International students' perspectives of Malaysian English teachers' spoken English

Numerous studies comparing native and non-native English teachers have found that ESL students prefer native teachers for teaching speaking skills and pronunciation. In other words, non-native teachers are viewed as less superior in matters related to spoken language. This study explores international students' views on spoken English of Malaysian teachers in English language classrooms. 81 international students who were attending English language classes as a preparation for university programmes at a Malaysian university participated in the study. The students were given a short writing task which required them to rate as well as stated their views on their Malaysian teachers' spoken English in terms of speech rate, pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax, intelligibility, nativeness and acceptability for global communication. The study found that the international students considered the variety of Malaysian English used in the classroom as highly intelligible with high ratings for speech rates, vocabulary and sentence structures. Malaysian English is also viewed as highly acceptable for global communication. Although the teachers' spoken language was rated lower for pronunciation and nativeness compared to other traits confirming the views that non-native teachers are perceived as less proficient in pronunciation compared to the other skills, the ratings were still high indicating that in general, the acrolectal variety of Malaysian English as spoken in English classes is reasonably well accepted by other non-native speakers. © 2018, IJAL

–Ed Allomorphs and linguistic knowledge of Malay speakers of English: a descriptive and correlational study

Malay is a language from the Austronesian family and unlike the Indo-European-originated English, it does not generally have inflectional temporal markers. Investigating this from a cross-linguistics influence perspective, differences between the languages could mean difficulties for Malay speakers to acquire features of English. The objectives of this study are to investigate Malay speakers’ pronunciation of the English language –ed allomorphs – [d], [t] and [ɪd]/[əd] – and the relationship between the morphophonological forms and two types of linguistic knowledge, one of which is implicit while the other is explicit. Data were collated from fifty participants who are social science undergraduates and English majors who speak English as a second language. Four instruments were used to gauge the respondents’ verbal use of –ed allomorphs as well as their implicit and explicit knowledge of the allomorphs. Results indicate that the students’ verbal usage of the target items either lack approximation to Standard English pronunciation or are largely dropped altogether. Results also suggest a moderate relationship between implicit and explicit knowledge of the allomorphs and their verbal production by Malay speakers of English. The finding illuminates acquisition problem of English language speakers whose mother tongue does not share similar inflectional markers. Pedagogical solutions can help learners of the English language to approximate Standard English and in the long run, enhance effective communication and improve chances of employability

Learning English in a Third Space? Malay Students in an English-Speaking University in Malaysia

It has been suggested that the use of English among Malays is constrained by the intertwining of ethnic identity, religion and native language. This study investigated the possibility of a ‘third space’ (Bhabha, 1994) for a group of Malay-speaking English majors in an English-medium university in Malaysia. Using Norton’s (2013) identity approach to second language acquisition, it found that the participants’ identities as ethnic Malays and Malay-English speaking bilingual were often conflicted as the broader community was disinclined to use English. Despite high motivation levels, dominance of the Malay language curtailed the participants’ investment in English to a great extent. The third space, when available, was confined to sites that were associated with their formal learning of English

Metadiscourse in the academic writing of local and international students at a university in Malaysia

This study examines the use of metadiscourse markers among 50 Malaysian and 50 Arab Pre-University students. The findings of this study indicated that there was a significant difference in the use of metadiscourse markers between Malaysian and Arab Pre-University students {χ2 (1, n = 100) = 7.17, p-value is .007} where the use of metadiscourse markers among Malaysian Pre-University students was substantially higher than that of the Arab Pre-University students. In the use of interactive markers, the results showed significant differences between Malaysian and Arab Pre-University students in the use of transitions, evidential and code glosses. Additionally, in the use of interactional markers, Malaysian and Arab students differed in their use of hedges, engagement markers and self-mentions. These variances in the frequency and forms of metadiscourse markers utilized by the students could be attributed to the diverse cultural backgrounds of the two groups of students. It is therefore suggested that English language teachers integrate and incorporate cultural elements in their lessons with regard to metadiscourse markers