Linguistics for Language Teachers

8/11/2019 Linguistics for Language Teachers

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ASSIGNMENT ELL322 LINGUISTICS FOR LANGUAGE TEACHERS

ASSIGNMENT

MAY 2014 SEMESTER

SUBJECT CODE : ELL 322

SUBJECT TITLE : LINGUISTICS FOR LANGUAGE TEACHERS

PROGRAMME : BACHELOR OF EDUCATION

STUDENTS NAME : ANNIE ANGGUN

MATRIC NO. : E30109120059

ACADEMICFACILITATOR

: MADAM DAYANG KHURSIAH DATU KADIR

LEARNING CENTRE : AEU KUDAT


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Par t A

The Role of M orphological Awareness in E ngli sh as Second Language Acquisit ion byKhalil El-Saghir.

a) What is morphological awareness?

Morphology is a field of linguistics focused on the study of the forms and formation

of words in a language. Words in a language consist of one element or elements of meaning

which are called morphemes. Morphemes are the fundamental building blocks of words

within both spoken and written language. Words that contain more than one morpheme can

be broken down into these smaller units, providing cues for meaning, spelling, and

pronunciation. It is a part of linguistics which studies word structure and how words change

their forms when they change grammatical function thus involving both syntax and semantic

expressed in a particular form. It is the study of the formation of words either by inflection,

derivation or composition.

Morphological awareness is awareness of and access to the meaning and structure of

morphemes in relation to words. Morphological awareness is a linguistic ability that focuses

on the awareness of the underlying structure of words at the level of meaning. Morphological

awareness is the ability to recognize, reflect on, and manipulate the sub lexical structure of

words which is the roots, prefixes, and suffixes that make up the word. It is the learners

explicit understanding of the smallest units of meaning in the language, including free and

bound morphemes and inflectional and derivational morphemes.

Morphological awareness is also defined as childrens conscious awareness of the

morphemic structure of words and their ability to reflect on and manipulate that structure

(Carlisle, 1995, p. 194), is uniquely associated with childrens reading development in several

languages, such as English. It is also related to measurement of morphological awareness is

the question of how linguistic manipulations within the task might affect performance on it.

Morphological awareness develops with exposure to oral and written English. Evidence of

morphological awareness assessed with oral tasks has been found in children as young as


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four. Preschool children show implicit morphological awareness by demonstrating that they

understand the ways that morphemes can be combined to express meaning of the words.

b) Do learners use morphological knowledge to process English texts?

English words are made up of a sound or combinations of sounds to signal meaning and

are formed in a language through processes and patterns of word formation specific to the

language, such as using inflection, derivation, or composition. English language users are

able to express ideas and concepts, using sound or sound combinations to convey both word-

level units alone or in combination with grammatical morphemes to signal aspects of tense ornumber and derivational morphemes to create new words and to express additional semantic

and syntactic information. Similarly, English written is morphophonemic where it represents

language at both the level of sound and meaning.

Therefore it is important for any English student to use morphological knowledge to

process any English text. Phonological information within printed words is conveyed through

the phoneme correspondences, whereas morphological information within a printed word is

conveyed via the lexical root as free morphemes and the grammatical inflections and

derivational relations as bound morphemes. Thus, when reading, students simultaneously

process the phonological structure of the word to pronounce the word and also process the

meaning and syntactic function conveyed by the morphological structure of the word.

There is compelling evidence that morphological awareness of the underlying structure of

words contributes unique variance to many aspects of literacy, including word reading,

vocabulary development, comprehension, and spelling. The influence of morphologicalknowledge and awareness to literacy is a current focus of researchers because both sound and

meaning are conveyed within English language. Skilled reading of morphologically complex

words may involve other linguistic processes in addition to understanding word relationships,

such as the ability to decompose words into constituent morphemes as well as to use the

direct lexical route to access full lexical representations. The author, Khalil El-Saghir

mention three steps in word recognition process by processing derivational English

Morphology.


