Abstract
This paper aims to highlight the importance of teaching sociolinguistic competence to ESL learners in Malaysian schools. Sociolinguistic competence is the knowledge of socio cultural rules of language and of discourse. This type of competence requires an understanding of the socio context in which language is used. It is proposed that carefully designed language activities be carried out by instructors in order to impart sociolinguistic skills to learners. The importance of universal intelligibility should be stressed, as opposed to native accent. Furthermore students should also be taught proper contextual use of English, in accordance to cultural reference and cultural appropriacy should be part of the learners' core sociolinguistic competence.
Highlights
Malaysia is a multi-racial society which is strongly bounded by its system of monarchy
This paper aims to highlight the importance of teaching sociolinguistic competence to ESL learners in Malaysian schools
It could be assumed that in Malaysian schools’ unique language environment, sociolinguistic competence contributes to Malaysian students English language proficiency
Summary
Malaysia is a multi-racial society which is strongly bounded by its system of monarchy. There has been a strong decline in the levels of English proficiency in the country .This is evident in Malaysians’ everyday speech, which are often marred by grammatical and phonological errors or at times too loaded with “suffixes” (e.g. lah, lor, meh) and loan words from other languages. English is the second most important language in Malaysia. It is used in various professions and is an important requirement in Malaysian academic settings. The academic setting is a microcosm of the Malaysian population, which is a mix of interlocutors of different racial and language backgrounds. They may differ in their English language proficiency levels. It could be assumed that in Malaysian schools’ unique language environment, sociolinguistic competence contributes to Malaysian students English language proficiency
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