The correlation between communication and social skills among early schoolers in Malaysia

Innumerable studies have shown that being able to express oneself clearly and understand with equal clarity what other people are saying to you are fundamental enabling skills of life. A proficiency at interpersonal communication is strongly linked to educational achievement and positive social beha...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mahyuddin, Rahil, Elias, Habibah
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universiti Putra Malaysia Press 2010
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/40469/1/The%20correlation%20between%20communication%20and%20social%20skills%20among%20early%20schoolers%20in%20Malaysia.pdf
_version_ 1825949607356530688
author Mahyuddin, Rahil
Elias, Habibah
author_facet Mahyuddin, Rahil
Elias, Habibah
author_sort Mahyuddin, Rahil
collection UPM
description Innumerable studies have shown that being able to express oneself clearly and understand with equal clarity what other people are saying to you are fundamental enabling skills of life. A proficiency at interpersonal communication is strongly linked to educational achievement and positive social behaviour. Socio-economic status (SES) has also been known for a long time to be a powerful predictor of children’s development (e.g. Deutsch, 1973; Sameroff and Chandler, 1975; Scott-Jones, 1984). In this study, communication refers to oral language skills which include the development of narrative ability, as well as the use of talk and varied vocabulary usage (Dickinson and Tabors, 2001). Hence, the objective of this paper is to find out the communication and social skills of the pupils and to see whether there is a relationship between communication skills and social skills of early schoolers and their impact on school academic achievement. This study focused on Year 1 and Year 4 primary school children, and for this purpose, a descriptive correlational method was employed. It was carried out on 344 primary school pupils, of which 168 were from Year 1 and 176 were Year 4 pupils. The pupils in the sample were academically weak and they had undergone screening and diagnostic tests. The findings indicate that the social skills of Year 1 pupils were significantly and positively correlated with their communication skills (r=.31, p<.05) and language acquisition (r=.33, p<.05), whereas the social skills of Year 4 pupils were found to be significantly and positively correlated with their language acquisition (r=.59, p<.05), Mathematic acquisition (r=.41, p<.05), and their communication skills (r=.50, p<.05). There is also a positive and significant relationship between communication (r=.81, p<.05) and social skills ( r = .85, p< .05) with family background. These findings show that social skills are very important as children enter primary school. The significant correlations between social skills and language acquisition, Mathematic acquisition and communication skills show that their performance can be negatively affected if they do not acquire the social skills.
first_indexed 2024-03-06T08:47:10Z
format Article
id upm.eprints-40469
institution Universiti Putra Malaysia
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-06T08:47:10Z
publishDate 2010
publisher Universiti Putra Malaysia Press
record_format dspace
spelling upm.eprints-404692015-10-20T06:06:44Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/40469/ The correlation between communication and social skills among early schoolers in Malaysia Mahyuddin, Rahil Elias, Habibah Innumerable studies have shown that being able to express oneself clearly and understand with equal clarity what other people are saying to you are fundamental enabling skills of life. A proficiency at interpersonal communication is strongly linked to educational achievement and positive social behaviour. Socio-economic status (SES) has also been known for a long time to be a powerful predictor of children’s development (e.g. Deutsch, 1973; Sameroff and Chandler, 1975; Scott-Jones, 1984). In this study, communication refers to oral language skills which include the development of narrative ability, as well as the use of talk and varied vocabulary usage (Dickinson and Tabors, 2001). Hence, the objective of this paper is to find out the communication and social skills of the pupils and to see whether there is a relationship between communication skills and social skills of early schoolers and their impact on school academic achievement. This study focused on Year 1 and Year 4 primary school children, and for this purpose, a descriptive correlational method was employed. It was carried out on 344 primary school pupils, of which 168 were from Year 1 and 176 were Year 4 pupils. The pupils in the sample were academically weak and they had undergone screening and diagnostic tests. The findings indicate that the social skills of Year 1 pupils were significantly and positively correlated with their communication skills (r=.31, p<.05) and language acquisition (r=.33, p<.05), whereas the social skills of Year 4 pupils were found to be significantly and positively correlated with their language acquisition (r=.59, p<.05), Mathematic acquisition (r=.41, p<.05), and their communication skills (r=.50, p<.05). There is also a positive and significant relationship between communication (r=.81, p<.05) and social skills ( r = .85, p< .05) with family background. These findings show that social skills are very important as children enter primary school. The significant correlations between social skills and language acquisition, Mathematic acquisition and communication skills show that their performance can be negatively affected if they do not acquire the social skills. Universiti Putra Malaysia Press 2010 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/40469/1/The%20correlation%20between%20communication%20and%20social%20skills%20among%20early%20schoolers%20in%20Malaysia.pdf Mahyuddin, Rahil and Elias, Habibah (2010) The correlation between communication and social skills among early schoolers in Malaysia. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 18 (1). pp. 167-174. ISSN 0128-7702; ESSN: 2231-8534 http://www.pertanika.upm.edu.my/Pertanika%20PAPERS/JSSH%20Vol.%2018%20(1)%20Mar.%202010/19%20Pg%20167-174.pdf
spellingShingle Mahyuddin, Rahil
Elias, Habibah
The correlation between communication and social skills among early schoolers in Malaysia
title The correlation between communication and social skills among early schoolers in Malaysia
title_full The correlation between communication and social skills among early schoolers in Malaysia
title_fullStr The correlation between communication and social skills among early schoolers in Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed The correlation between communication and social skills among early schoolers in Malaysia
title_short The correlation between communication and social skills among early schoolers in Malaysia
title_sort correlation between communication and social skills among early schoolers in malaysia
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/40469/1/The%20correlation%20between%20communication%20and%20social%20skills%20among%20early%20schoolers%20in%20Malaysia.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT mahyuddinrahil thecorrelationbetweencommunicationandsocialskillsamongearlyschoolersinmalaysia
AT eliashabibah thecorrelationbetweencommunicationandsocialskillsamongearlyschoolersinmalaysia
AT mahyuddinrahil correlationbetweencommunicationandsocialskillsamongearlyschoolersinmalaysia
AT eliashabibah correlationbetweencommunicationandsocialskillsamongearlyschoolersinmalaysia