Malaysian Language Research Articles

Language Learning Strategies (LLS) Preferred by Form 6 Students in Improving Writing Skill

English is used as the second language (L2), which is also a major part of the primary and secondary school syllabus. It is a widely used language in Malaysia. Although it has a wide usage among students in Malaysia, many Malaysian students struggle to write accurately. Their lacking in writing skill has caused them to perform badly in exams and hence, jeopardizing their chances to further their studies to the university. This happens due to the most common mistake made by students which is in the language learning strategies fostered when acquiring the English language, specifically writing skill. Selecting the right language learning strategy may be the key to improve their proficiency. This study is designed to explore the language learning strategies preferred by pre-university students to improve the quality of writing skills. Researching and exploring the multitudes of language learning strategies is important to teachers in order to find out the strategies preferred by the pre-university students.

Language Learning Strategy Used among Secondary School ESL Students

The role of English as a Second Language in Malaysia has prompted ESL learners to explore multi techniques and strategies in learning. However, popular strategies applied by secondary students in Malaysia are not much known. Hence, this study aims to identify the language learning strategies employed by successful language learners among secondary school students in Malaysia. This research employs a survey research design that encompasses the strategy inventory for Language Learning (SILL) It includes the six strategies proposed by (Oxford, 1989). About 38 secondary school students from different states were selected through a purposive sampling technique to answer the survey for the data collection. For the finding, it is revealed that the secondary school students use metacognitive strategies the most, followed by cognitive and memory strategies, which are considered the least used among learning learners. As a result, even though all the three strategies are being employed in their language learning process, it appears that the metacognitive strategy is the one that stands out the most thus confirming its interrelations with successful language learners. Therefore, the language learners strategies practised among secondary school varies from metacognitive as the most preferable one, followed by cognitive, and lastly memory strategies hence reflecting their proficiency level as good language learners.

“Our country has gained independence, but we haven't”: Collaborative translanguaging to decolonize English language teaching

AbstractThe colonial history of many English language teaching (ELT) contexts has shaped how the concept of language is understood, how language policies are constructed, and how language education is organized. Various aspects of ELT in countries that were colonized continue to promote the imperialism of English (Motha, 2014) through the naming (i.e., labeling of linguistic phenomena as distinct languages, dialects, and language varieties), separation and hierarchization of languages, and the dominance of monolingual policies and practices in the classroom. Translanguaging, a theory and pedagogy that challenges colonial understandings of language and monoglossic norms in language teaching, has the transformative potential to liberate language practices that have been rendered invisible by abyssal thinking in ELT (García et al., 2021). Translanguaging as a theory posits that multilingual learners do not possess two or more autonomous language systems but rather that they select and deploy linguistic features from a unitary linguistic repertoire (Vogel & García, 2017). Translanguaging as a pedagogy urges educators to leverage learners’ entire linguistic and semiotic repertoires to support their learning instead of requiring them to keep certain languages outside the classroom. However, in educational contexts that respond to socially and politically imposed boundaries between languages, there are ideological and systemic challenges to the enactment of translanguaging as a pedagogy. This paper discusses these challenges with reference to the Malaysian language education context and draws on data from a collaborative translanguaging pedagogy designed through teacher-researcher collaboration and implemented in two Malaysian elementary English classrooms to offer recommendations for how ELT can be decolonized.

MELex: The Construction of Malay-English Sentiment Lexicon

Currently, the sentiment analysis research in the Malaysian context lacks in terms of the availability of the sentiment lexicon. Thus, this issue is addressed in this paper in order to enhance the accuracy of sentiment analysis. In this study, a new lexicon for sentiment analysis is constructed. A detailed review of existing approaches has been conducted, and a new bilingual sentiment lexicon known as MELex (Malay-English Lexicon) has been generated. Constructing MELex involves three activities: seed words selection, polarity assignment, and synonym expansions. Our approach differs from previous works in that MELex can analyze text for the two most widely used languages in Malaysia, Malay, and English, with the accuracy achieved, is 90%. It is evaluated based on the experimentation and case study approaches where the affordable housing projects in Malaysia are selected as case projects. This finding has given an implication on the ability of MELex to analyze public sentiments in the Malaysian context. The novel aspects of this paper are two-fold. Firstly, it introduces the new technique in assigning the polarity score, and second, it improves the performance over the classification of mixed language content.

