The Level Understanding, Appreciation and Practice of Malay Language among Education Students in Public Universities

Abstract

This study aims to identify the level of understanding, appreciation and practice of Malay Language identity among students of education at five public universities in Malaysia. A total of 1000 students, that is 200 persons per a Public University ranked as Research University served as the respondents. Randomly selected respondents were studying in various educational programs in the Faculty of Education in Public University which UKM, UM, USM, UPM and UTM. Questionnaire was used for data collection. Instruments developed by researchers have a high level of validity and reliability which is 0.75. Data were analyzed by descriptively and inferentially using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0. The results showed that in general, education students of public universities still maintain their Malay identity. However, in terms of Malay language appreciation and practice it is at the level still remained identity. UM students have the lowest level of understanding, appreciation and practice of their Malay language. USM students are the student with the highest level of Malay language identity in all three aspects. The implication of this study is the university’s emphasis on the mastery of written and spoken English language to some extent affects the level of understanding, appreciation and practice of the Malay language among education students of the Public University.