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The first step is the students ability to disassemble the word into component morphemes

for example un-successful. The three morphemes component in the word is un, success

and ful. Second step is the ability of the student to match those components in the first step

with phonological, lexical and semantic representation in their memory or word knowledge.The third and final step is the ability to reassemble the individual word components back

together while attempting to construct a combinational meaning that may not represent the

sum of all the word pieces. The three steps word recognition process will differentiate

students morphological knowledge and their English language development. It will also help

the students to identify words that are unfamiliar to them and increase their vocabulary.

Anyway at any of the step students may find it troublesome or confusing if the words are

indeed segmentable, it may turn out to be a different meaning all together. It is important for

teachers to guide the students when they are doing the word recognition activity especially

with unfamiliar words.

Therefore from the steps given, it is clear that morphological knowledge is important in

order for the student to decipher the meaning of the combined word in any text. It shows the

contribution of morphological awareness to vocabulary and reading comprehension. This is

particularly important in English language where there is a lot of morphology in the Englishlanguage.


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c) What are some of the conclusions and recommendations by the author? 2 pages

The author has concluded that morphological awareness and knowledge is

important in learning the English language. He also made some recommendation on how to

improve morphological awareness in English language students. Students that have problems

with low vocabulary knowledge should be equipped to utilize every word analysis strategies.

The word analysis strategy is the three step word recognition activity to improve students

ability to look up morphological cues within a word to help them search for the meaning. He

believed that students may benefit from direct instruction to learn how English words areformed.

It is also recommended that students build up a bigger storage of morphemes,

rimes, and syllables through direct instruction in the classroom and also through extensive

reading practice. Teachers must encourage their students to read books, newspapers or

magazines in order to increase their vocabulary. Reading activities may be done in classroom

or as outdoor activities in the school compound. Teachers should also continuously instruct

and remind their students that English writing and texts are not only phonemic but also

morphemic where in some cases pronunciations of a certain words are different that what is

spelled for example the silent K in the word knife. Besides that teachers must also reduce

the cognitive load in order for the students to understand the system, practice the strategy and

generalize the strategy for their reading activities.

The author resolves his problem with students that have diverse linguistic

background. He started to conduct daily examination of cross-linguistic differences in his

classroom. This is done to analyse the students morphological awareness. The result was an

eye opener to him where he found out that most of his students had no formal morphological

processing instruction in their native language but they discover similarities and differences

between English and their first language. By having the cross-linguistic experiment it has

shown the importance morphological awareness in word recognition and it also encouraged

his students to have their own linguistic experiments.


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By continuously giving cross-linguistic tests, it has improved students ability to

derive segmental nature of words and also introduce them to new and unfamiliar words. Thishas also helped them become more successful in analyzing the words into morphemes and

correctly predicting their meaning, spelling and pronunciation. Therefore it is proven through

classroom research and experiment that morphological knowledge can be improved among

the students with valid test, reading activities and three step word recognizing activities.

The developmental progression and learning expectations of grade-specific

morphological knowledge and awareness for school students and adolescents, as well as the

information regarding evidenced-based methods and guidelines for assessment and

intervention with at-risk students should provide helpful information for clinical practice.

Student collaboration with classroom teachers to support students who may struggle with

acquiring morphological awareness is important, including student with language literacy

needs and English learning students. The author conclude that the explicit teaching of English

derivational and inflectional morphology may facilitate the continued development of

syntactic and morphological awareness in students, thus enhancing word reading, spelling,

text comprehension, and vocabulary development in the student.


