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Understanding the Relationship between Language Ability and Plagiarism in Non-native English Speaking Business Students

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Abstract

Despite a continued focus exploring the factors related to plagiarism, the relationship between English language ability and plagiarism occurrences is not fully understood. Multiple studies involving student or faculty self-reporting of plagiarism have shown that students often claim English language ability is one of the main reasons why they commit plagiarism offences; however, little research has tested these claims in a rigorous, quantitative manner. This paper presents the findings of an analysis of data collected in a private, international university located in Vietnam, from non-native English speaking students studying business degrees. Analysis of the data builds on previous studies by showing that there are statistically significant differences in the English language abilities of students who have previously committed plagiarism offences, compared to students who have not, suggesting that programmes designed to improve the academic English skills of non-native English speaking students may help reduce incidences of plagiarism.

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Notes

  1. Although we will not discuss these other factors in more detail here, for a thorough review of the broader plagiarism literature see Pecorari and Petrić (2014).

  2. The Mann-Whitney U test showed that distributions of the IELTS scores for plagiarisers and non-plagiarisers were similar, as assessed by visual inspection. Median IELTS scores were statistically significantly higher in non-plagiarising students (6.0) than in plagiarising students (5.5), U = 4563.5, z = −2.703, p = 0.007.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. British University Vietnam, 193 Ba Trieu, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Mike Perkins & Jasper Roe

  2. Duy Tan University, 54 Nguyen Van Linh St., Danang City, Vietnam

    Ulas Basar Gezgin

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  1. Mike Perkins
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  2. Ulas Basar Gezgin
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  3. Jasper Roe
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Correspondence to Mike Perkins.

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All authors were employed by the university in question during the time of authorship of the paper.

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Perkins, M., Gezgin, U.B. & Roe, J. Understanding the Relationship between Language Ability and Plagiarism in Non-native English Speaking Business Students. J Acad Ethics 16, 317–328 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-018-9311-8

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