Boosting Students’ Motivation in Learning Descriptive Writing through Instagram

Throughout years of learning English as a second language in Malaysia, rural area students were still found to be incompetent in English, especially in writing. The major problem faced by the rural area primary students is the inability to generate ideas with the limited vocabulary they acquire. In this 21st century education, many studies have been carried out to improve students’ writing skills on Instagram, however, less research could be found focused on primary schools. Therefore, this research aims to investigate primary students’ perceptions on using Instagram as a motivation learning tool in descriptive writing. In this study, quantitative and qualitative research methods involved selecting 13 Year 4 students in Kahang, Johor using convenience sampling. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used as the data collection method. The findings showed that students’ perceptions on Instagram were relatively high and they were interested and motivated to use it for writing outside the classroom. It is suggested that more interactive activities can be conducted on Instagram in the future to promote language learning among rural primary students.

ESL Learners’ Obstacles in Learning Speaking Skills

English is regarded as a second language in Malaysia and is part of the compulsory learning subject in primary and secondary school. However, the learning span of six years in primary school and five years in secondary school does not assure that the students will be able to master their speaking skills. Many of our students are still struggling to speak in English with correct sentence structures and pronunciations. Therefore, this paper aims to discuss the obstacles faced by ESL learners in their speaking skills. Learning perception, anxiety, and social-related problems as well as learning related problems, were the focus of issues discussed in this paper. This study engaged a quantitative approach to collect the data. The online survey, through “Google Form” was used to obtain data from the 196 tertiary level ESL respondents at one of the higher learning institutions in Ipoh. An adapted questionnaire was used for this study. The questionnaire was constructed in the form of a 5-point Likert Scale from which the choices range from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The items on the questionnaire were analyzed using SPSS 26 and the mean score for each item constructed was calculated accordingly. Findings indicated that the respondents experienced interference of L1 when it comes to difficulty in speaking. The respondents also expected the teacher to correct every error that they say and want the teacher to use a variety of methods and latest approaches to teach speaking skills to boost their interest. This study suggests that ESL learners need to be given more motivation to develop their confidence in using the English language and teachers need to be more creative in implementing strategies that stimulate learners’ interest to speak in English.

English language use of the Malaysian Tamil diaspora

ABSTRACT Diasporic Indian languages in Malaysia are unique and distinguishable from their native variants. Past studies have indicated that dominant languages tend to overpower minority languages in multilingual communities, hence causing languages to shift. The aims of this study are to identify the language choices of Malaysian Tamils and to what extent does English influence their shift from their native language. The respondents were 30 Malaysian Indians. The findings of the study revealed that in the family domain, there was an alarming shift to English when participants spoke to their children (93%) and their spouses (63%) as opposed to the older generations. Meanwhile, in the friendship domain, 76% of the participants preferred using English when they had to speak to other Malaysian Tamils. As for strangers, there was a 50–50 distribution between English and Malay between these participants. These findings seem to show that most families shifted from their native language to English among children in the family domain, education domain and friendship domain. Therefore, it is possible to note that factors such as imperialism, economic status and relevance of usage in language domains are the driving factors behind the shift of Tamil to English in Malaysia.

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE MALAYSIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM

The purpose of this article is to provide a historical account of the English language in Malaysia. Malaysians' linguistic and educational backgrounds are intricately linked to the country's historical and educational traditions. Despite the evolution of the Malaysian educational system, the English language continues to be taught as a compulsory language in schools. It is a method of engaging students in interaction and meaningful communication that is known as communicative language teaching. Language learners who are still required to learn English in universities must cultivate a positive attitude in order to engage in meaningful learning activities.

Epidemiology and Factors Affecting Functional Outcome of Distal Radial Fracture in an Urban Tertiary Medical Centre in Malaysia.