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Par t B

English Language Teachers Should Have a Deep

Understanding of Linguistics: Discuss

Linguistic is the study of language. However, within the field of linguistics are many

different subfields. These include the scientific study of language acquisition, interpretation,

translation, the scholarly study of the relationships between different languages and between

different dialects within a language, and security work. Linguistics is a broad field that

attracts computer engineers as well as social academics and speech specialists. It is the study

of how language is put together and how it functions in a sentence and how words are

combined. "Linguistics is concerned with human language as a universal and recognizable

part of the human behaviour and of the human faculties, perhaps one of the most essential to

human life as we know it, and one of the most far-reaching of human capabilities in relation

to the whole span of mankinds achievements "(Robins, 1989). There are broadly three

aspects to the study, which include language form, language meaning, and language in

context. Various building blocks of different types and sizes are combined to make up a

language. Sounds are brought together and sometimes when this happen, they change their

form and do interesting things. Words are arranged in a certain order, and sometimes the

beginnings and endings of the words are changed to adjust the meaning. Then the meaning

itself can be affected by the arrangement of words and by the knowledge of the speaker about

what the hearer will understand. Linguistics is the study of all of this.

Linguistic may have some changes because of incremental changes within the

language, such as in pronunciation or in the meaning of a word. Other changes happen

because of contact with speakers of other languages. The most well know example of this is

"borrowing," but language contact can cause other types of change as well. It can be

interesting to compare phonology, syntax and word lists of similar or geographically

close languages to see how similar they are. Some linguists then use this information to figure

out the past of the languages, such as when two languages split from each other. Combined

with other known facts about the speakers of the language, it can lead to important

discoveries about their history.


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The work of linguists falls into two main areas which are language structure and language

use. Linguistics is focused in language structure which consider the formal properties of

language, including word structure (morphology), sentence structure (syntax), speech sounds

and the rules and patterns between them (phonetics and phonology), and meaning in language(semantics and pragmatics). Language teaching, on the other hand, is about providing

students with the ability to communicate through speaking, reading and writing in the specific

language.

Linguistics makes language learning more effective and engaging. It is important for

English Language teachers to fully grasp linguistics in order to teach English effectively.

Language teachers may not directly use the knowledge of linguistics in their day-to-day

lessons. Instead, they may practice speaking, reading and writing, which are fundamental to

communication in the language. However, each of these three areas is imbued with the

knowledge that linguistics provides about the structure and meaning of language. So while

teachers do not use linguistics on a day-to-day basis, the foundation of the knowledge is

fundamentally based on linguistics.

English teachers need to approach with a scientific perspective and methods of

linguistics since it was used to be thought of as a purely cultural academic discipline inlanguage. Contrary to previous belief, linguistics is multidisciplinary. It overlaps each of the

human sciences including psychology, neurology, anthropology, and sociology. According

to the Centre for Applied Linguistics, formal linguistics includes five principal areas of study.

First is phonetics, it is the study of language sounds and their physical properties for example

how sounds are produced by the vocal tract and how sounds are perceived by others. Second

is phonology, it is the process of analyzing how sounds function in a given language or

dialect. Third is morphology, is the study of the structure of words. Fourth is syntax, it is the

study of the structure of sentences. And lastly semantics is the study of meaning in language.

Therefore applying formal linguistics knowledge in their everyday teaching, might involve

studying of how humans learn. There are many social and psychological aspects to the study

and application of linguistics since languages naturally include cultural histories as well.

Linguistics can be a key component of language learning. Linguistics is an objective,

research driven field studying language. Rather than focusing on communication, linguistics

mostly concerns of the form and meaning of languages. Language teachers can learn the


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research of linguistics to improve their capability to teach students and at the same time

improve their command in the language itself. And so it is important that teachers have a

deep understanding of linguistics. Teachers need to conduct formal studies and understanding

of sound structure, grammar and meaning; investigate the history of language families; andresearch language acquisition. It is the responsibility of a teacher to make a language

accessible to students by teaching them its linguistic structure. Teachers must describe these

structures as clearly as possible, so that students can generate the correct sounds, forms and

sentences in of the English language as accurately and as comfortable as possible.

