The Attitude of Non-Malays towards Malay and English Language and their Perception on Language of Choice (Malay or English) for Multi-racial Communication in Malaysia: A Study on Non-Malay Tertiary Students (UNITEN)

Noraziah Mohd Amin,Noor Azam Abdul Rahman

doi:10.14419/ijet.v7i4.38.27625

Abstract

The Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah in his speech at “Majlis Anugerah Kecemerlangan Sekolah Menengah Jenis Kebangsaan Sam Tet 2017” mentioned that it is indeed awkward and ironic, if a person who is a citizen of Malaysia, with all the interests and privileges of a citizen, cannot understand, cannot speak, cannot write and cannot read in the national language of his country (Amarudin, 2017). Nevertheless, in 2006, there was 29.8% of the students of SJKCs and 47.7% of the students of SJKTs who failed to achieve the minimum level of mastery of Bahasa Malaysia (Penulisan) or Malay Language (Writing) paper in “Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah” (UPSR) (Tan, 2010). Obviously, it is vital to collect some insights from non-Malays in Malaysia particularly the youth regarding their perceptions towards Malay language and English as the second widely used language in this country. Therefore, the present study was conducted with two objectives namely: 1) To investigate the attitude of non-Malay UNITEN students towards Malay and English language, and 2) To examine the perception of non-Malay UNITEN students towards using Malay and English language with Malay people. The findings showed that most of the respondents, 55 (M= 2.37, SD= 1.079) surprisingly assigned “agreed” to item 2 (“I like using Malay language as a second language”) despite admitting they did not possess good Malay language skills for their responses to item 1. This shows that the respondents seem to have mixed feelings regarding the issues of using Malay language in relation to certain aspects and this is also true for English.

Highlights

“In this 21st century, the role of Malay language has changed its context from an official language, national language and language of knowledge to a language learned as a foreign language”
The present study was implemented in order to see to what the non-Malay Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) students think about Malay language and their preference for the language to use, either Malay or English when the communication involves interracial encounter especially between a non-Malay and a Malay in Malaysia
The Chinese are not the only non-Malay citizens of Malaysia that are expected to have the command of some languages especially the national language of this country, Malay, their views towards English and the second language being widely used after Malay in Malaysia and Malay per se can probably represent the perceptions of the other non-Malays as well

Summary

Introduction

“In this 21st century, the role of Malay language has changed its context from an official language, national language and language of knowledge to a language learned as a foreign language” The present study was implemented in order to see to what the non-Malay UNITEN students think about Malay language and their preference for the language to use, either Malay or English when the communication involves interracial encounter especially between a non-Malay and a Malay in Malaysia. Such information produced by this research could perhaps help enlighten Malaysians regarding language use in this country and what could be done about it. To examine the perception of non-Malay UNITEN students towards using Malay and English language with Malay people

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion