SCHEME OF WORK FOR MALAYSIAN UNIVERSITY ENGLISH TEST (MUET)

LEARNING AREAS
1. Social Issues
- Health
- Cleanliness
- Caring society
- Ageing
- Teenagers
- Family
- Social
organisation
- Juvenile
delinquency
- Vandalism
- Child abuse
- Abuse

LISTENING SKILLS
The syllabus seeks to
enable students to
understand various
types of oral texts in
social and academic
contexts such as
telephone
conversations,
meetings,
announcements, news,
documentaries,
lectures, presentations,
talks, and discussions.

SPEAKING SKILLS
The syllabus seeks to
enable students to
participate in social and
academic contexts such
as in conversations,
discussions, and
presentations.

Attention should be
drawn to the following:
sensitivity to
registers
degree of
formality
appropriateness of
discourse
grammatical
accuracy of output

Attention should be
drawn to the following:
sensitivity to
registers
degree of formality
appropriateness of
discourse
enunciation
intonation and stress
cohesion and
coherence
grammatical
accuracy

READING SKILLS
The syllabus seeks to
enable students to
comprehend linear
and non-linear texts.
Linear texts: prose
passages
Non-linear texts:
graphs, tables,
charts, and flowcharts.

The following skills

are emphasised:
i. skimming and
scanning
ii. deriving
meaning of
words from
context
iii. understanding
sense
relationship
within a sentence
between
sentences
within a
paragraph
between
paragraphs
- anaphoric

WRITING SKILLS
The syllabus seeks to
enable students to
write various types of
texts such as essays,
reports, term papers
and summaries, and
to observe the
appropriate
conventions.

The following skills

will be emphasised:
i. using
grammatically
correct and
appropriate
language
correct forms i.e.
tense, agreement,
word form,
sentence type,
etc.
ii. using a wide
range of
vocabulary and
expressions
appropriate for the
intended purpose
and audience

RESOURCES

1.

Arnaudet, M. L. and
M. E. Barrett, 1990,
2nd ed. Paragraph
Development,
Englewood Cliffs,
N.J.: Prentice Hall
Regents.

2.

Clanchy, J. and B.
Ballard, 1992. How to
Write Essays,
Melbourne; Longman
Cheshire.

3.

Davies, E. and N.
Whitney, 1984. Study
Skills for Reading,
London: Heinemann
Educational.

4.

Jordan, R. R. 1997.
English for Academic
Purposes, Cambridge:
Cambridge University
Press.

5.

Lim, J. C., 1999.

Malaysian University
English Test,
Selangor: Pustaka
Sarjana.

SCHEME OF WORK FOR MALAYSIAN UNIVERSITY ENGLISH TEST (MUET)

2.

Environmental
- Protection of
wildlife
- Recycling
- Pollution
- Preservation of
forest
- Greenhouse effect
- Reforestation

The following skills

are emphasised:
i. listening for main
ideas
ii. listening for
specific information
iii. note-taking
iv. paraphrasing
v. summarising
vi. inferencing
vii. predicting
viii. drawing
conclusions
ix. recognising
speakers attitudes,
roles and
relationships
x. listening critically
analysing and
evaluating
information

The following
communicative skills are
emphasised:
i. observing social
conventions in
interactions such as
greeting, leave-taking
and turn-taking
ii. managing a
discussion
initiating a
discussion
- maintain
- repair
- interrupt
- close
iii.
iv.
v.

3.

Politics
- System of
government
- Local politics
issues
- Malaysian
Political System
- Issues relating to
neighbouring
countries

and
cataphoric
references

vi.
vii.
viii.
ix.

asking for and

giving information
expressing
agreement and
disagreement
making suggestions
and
recommendations
stating and
justifying points of
view
giving reasons for
actions taken
expressing cause
and effect
relationship
presenting factual
information

discourse
markers e.g.
therefore,
however,
nevertheless, etc.

cohesive
devices e.g.
but, and,
because
grammatical
accuracy of
output

iv.

v.

vi.
vii.
viii.
ix.
x.

distinguishing
main ideas and
supporting
details
distinguishing
the relevant
from the
irrelevant
distinguishing
fact from
opinion
making
inferences
making
hypotheses
predicting
outcomes
drawing

sensitivity to
registers in
relation to
academic
contexts
iii. using the correct
mechanics
correct spelling,
capitalisation,
punctuation and
numbering
system
iv. generating and
developing ideas
for writing
thesis statement
and supporting
details
v. developing
coherent and
cohesive
paragraphs
leading to
extended writing

discourse
markers to link
ideas such as
whereas, on the
other hand, etc.
vi. writing effective
introductions
topic and
controlling ideas
vii. writing effective
conclusions
summary of the

6.

Lynch, T. and K.
Anderson, 1992.
Study Speaking,
Cambridge:
Cambridge University
Press.

7.

Robinson, P. C. (Ed),
1988. Academic
Writing: Process and
Product, ELT
Document 129.

8.

Rost, M., 1990.

Listening in
Language Learning,
London: Longman.

9.

Sidhu, G. K. and P. C.
Lim-Teoh. 1999.
MUET Malaysian
University English
Test, Shah Alam:
Mahir.

10. Smith, M. and G.

Smith, 1990. A Study
Skills Handbook,
Oxford: Oxford
University Press.

SCHEME OF WORK FOR MALAYSIAN UNIVERSITY ENGLISH TEST (MUET)

4.

5.

ASEAN, APEC,
IMF, Constitution
Economy
- Inflation
- Stock market
- International trade

Cultural
- Festivals
- Performing arts
- Cultural
Integration /
Assimilation
- Beliefs /
Traditions

x. giving opinions
xi. persuading
xii. drawing
conclusions

conclusions
transferring
information
from linear to
non-linear
texts, and viceversa
xii. paraphrasing
xiii. summarising
xiv. using the skills
of
intertextuality
knowledge
gathered from
other sources of
information to
arrive at
meanings or to
enrich meanings
xv. reading
critically
analyse and
evaluating
arguments
xi.

content
recommendations
viii. defining
concepts,
describing states
and processes,
and explaining
ideas
ix. comparing and
contrasting ideas,
classifying
information, and
establishing cause
and effect
x. summarising
information
selection of
relevant
information
paraphrase
xi. responding
critically and
appropriately to
information
contained in
linear and nonlinear texts
xii. developing
critical thinking
skills
presentation of
argument
effectively
evaluation of
ideas and

11. Wallace, M. J., 1980.

Study Skills in
English,
Cambridge:
Cambridge University
Press

12. Waters, M. and A.

Waters, 1995. Study
Tasks in English,
Cambridge:
Cambridge
University Press

13. Wong, S., 1981.

Summary Writing
Principles and
Practice (Rev. ed.),
Singapores: Pacific
Book Distributors.

SCHEME OF WORK FOR MALAYSIAN UNIVERSITY ENGLISH TEST (MUET)

6.

Religions

Academic
- Science / Arts
- Languages
- Form Six
- Science &
Technology (IT)
- Communications

opinions
justification of
stand
xiii. accessing,
collating,
organising, and
presenting
information
information from
printed and
electronic
sources
organisation of
information
according to
chronological
order, spatial
order, etc.
xiv. citing
documents
bibliographic
entries
references
following
specific
conventions
xv. drafting, revising
and editing
note-taking,
planning, writing
outlines, writing
drafts, rewriting
and proof
reading

SCHEME OF WORK FOR MALAYSIAN UNIVERSITY ENGLISH TEST (MUET)