Teachers play a critical role in supporting language development especially in

teaching English as a second language. Beyond teaching children to read and write in school,

they need to help children learn and use aspects of language associated with the academic

discourse of the various school subjects for example Mathematics and Science. They need to

help them become more aware of how language functions in various modes of

communication across the curriculum. They need to understand how language works well

enough to select materials that will help expand their students' linguistic horizons and to plan

instructional activities that give students opportunities to use the new forms and modes of

expression to which they are being exposed.

Language can be understood as interplay of sound and meaning. The discipline that

studies linguistic sound is termed as phonetics, which is concerned with the actual properties

of speech sounds and non-speech sounds, and how they are produced and perceived. The

study of language meaning, on the other hand, is concerned with how languages employ logic

and real-world references to convey, process, and assign meaning, as well as to manage and

resolve ambiguity among students. This in turn includes the study of semantics which is how

meaning is inferred from words and concepts and pragmatics which is how meaning isinferred from context. For instance, when a Chinese speaker just begins to speak English, he

or she will at first use English at the level of a beginner language: broken words, lack of

grammatical form and structure, and weak or negligible vocabulary. Once the Chinese

speaker begins to learn English and use it to its full capacity, the generations that follow and

learn the language will become a variety of English. Also taking a Chinese student as an

example, most if not all have difficulties in pronouncing the letter R in word s and

sentences. It is an English teachers duty to guide them in the area of Phonetic which is howsounds are produced by the vocal tract in order to help the students to properly pronounce


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certain words. Therefore a teacher that has a deep understanding in linguistics in particular

phonetics will know how and what to do to help these students.

Nowadays teachers are experiencing multiracial and multicultural students in a

classroom. It is known that the majority of the worlds population speaks multiple la nguages

and linguistic will help in defining what it mean to be truly multilingual. Based on the simple

nature of linguistics, educators will experience a variety of cultures and traditions when

teaching their students. Embracing diversity and the benefit that such diversity can provide

will prove beneficial to not only the students of the class, but to the teachers as well.

Embracing diversity allows a teacher to learn more about the customs, beliefs and learning

styles of various cultures, which, in turn, helps them to utilize that knowledge when

instructing their class. There are certain word that sounds the same but carries different

meaning. This is what happens when cultures are exposed to different languages and it is to

the benefit of an English teacher if he or she can detect and examine the natural use of

language everyday which is caused by cultural differences. One of the most important ways

that linguistics can be useful to language teachers is by instructing them how individuals

actually best absorb a language. Linguists in combination with other scientists study the brain

to consider which ways people best absorb languages. Some argue that it is purely through

language immersion. Others argue that the basics of the language must be taught before

intense immersion. Either way, linguists will be able to provide important information to

teachers.

Language teachers also need to use the knowledge of linguistics to teach language

structure. Teachers are informed about the basic ways that sentences are formed, provide

meaning and incorporate different parts of speech. Contrastive linguistics involves the

comparison of different languages. The Centre for Language, Linguistics and Area Studies

recommends that teachers of foreign languages study contrastive linguistics. This is because

up to 30 percent of student errors are due to interference between a student's mother tongue

and the second language. Some languages such as Chinese have no plurals, while other

languages such as Spanish have extensive ways to conjugate verbs. Language teachers must

bring this knowledge to the table when instructing their students. For example when a

Chinese student direct translate t he sentence I dont have a bicycle, the senten ce will come

out I no have bicycle. This part icular problem is what English teachers face daily with

Chinese speaking students. As a language teacher, if you are familiar with the grammatical


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structure of Chinese, you will understand why the student made this mistake and can work

toward correcting the error.

English teachers should implement daily training in linguistics and oral skills to build

awareness of speech sounds, pronunciations and phonetics among their students. There are

two key items needed in order to improve students English, time and practice. There is

nothing teachers can do to rush English acquisition, but there are many ways to provide

opportunities to practice English in the classroom. If activities are structured to support

student to student or group interaction, teachers can use English to explain concepts and

instructions. This can be used in Mathematics and science activities. Teachers can also

informally assess for correct use of language structures, semantics and academic vocabulary.

