HOW MALAYSIANS CULTURE AFFECTS

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Introduction Culture is defined as the beliefs and

attitudes about something that people in a particular group or organization share.

There are four main cultural aspects that influence the development of English language in Malaysia.

1. Multicultural society2. Political and historical influence3. Educational policies4. Urban and rural setting

Multicultural Society Nowadays, many countries in the world discern

Malaysia as a role model because of having harmonious and peaceful society although the citizens consist of many races.

English language is important among Malaysians. It is an international language & used as lingua franca in global trade.

The English used by Malaysians might have some difference in terms of pronunciation. This is because some ethnic groups have difficulties to say certain sounds in English because of the influence of their mother tongues.

Besides, Malaysians also tend to code-mix English with their mother tongue and this can be said as ‘bahasa rojak’.

Malaysians are more likely to speak ‘bahasa rojak’ where the English word is mixed with their mother tongue word in a sentence.

Because of them, it is easier to understand the sentences rather than using complicated English words.

Political and historical influence

When a certain countries colonized by another country, automatically the language used for administrations is the colonist language.

This happened to Malaysia during the colonial time.

Malaysia used English as official language in education, trade and administration matters.

The effect was that Malaysians were able to speak and understand English because they had to use English.

When the British left Malaysia after Malaysia got its independence in 1957, automatically the language of instruction used in all matters also changed to Bahasa Melayu because of the new language policy.

When this happened, where English was not used as official language anymore, Malaysians rarely used English in their daily life.

Consequently, the fluency of Malaysians in using English became weaker from day to day because they are not using it anymore.

Educational policies

The educational policies implemented by the government can affect the community in the future.

During the colonial era, the British government had introduced an educational system that allowed only elites to attend English-medium school.

The school had better facilities that vernacular school.

During that time, all subjects in English School were taught in English.

The poor Malays, Chinese, and Indians were at a disadvantages because their school did not offer English language.

Before Malaysia got its independence from British, the education system was been revised for many times.

For example the Barnes Report (1950) suggested that Bahasa Melayu and English become as medium of instruction in primary schools and English as medium of instruction in secondary schools.

The Rahman Talib Report (1960) and The Education Act (1961) suggested that Bahasa Melayu become the medium of instruction for all subjects from primary school until university.

However, in 2003 the government implemented the policy that English be used as medium of instruction for Mathematics and Science in primary & secondary schools.

When the government implemented the policy, the fluency of Malaysians in using English was better because Malaysians were using it daily.

When the government implemented the policy not to use English as a medium of instruction in school, the mastery of English among Malaysians became weak.

Malaysians should be able to compete in the field of knowledge with other countries in the world where English is the language of knowledge.

Urban & Rural Setting

In urban setting, the lifestyle of Malaysians is more exposed to English.

There are many facilities that can give the people in urban setting exposed to English language such as television and internet.

This is different in rural settings where people there are not exposed to English. They only use their own language in their conversation.

When people are exposed to English, if they are unable to speak, at least they understand a bit when they hear English.

Unlike in rural settings, people just use their language & are not exposed to English. Thus, they hardly understand any English.