Introduction:Distal radial fracture is a commonly encountered fracture. This study aims to study the epidemiology of distal radial fracture and factors affecting the patients’ functional outcome one to two years after the injury.Materials and methods:This is a retrospective cohort study. The records of patients, fulfilling the radiographical diagnosis of distal radial fracture, and aged 18 and above, who presented to our Emergency Department from 1st January 2018 to 31st December 2018 were retrieved. According to AO classification, we grouped our patients into A (extra-articular), B (partial articular) and C (complete articular). Patients with congenital abnormalities were excluded. Epidemiological data and relevant medical history were obtained and tabulated. A Malaysian language translation of Disability of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) questionnaire was used to assess the functional outcome.Results:Out of 168 patients’ data retrieved, only 110 patients’ data were found complete for purposes of this study. The mean DASH score was 13.7 ± 7.87 approximately one to two years post-injury regardless of treatment method. Increasing age was associated with higher DASH score with r=0.407(p<0.001). Several variables had significantly better functional outcome: male gender (p=0.01), Type A fracture configuration (p=0.007) and non-operational treatment (p=0.03). There was no significant difference between treatment modalities in Type A fracture (p=0.094), but Type B (p=0.043) and Type C (p=0.007) had better outcome without surgery. There was no significant difference between different ethnic groups, open or closed fracture and mechanism of injury.Conclusion:Better functional outcome after sustaining distal radial fracture was associated with young age, male gender, type A fracture and treated non-operatively. Interestingly, more complex fracture pattern had better functionality were observed without surgery.

Word coinage communication strategy in learners of English oral interaction

Coinage is one of the many creative strategies performed by language learners in instances when they are not able to retrieve the accurate lexical item from their limited linguistic knowledge. It is an issue of interests to language practitioners and learners and little research has been dealt on it. The study explored on the use of coinage strategies among Malaysian language learners in a pair work picture spot- the- difference narration activity. Thirty-two pre-selected items missing from one of the sets were to be identified and the session was video recorded. From the transcription data, the instances of semantic coinage strategies were found to be more frequently displayed as compared to grammatical coinage strategy when the learners encountered communication breakdowns. In semantic word coinage strategy, the learners formed lexical items by selecting two different features of the two interlanguage lexical items and combined them as a compound target language item. Grammatical word coinage strategy, on the other hand, was used by creating words which do not exist in the second language (L2) after an application of L2 rule to a L2 word. These communication strategies, in one way or another develop creativity and enhance the process of second language acquisition.

Understanding Malay Corpora: A Content Analysis of 15 Malay Corpora

Corpus research becomes an important area of research of late, especially in Malaysia and for the national language, Malay language. A corpus includes texts and transcriptions of speeches for variety of situations. For this short paper, the focus is on Malay language, which is the national and official language of Malaysia. The purposes of this paper are to identify features and types of Malay Corpora and to determine the needs for a military biased Malay Corpus. In so doing, as a short paper, the methodology involves only content analysis of relevant documents on the development of Malay language corpora. Preliminary findings suggest that there are at least 15 Malay corpora in existence, and that some of the features in these corpora overlap. Further, the researchers argue for the need for a Malay Corpus for Military Operations since the existing corpora do not fully cater for this type of corpus.

Academic Motivation in English Online Classes: A Comparative Study of Universities in Malaysia and Indonesia

This study intended to fill the gap of undergraduates’ academic motivation in Malaysia and Indonesia where, to date, little study has been done. It investigated and compared undergraduates’ academic motivation levels in English online classes in two universities in both countries. Online questionnaires on students’ self-regulated learning (SRL) and self-efficacy towards online learning adapted from Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) were distributed to 206 undergraduates from University A in Malaysia and 174 undergraduates from University B in Indonesia. Switching from physical traditional to online classes is the new norm that could be challenging and demotivating, but the results showed that the students from both universities achieved mostly high mean scores of the SRL and self-efficacy items. This indicated that their academic motivation levels were high, they were in control over their learning process, and have positive perceptions towards online classes. This uniformity also implied that although English is a second language in Malaysia, and a foreign language in Indonesia, the undergraduates were not affected by their linguistics, and institutional contexts. This study has contributed towards the extension of the current knowledge involving undergraduates’ academic motivation towards learning English online and suggested that teachers could help to strategise students’ SRL and self-efficacy to increase their English language performances, particularly in the pandemic era. Further research could explore the effects of academic motivation on learning outcomes or language performance as this could assist teachers to improve learners’ English proficiency in online classes.