And when students have difficulty with phrases, vocabulary or pronunciations, the teacher

will be able to offer guidance or further instruction to support language development. This

gives teachers an opportunity to gauge and monitor what the student has learned, and it

demonstrates student progress in English language development.

As a conclusion, it is important for English language teachers to fully understand the

relationship between linguistics and language teaching. It is important for an English teacher

to fully understand English language linguistics in order to teach effectively and correctly. Inthe same way it will be better if a language teacher has some knowledge about, for instance,

the characteristics of language in general and the specific language he or she is teaching in

particular. In this relation, teachers should know how language works and express meaning,

and what structures are used in the particular language he or she is teaching. The teacher

should be familiar, for instance, with the theory about the general mechanism of producing

speech sounds, so that they will be able to tackle any pronunciation problem their students

may encounter. By studying and mastering linguistics teachers may have deeper insights into

the nature of language, and act accordingly in teaching the language. And it will serve as

good evidences to trace students developmental processes and improvements. Therefore

linguistics is an essential part of a teachers co mpetence and having a deep understanding in

linguistics will benefit both the teacher and the students.


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References

Jennifer Wagner Linguistics (1997 2014). 101: An Introduction to the Study of Language

Retrieved June 22,2014 from http://ielanguages.com/linguist.html

Wong Fillmore, L., & Snow, C. (2000 ). What teachers need to know about language .

Washington, DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics.

Ladefoged, Peter, and Ian Maddieson. 1996. The sounds of the world's languages. Oxford,

UK and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.

Lepschy, Giulio C. 1972. A survey of structural linguistics. London: Faber and Faber.

Robins, R. H. 1979. A short history of linguistics. London: Longman. 2nd edn.


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Par t C

Malaysian English (or Manglish ) consists of words originating from English, Malay,Hokkien, Mandarin, Cantonese, Tamil, and to a lesser extent from various other European

languages. The Malaysian English speaker may be unaware that the word, phrase or sentence

structure is not present in British or American English.

a) Write an essay providing evidence of Manglish and the true English equivalents.

Evidence of Manglish and the true English equivalents

Malaysia has been influenced by many different cultures, peoples and especially,

different languages. It is possible to see that one of the impacts of this influence is in the

language, English remains as the most important language in terms of diplomacy, technology

and business. It is also present in the daily lives, in which there was not a complete switch to

English, but an assimilation of languages. Malaysian community uses the English language

both in formal and informal situations as a consequence of being a multicultural society.

Manglish is a Malaysian is a short form of Malaysian English speaking style with

many similarities with the Singaporean English Singlish. It is a distorted usage of English

that is mainly spoken between the locals. Locals rarely speak to a foreigners or travellers

using Manglish. Manglish is usually spoken between local Malaysians. It may seem a little

embarrassing and inappropriate for a local to speak to a foreigner in Manglish as it is not

proper usage of the English language. Furthermore, a foreigner may not understand and

frown upon Manglish usage. It is noted that some expatriates working and living in Malaysia

has picked up on Manglish and seem to want to blend in with the locals by using Manglish.

The result of reasoning behind this is that it gives off the sound of friendliness and closeness.

This is also one of Malaysia signature attraction of tourists and visitors. The culture is such

that most Malaysians are easy to warm up and friendly even to foreigners.

Manglish is the result of an overlapping of English words with words from several

languages and dialect that are available in Malaysia. These words are mostly from Malay


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words, Hokkien, Mandarin, Cantonese and Tamil. The multi-cultural background of this

country further contributes to the strains of Manglish, which is influenced by some factors

such as, the users mother tongue , the socio-economic and geographical background of the

users. Word mixing in Manglish is more likely to occur in order for communication to besuccessful among speakers of different social backgrounds . English in Malaysia is used at

different levels with different degrees of proficiency by different people. In general, most

Malaysians are at least bilingual if not multilingual, and in the urban areas of Malaysia there

are families who are bilingual or trilingual with, for example English and Bahasa Malaysia

and their mother tongue. Colloquial version of the English language as spoken in Malaysia

and it is a combination of the word Malay and English. The language shares substantial

linguistic similarities with Singlish in Singapore. In real essence, Manglish and Singlish are

one and the same although there are a few slang words that exist in one and not in another.

