Plagiarism in ESL: Why Malaysian Undergraduates Commit It?

Abstract

Over the past few decades, plagiarism has been occurring among students, especially among those in higher education. Multiple studies have been conducted in identifying the underlying factors of why students resort to plagiarism. From internet accessibility, peer-influence, time constraint to lack of referencing skills, these are reported to be the common factors that influenced the students to plagiarise. This study is intended to identify the factors surrounding plagiarism, specifically in the context of Malaysian undergraduates taking English as a Second Language (ESL) subject. A survey was carried out using a questionnaire consisting of 30 items that focused on investigating the factors of plagiarism which was adopted from an earlier study. The questionnaire was distributed online via Google Form to 104 ESL undergraduates who took the Academic Writing course in Universiti Sultan Azlan Shah last semester. The major findings of the study showed that time constraints due to assignment workload as well as easy access to the materials from the Internet triggered them to commit plagiarism. Their inability to manage their time wisely had forced them to resort to plagiarism. The direct accessibility of the materials on the Internet was only making the situation even worse. Interestingly, respondents disagreed that laziness and efficiency gain were the factors that influence them to plagiarise. This indicates that the lack of efforts, as well as passing the subject were not the real motives behind the act of plagiarism. The implication of this study could help further enlighten the real situations of the problems revolving around plagiarism.