Reliability Testing of Self-Care of Heart Failure Index v6.2 Chinese Instrument Among Heart Failure Patients

Objective: Self-Care of Heart Failure Index (SCHFI) v6.2 Chinese is an instrument used to assess the ability of self-care behaviour among heart failure patients. It has been validated in Taiwan, however, it is yet to be validated in Malaysia. As a multi-ethnic country, Chinese language has been one of the major languages in Malaysia. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine the reliability of Self-Care of Heart Failure Index (SCHFI) v6.2 Chinese among Malaysian population. Design: A successive independent sample design was used throughout a 4-months data collection period. Setting: Eighty heart failure patients from University of Malaya Medical Centre and National Heart Institute were recruited through purposive sampling. The two hospitals were chosen because they have specialized heart clinics that eased the data collection. The out-patients were screened by the cardiologists for their eligibility to participate in this study. Measures: The samples were administered with SCHFI v6.2 Chinese. The item endorsement index, internal consistency and item-total correlation of SCHFI v6.2 Chinese were examined. Results: The maintenance subscale of SCHFI showed a low internal consistency (Cronbach α = .52) while the management and confidence subscales showed an acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach α = .67 and .90 respectively). Conclusion: SCHFI v6.2 Chinese is a reliable instrument to be used among the Malaysian population.

Resilience, smartphone use and language among urban refugees in the Global south

ABSTRACT The formidable challenges faced by urban refugees in the Global South have received considerable attention, calling for new approaches to support their resilience. Although critical interest in resilience and the role of digital technology in enabling refugees to navigate their new surroundings has been growing, little attention has been paid to the influence of language and literacy in processes of resilience-building and the use of such technology. This is important due to the diverse linguistic resources which refugees bring with them and the central role of language in adapting to contexts of forced displacement. We develop a conceptual framework for examining refugees’ transnational use of smartphones and apply the framework to data collected from participatory workshops with fifty-four Rohingya refugees in Malaysia. Results revealed varying degrees of digital literacy, linguistic capital and literacy in three main languages: the Rohingya language which refugees bring with them, Bahasa Malaysia, the national language of Malaysia and English, which is widely spoken in Malaysia. These variations significantly shape resilience-building strategies. Greater attention to the role of language and literacy in refugees’ use of digital technology will contribute to better understanding of the capacity for resilience among these individuals and more effective digital solutions.

THE USE OF ARTICLES IN FRENCH: AN OBSERVATION

Studying French as a foreign language is enjoyable among Malaysian students. Even though French is not widely used in comparison to English as the second language in Malaysia, there are many courses offered in French to meet university programme requirements. Each language has its own challenges, especially in relation to the application of its grammar rules, and learning French is no exception, too. Therefore, this current study focuses on the exceptional use of articles in various sentence structures in French. To achieve this, students’ formative-assessment projects, which are role plays based on specific situations captured in short videos, have been meticulously scrutinised and analysed. To support the collected data, interviews with two French lecturers have been conducted to elicit some professional feedback pertaining to the use of articles in French by the students. The findings show that errors associated with using articles for masculine and feminine nouns and the use of definite and indefinite articles are abundant in the students’ pre-recorded conversations. This is due to the fact that the articles used are not equivalent or do not even exist in their mother tongue. Hence, this study suggests that the students need to increase their knowledge of the French language and keep drilling intensively and continuously on the use of French articles for innumerable nouns and nouns phrases in French discourses.

Perceptions of Students Learning French as a Foreign Language in Malaysia

The study investigated the perceptions of students learning French as a foreign language in a Malaysian public university. The specific objectives were to examine: (1) the self-reported French language proficiency level; and (2) their perceptions of their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills in French. Questionnaire data were collected from 80 undergraduates enrolled in French Levels 1 and 2 courses. The analysis showed that language learners from Level 1 and Level 2 rated themselves as having fair proficiency level when they made their rating without comparing themselves to a French native speaker. However, when they compared themselves with a native French speaker, more of them rated their proficiency as poor. The results showed that the relative difficulty of mastering language skills in French, from the most difficult to the easiest, are writing, speaking, reading and listening. Similar results were found for Level 1 and Level 2 French but the undergraduates struggled with writing and speaking at Level 2 more than at Level 1 because of an increased vocabulary range, greater grammatical complexity and longer texts. The results suggest that the difficulties are not much in comprehension of the language but more towards expressing themselves whether in speaking or writing.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR AWARENESS FACILITATES L2 LEARNERS’ WRITING

