An Interplay of Oral and Written Communication and Performance of Undergraduates

Abstract

Students' proper use of oral and written communication plays a vital role in elevating their performance at the higher education level. Therefore, this study was conducted to explore the interplay of these communication types with the performance of undergraduates. A five point Likert-type scale was administered on a sample of 540 Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan enrolled in the BS program of three faculties (Social Sciences, Sciences, and Languages). Students' performance was assessed by their CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) in previous semesters, further correlated with their communication skills. All respondents were selected from three semesters of the BS program from twelve departments whose total population was two thousand two hundred and twenty-nine. For the analysis of data, mean and standard deviation were used as descriptive statistics, while Pearson's Product Moment and one-way ANOVA were used as inferential statistics. After analysis, a statistically significant positive correlation between CGPA and written communication was revealed However, no statistically significant interplay was found between CGPA and oral communication. It was found that there is no statistically significant difference in mean scores of students of different faculties on oral and written communication.

Keywords: Interplay, Oral, Written Communication, Performance, Undergraduates