On Malay Language

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Since the Government introduces MBMMBI, many are complaining on the limited amount of time students are exposed to English or the L2. As an English teacher, or a going-to-be an English teacher, I was made believed by media and people around me that MBMMBI is a policy that will, in a long run, result in the deterioration of English proficiency among Malaysians.

However, today I realise that some people who are proselytising the above are being selfish as today I discover that the efficacy of MBMMBI should not be solely judged on its impacts on Malaysian English development but also on Malaysian Malay language development. From my point of view, MBMMBI is indeed a brilliant policy as it embarks on preparing a good foundation to uphold Malay language among Malaysian students as their standard of Malay language is disappointing.

Whilst Malay language teachers in major cities in Malaysia are reading Malay language essays that are filled with bahasa rojak and language of texting, Malay language teachers in counties with dialects are marking Malay language essays full with non-standard Malay language (for instance Terengganu Malay, Perak Malay, Pahang Malay and many more).

Whilst it is easy for high achieving students to define the difference and distinguish the usage of dialect and standard Malay in their daily life, low achieving students find it a struggle. This is proven in my today's lesson.

This morning, I taught English to a group of motivated low achieving students (they can hardly spell chairs and tables). As students always struggle to write in English, I asked students to first write their esssy in Malay before asking them to translate it in English. I walked around and noticed that my students had used a lot of non-standard Malay language in their writing, Terengganu Malay to be precise. Instead of having:

Pelajar itu bergadoh.
They had

Budok itu ajok bergocoh.

Whilst they should write:

Selepas ibu pelajar itu tahu dia berbohong, (...)
They wrote:

Selepas ibu ia tahu ia cakap nawok, (...).

When I first read, to be honest, I felt like laughing my heart out as I thought my students were playing around and trying to be funny yet when I realised that they were not, I feel sad for them. If nothing is done, no policy alike MBMMBI is implemented, no new revamp is made either by teachers or the government, it is almost possible that my students, will never get a pass for their Malay language SPM and a fail in Malay language means fail SPM. 

Though I am an English teacher, I have my back for those who are trying to uphold the teaching of Malay language as a strong foundation of L1 (Malay language in this case) is essential in order to help the development of an L2 (English).

Let's start having faith in our Government. 
Let's stop pointing on the weaknesses of a policy but start working on its strengths as none of us want the worst for our future generation.

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