English Language in Malaysian Education System: Its Existence and Implication
English Language in Malaysian Education System: Its Existence and Implication
English Language in Malaysian Education System: Its Existence and Implication
ABSTRACT
This article sets out to give a historical account of English language in Malaysia.
The language background of Malaysians is very much tied up with the historical
and education background of the country. English language continues to be taught
as a compulsory language in schools despite the evolution of the Malaysian
education system. Communicative language teaching is an approach to engage
learners in interaction and meaningful communication. However, differences
between the school and university classrooms differentiate the language learning
process. Language learners who still have to learn English in universities need to
develop a positive attitude for meaningful learning to occur.
Keywords: English language, Malaysian education system, globalisation,
communicative language teaching, language anxiety
INTRODUCTION
English is spoken and used as a second language (L2) in the countries which were
typically ex-colonies of the United Kingdom or the United States including
Malaysia, India, Philippines and Nigeria (Thirusanku & Melor, 2012). Malaysia is
one of the Asian countries that is adopting a bilingual system of education. The
aim is to establish a balance between national and international needs and
challenges manifested through linguistic educational policies (Gill & Kirkpatrick,
2013). With reference to the Malaysian education system, English is placed as the
L2 (Gill, 2002) and, in line with the education policy, English language is made a
compulsory subject at all levels of education implying its existence “side by side
with strong indigenous languages, wide use in speaking, and intranational
outstanding, sometimes official functions, as the language of politics, the media,
jurisdiction, higher education, and other such domains” (Thirusanku & Melor,
2012, p. 2). Reflecting on the Malaysian pluralist society, the learners are
commonly bilingual, trilingual or even multilingual. In the Malaysian education
system, a formal style of English language learning takes place in classrooms; and
Jeon-Ellis, Debski and Wiggleswort (2005) define the L2 classroom as “a social
context to which learners bring themselves and their past experiences in which
they establish certain relationships and attempt to participate and engage in tasks in
ways that best fit their social needs” (p. 123). Excluding preschool level, the
minimum formal learning of English language for Malaysian learners is eleven
years. This paper explores the burgeoning of English language in Malaysia from
the historical aspects and its importance in globalization. The paper also reflects on
the language learning problems of Malaysian learners.