:
The pie chart above shows four other factors that lead accounting students to choose sports as
U4 subjects. These four factors are to improve team working skills, to gain experience, to get
another achievement beside academics, and influenced by sport star. There are 23 of students
choose it upon the reason of to gain experience. Furthermore, 14 of students choose it to get
another achievement beside academic. Other than that, 9 of them chosen to improve team
working skills and only 4 out of 50 students have chosen the sport subject because influenced
by sport star.
Discussion:
Base on the pie chart above, most of the accounting students chosen sport as U4 subjects is to
gain experience. Students would like to involve themselves in a new and challenging
circumstance. Students can learn a lot from sport and be more responsible toward their life.
They also will be more confident and courage when faced any difficulties through experience
from the sport. However, there are small numbers of students chosen sport subjects because
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influenced by sport star. Students chosen sport subject due to someone they admired might be
less, but students who chosen sports subject due to their favourite might be more.
Conclusion:
From the pie chart above, we can conclude that most of the accounting students prefer to gain
experience as the other factor to lead them to choose sport as U4 subjects.
CONCLUSION
50 respondents have been selected from MMU Melaka Campus. The survey targeted
respondents from Faculty of Business who are majoring in the Bachelor of Accounting. There
were 25 male and 25 female of Chinese students have selected in order to conduct the
research. Most of accounting students fall into a group of 19-20 years old have filled the
questionnaires. With regard to current degree year, most of them from Beta year have filled
the questionnaires, and most of them have the CGPA between 3.01-3.50.
Among the four factors that lead accounting students to choose sports subjects, health factor
has the highest value of overall mean which is 4.58. However, socialization factor has the
lowest value of overall mean which is 4.11. Based on this research, students are more concern
on health more than any other factors in order to choose sport. Most of the students choose
sport subject to maintain the right body shape, to train them not to give up easily, to vent
unpleasant things, and to think before acting and make the right decision. Furthermore, the
overall mean for self-interest and academic performance is 4.40 and 4.42. Hence, we can
conclude that the main factor that will lead accounting students to choose sports as U4
subjects is health factor.

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RECOMMENDATION
Self-interest, socialization, health, and academic performance are the most influence students
to choose a particular sport subject in U4. Other than these, there are some other factors that
also can lead students to choose and involve in sports as U4 subjects include:
a) Role model
The role model is a person who regarded by others and a person who other individuals
desire to be liked or to follow. Role model includes athletes, celebrities, coaches,
lecturers and friends. Role models can influence certain groups of people to
participate in sport activity.
b) To win
Students who love to win is the person who not only choose in sports subjects in U4
but also involved in a lot of sports, activities, or games. The benefit to win in sports is
winners will feels good mood. They will feel good about winning. Besides, they also
will attractive by other people. Winning encourage winners a positive spirit, lots of
practice and disciplined focus.
c) Students favourite
The common reason for students to choose sport in U4 subject is they are favorite in
that particular sport subjects.

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LIST OF REFERENCES
1. Allen, J. B. (2003). Social Motivation in Youth Sport. Journal of Sport & Exercise
Psychology, 25, 1-17.
2. Daniyal, M., Nawaz, T., Hassan, A., & Mubeen, I. (2012). The Effect of Co-curricular
Activities on the Academic Performances of the Students: A Case Study of the
Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Bulgarian Journal of Science and
Education Policy (BJSEP), 6(2), 257-270.
3. Eime, R. M., Casey, M. M., Harvey, J. T., Sawyer, N. A., Symons, C. M., & Payne,
W. R. (2014). Socioecological factors potentially associated with participation
in physical activity and sport: A longitudinal study of adolescent girls. Journal
of Science and Medicine in Sport, 1-7.
4. Kelinske, B., Mayer, B. W., & Chen, K. (2001). Perceived the benefits from
participation in sports: a gender study. Women in Management Review, 16(2),
75-84.
5. Kerr, J. H., Au, C. F., & Lindner, K. J. (2004). Motivation and level of risk in male
and female recreational sport participation. Personality and Individual
Differences, 37, 1245-1253.
6. Khan, K. M., Thompson, A. M., Blair, S. N., Sallis, J. F., Powell, K. E., Bull, F. C., &
Bauman, A. E. (2012). Sport and exercise as contributors to the health of
nations. Sport and Exercise Medicine 1, 380, 59-64.
7. Leung, C., Ng, C., & Chan, P. (2011). Can Co-curricular Activities Enhance the
Learning Effectiveness of Students? : An Application to the Sub-degree
Students in Hong Kong. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in
Higher Education, 23(3), 329-341.
8. Smith, B. D. (2008). Motivational Factors for Students Participation In College Club
Sports At Indiana University. NIRSA Journal, 1-25.

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