Abstract

It is unanimously agreed that many Malaysian graduates lack English competence and proficiency to function adequately at the workplace. To address this problem and to develop more employable and linguistically marketable graduates, Universiti Putra Malaysia endorsed the bold move taken by its Centre for the Advancement of Language Competence to revamp English Language teaching and learning at the university and develop an unconventional English Language Experience (ELEx) package for its undergraduates. ELEx takes UPM undergraduates on a chartered English language learning experience throughout the entire duration of their academic programmes, providing students with increased engagement with the language in and beyond the classroom, as well as experience in a variety of structured and less structured learning environments. The paper discusses the rationale for ELEx, the learning principles and theories on which the package is based, as well as the structure and innovative components of the package. In addition, it discusses issues and challenges faced in the implementation and considers actions that need to be taken for further improvement.