“Words—so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them”, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864). It is true that from just words can become a phrase then a sentence but what we may need to realize is how hard and challenging it is to make the sentence right. To face the real world, writing is the most challenging skill to teach for language teachers mainly because students take time to grasp and digest the knowledge of writing skill. To make matters worse, writing test is also the most popular means of test for placement in entering schools and universities. Due to this reason, L2 learners crave to write clearly and accurately in English. Undeniably, how a person writes with acceptable choice of words and correct grammar represents the L2 learner’s competency in English Language. This study is done to explore the importance of having English grammar awareness to facilitate L2 learners in their writing activities. The study thus aims to determine how grammar awareness amongst the L2 and other support systems such as English classes &amp; facilities help facilitating L2 writing. 84 undergraduate students answered the questionnaire. The quantitative data have been analysed at the end of the research. Some of the findings are 75% of the respondents indicated that they were still unsure on the use of proper grammar in writing despite 94% of the respondents agreed and strongly agreed that they understood when the instructor/teacher taught them English Grammar. The mix-up results in the findings have shown some drawbacks in the teaching and learning practices. Moreover, only 63% of the participants answered agree and strongly agree that their learning institution has an English classroom that is conducive for learning (self-access centre), which can be considered as not satisfactory since English Language is the second language in Malaysia. It is hoped that the government of Malaysia could provide complete conducive learning centre for schools and universities. &#x0D; &#x0D; &lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt; Article visualizations:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0758/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

‘The Laryngectomee Guide’ in Malaysian Language

‘The Laryngectomee Guide’ (Panduan Pesakit Laringektomi) is available now in Malaysian language. The Guide provides information that can assist laryngectomees and their medical providers about medical, dental and psychological issues. It contains information about side effects of radiation and chemotherapy; methods of speaking; airway, stoma, and voice prosthesis care; eating and swallowing; medical, dental and psychological concerns; respiration; anesthesia; travelling and how to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Attitudes to English in contemporary Malaysia

AbstractThis article examines the attitudes that Malaysians of different backgrounds hold towards the English language in Malaysia, as well as how they perceive ‘Standard Malaysian English’ and ‘Colloquial Malaysian English’, in terms of status and solidarity. The study administered an online questionnaire, which included an embedded matched‐guise experiment, to 77 Malaysian respondents in Malaysia and Australia. Findings indicated a range of divergent and at times contradictory views of Malaysian English, illuminating how Malaysians are in different stages of acceptance of Malaysian English as a legitimate variety of English. Through an examination of individual participant responses, the study also shows that Malaysians are attuned to and hold certain stereotypes towards ‘ethnic’ varieties or ‘ethnolects’ of Malaysian English, providing insight into how issues of race and ethnicity, embedded within the broader socio‐political context and language ecology of the nation, have influenced contemporary language attitudes.

Attitude of Students towards Cooperative Skills in Learning Kadazandusun Language in Malaysia

The purpose of this research is to identify the attitude of students towards cooperative skills in the learning of Kadazandusun language in a few secondary schools around Sabah state, Malaysia. The respondents consist of 265 Form 2 students from eight secondary schools, who is learning Kadazandusun language. The 5 point Likert scale is used in the questionnaire. There are ten items each with the attitude and cooperative skills section. To analyse the data obtained, descriptive analysis and Spearman’s Rhohave been used. The descriptive result shows a mean score for attitude is between 3.04 to 4.31, and 4.07 to 4.57 for cooperative skills. Correlation analysis shows a significant positive and medium strength of relationship between the attitude of students with cooperative skills in learning Kadazandusun language,(rs=0.533, p&lt;0.01). This research implicates the importance of cooperative skills in learning Kadazandusun language in the 21st century in line with the need of industrial revolution 4.0.