Background of Study

2.0 Background of Study

Malaysia is a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic country. Historically, English was widely used as the administrative language. With its independence in 1957 and the National Language Act 1967, the official language Bahasa Malaysia (Malay language) was promoted and became the medium of instruction in national primary schools and all secondary schools. When English-medium schools in West Malaysia were phased out Malaysia is a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic country. Historically, English was widely used as the administrative language. With its independence in 1957 and the National Language Act 1967, the official language Bahasa Malaysia (Malay language) was promoted and became the medium of instruction in national primary schools and all secondary schools. When English-medium schools in West Malaysia were phased out

The change of policy has made Malay language the sole medium of instruction in all schools except the primary vernacular schools and the private independent Chinese secondary schools. This scenario gives rise to an almost monolingual linguistic segregation even though both Malay and English language remained as compulsory subjects in all schools. This education policy has a great impact on the language proficiency of students. It is a common remark by educators and stakeholders that students do not have a good command of English language. As for Malay language which is the national language, there is a big hue and cry from language experts that students, Malays and non-Malays alike, do not bother much about the standard Malay language but would only study the content to meet the requirements of examinations. As the population of Malaysia consists of Malays (50.4%), Chinese (23.7), Indigenous (11%), Indians (7.1%) and other ethnic groups (7.8%) (2004 est.), various language and dialects were used besides Malay and English, such as, Mandarin, Tamil, Telugu, Thai. Generally, multilingual proficiency among our students only constitutes a very small minority.

The post independence era has witnessed government‘s unwavering effort to enhance students‘ learning in English and Malay. Although Malay language becomes predominant in education, English remains an important and active language used in some official purpose, besides being used as instructional language for Mathematics and Science. Language is important for knowledge acquisition (Koo, 2008). Thus, learning these two languages and getting proficiency are important for students to succeed in academic performance.

In 2003, a new policy called the teaching and learning of science and mathematics in English (PPSMI) was initiated and implemented in phases. The policy was made to ensure students‘ mastery in science and mathematics in view of the fact that most of the sources are available in English language. Indirectly, this move was aimed at improving the command of the English language among pupils at primary and

secondary schools in Malaysia . But in 2009, the government announced the reversal of the policy in national schools based on a tedious discussion and survey. In 2011, Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said students who began learning Science and Mathematics in English would continue to do so until completion Form Five.

Azmi (2002) found that most Malay students in the national schools treat English as a second or even as a foreign language. Since teaching and learning activities were conducted in Malay language, exposure to English language is merely through English language formal classes. In addition, there is a tendency for students to study and making preparation work with materials in the Malay language. PPSMI was generally not well-received by the masses, parents and teachers alike. It was reported that only 4% of Mathematics and Science teachers used 90% or more of English in the teaching and learning of the two subjects, while a majority of them used a mixture of Malay language and English and more often than not, they used Malay language in their teaching because students could not understand English.

It is rather hard for Malaysian students to be proficient in their mother tongue as well as another one or more second language (s). Proficient teachers and students are usually found in the urban and/or prestigious areas. Only a small percentage of urbanites with English as their first or home language find it easy to learn in English but for their peers from other areas, learning a subject by using English may become a burden. Getting proficiency requires opportunities and guidance. Students from privileged background have the opportunities to learn their mother tongue and second language (s) either from their parents or the environment in the school provide abundance of opportunities for them to learn. In most schools outside cities, even in suburban areas, students are seen using the language which they are comfortable with,

i.e. their mother tongue when talking to their friends. It is interesting to find that Malay language or a mixed of English and Malay language has become the lingua franca among students of all races.

On the hind side, there are students who are proficient in all the languages learned in schools but the number may be small against the student population. There are various views and findings to explain this phenomenon. Motivation and attitude towards learning a foreign language (Gardner, 1985; Nor Azmi, 2002), level of anxiety (Horwitz & Young, 1911) and personality type (Ehrman, 1990) are among the causal factors for understanding language learning, especially in learning a second language among students.

Malay language is the first language or mother tongue for Malay students and second language for students from other ethnic groups (e.g. Chinese, Indians, natives from Sabah and Sarawak), while English language is the second language for all ethnic groups. Malay and English are from different language families. Malay is under Austronesian languages, while English is classified to Indo-European family. Therefore, the different structure in syntax and morphology were deemed as linguistics obstacles for Malay students to learn English language (Jalaluddin, Awal & Bakar,

2008; Nambiar 2007; Maros, Hua &Salehuddin. 2007; Ambigapathy, 2002). Students have problems with affixes and plural inflections as these linguistics variables do not exist in Malay language, which contributed to the wrong use of copula ‗be‘, subject- verb-agreement and relative pronouns (Jalaludin, Awal & Bakar, 2008). Musa, Lie and Azman (2012) also agreed that Malay as the first language for Malay students interfered with the English learning among secondary school students. As Malay students experienced difficulties in learning English language due to interference of their first language (Malay) or mother tongue, the students from other ethnic groups (e.g. Chinese, Indian) may face more challenges on both language learning (Malay and English).

For Chinese native speakers, learning English may pose a big challenge to them as these two languages belong to two different language families and both have significant differences. For instance, Chinese does not have an alphabet but uses logographic system for its word where every symbol represent the words themselves. This fundamental difference may make Chinese learners have difficulty reading English texts and spelling words correctly. Another problem faced by Chinese native speakers is the phonological system. Some English phonemes do not exist in Chinese; stresses and intonation patterns are different. It may be easier for Malay students to acquire the pronunciation in certain language sounds due to its similarities as compared to Chinese.

Students who are weak in language proficiency will find it hard to learn subject matter as language is a tool for learning. Students who are proficient in communication skills may encounter difficulties in understanding and completing school work that require vocabulary and context-specific language (Short & Spanos, 1989). The relationship between instructional language and academic performance were widely studied but the findings were not consistent. Some indicated that English language proficiency as the medium of instruction had significant impact on academic achievement (Fakeye & Ogunsiji, 2009) and recommended the responsible authorities to invest in improving English language proficiency (Wilson & Komba, 2012). However, Dooey and Oliver (2002) did not find the significant relationship between language proficiency and academic achievement.

In Malaysian context, it is important to identify the language proficiency of the medium of instructions, namely English and Malay. Based on the historical change in language use, the continuous research should be encouraged to examine the level of student‘s language proficiency (Malay and English) and identify the factors contributing to proficiency.