According to the survey conducted by Malaysian Employers Federation (2016), 73.2% of
the respondent companies indicated that our graduates lacked problem solving and
English communication skills. This issue creates a mismatch between what the employers
want in a graduate and what skills a graduate actually possesses. It is without doubt that
communication skills are important in order for school leavers and graduates to secure a
job. To address this issue, a deck of cards was invented to facilitate ESL students’ speaking
practices. The objective of this invention is to help students to be familiar with the
language functions in interaction. Four (4) basic language functions focused in this game
are Explaining/Describing, Expressing Agreement, Expressing Disagreement and Drawing
Conclusion. In order to evaluate ESL students’ perceptions on this card game, a survey has
been conducted. It was found that the ESL students perceived the card game usage as a
way to improve their communication skills positively with an average mean of 4.31. The
ESL students also agreed that the game provided an environment that was conducive to
learning (Average Mean = 4.40) and 5 aspects that can be improved on the card game
which were appearance, content, monitoring, timing and availability were also suggested
by the students. Recommendations for future studies are also proposed at the end of this
paper.
