The use of Malay Malaysian English in Malaysian English: Key considerations

• Main Authors: Ahmad Mahir, Normazla, Silahudin Jarjis, Mariatul Kibtiyah
• Format: Book Section
• Language: English
• Published: Faculty of Communication and Modern Languages, Universiti Utara Malaysia 2007
• Subjects: PE English
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/3263/1/N5.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/3263/; http://staf.uum.edu.my/tleia2/

Once, English was thought to be the ‘lingua franca’, understood by people around the world. This was because British English was introduced by the British Empire during the colonization era. After the myriad of colonies gained independence, however, one ‘standard’ English has evolved into many different localized dialects; namely Singapore English (SE), Malaysian English (ME) and others. These ‘localization’ has caused fear among educators and professionals especially the native speakers that English has turned into a corrupt language. With relevance to Clyne’s (1992) ‘pluricentric’ languages, this paper shall highlight the nature of local variations in the context of Malaysian English as well as justify the needs for having standard non-native varieties of the English language used within the confines of the Malaysian socio-cultural context. Suggestions for realizing this issue as a means of encouraging more public acceptance and bridging proficiency gaps in the target language will also be featured.