For all practical and argument purposes, Manglish and Singlish are subsets of the same

group.

Theoretically, English as spoken in Malaysia is based on British English and called

Malaysian English. British spelling is generally followed. However, the influence of

American English modes of expression and slang is strong, particularly among Malaysian

youth. Bahasa Melayu, has been the country's sole official language. While English is widely

used, many Malay words have become part of common usage in informal English or

Manglish. An example is su ffixing sentences with lah for example "Don't be so noisy-lah",

which is usually used to present a sentence as rather light-going and not so serious, the suffix

lah has no specific meaning. It is often used at the end of sentences, used to affirm a

statement similar to of course , and it is usually ends with an exclamation mark. Although

Chinese dialects also make abundant use of the suffix lah and there is some disagreement

as to which language it was originally borrowed from. The word "mah" is used at the end of

sentences, used to affirm a sentence, but not as strongly as "lah" for example "She's like that

mah".

The word "nah" is derived from the Malay expression, "Nah!" Used when giving

something to another person for example "Nah, take this!" The word "meh" is used when

asking a question, especially when one is sceptical or questioning something for example.

"True meh?" The word "liao" from a Chinese dialect means 'already' for example "No more

stock liao." The word "ah" is used at the end of sentences. Unlike the word meh the


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question is rhetorical for example "Why is she like that ah?" It can also be used to when

asking a genuine question for example "Is that true ah?" Other than that, some people use it

when referring to a subject before making a comment and most of the time it is used to make

a negative comment for example "My sister ah, always disturb me!".

For further discussion on the word in English used as substitute in Manglish are as

follows. The word "what" from the British word 'what' is often used as an exclamation mark,

but in Manglish it is not just to ask a question. For example "I did not do it what?" or What!

How could you do that? The word "got" is used as a literal translation from the Malay word

'ada'. The arrangements of words are often also literally translated. For example "You got

money?" a direct translation from Bahasa Malaysia "Kamu ada duit?" This particular word is

widely abused in Manglish, mainly because of the difficulty for the Manglish speaker ofcomprehending the various correct uses of the English verb 'to have'. Therefore, 'got' is

substituted for every tense of the verb for example "I got my bag" or Got like that one

meh?. The word got is also used to deny something for example Where got!

The word c an is used extensively as both a question particle and an answer particle.

Can lah means Yes, can lor means I think so, can meh means Are you certain? and

can can means confirm. The negative is cannot means No or No way. The word "terrer" pronounced as the English terror refers to someone or something being awesomely amazing

for example "T hat guy is terrer!" The word chop does not mean cutting something in two,

in Manglish it carries two meaning. The first one is carries the meanings of stamp from the

Malay word of cop for example Please chop here. And the second one means stamp of

approval from an important document or person. Spoiled or spoilt is used to describe a

machine that is out of order and it is a dir ect translation of the Malay word rosak.

In some cases there are words that are combined together with English words. The

usage of Manglish is so diverse and sometimes carried more than a meaning in different

context.

Lets Cabut (English + Malay) = Lets Flee

So Humsup (English + Cantonese) = So Perverted

Pay at the pondok ( English + Malay) = Pay at the kiosk.

You are so kaypoh ( English + Cantonese) = You are so nosey


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Chin Chai wear ( Hokkien + English) = casual clothing or simple attire

Tak ngam ( Malay + Cantonese) = Not correct or does not match

Kopi Money (Malay + English) = Bribe or unlawful commission

There are also words in Cantonese or Malay that are used directly in sentences. For

example some direct translation fr om other languages like Die! from the word sei in

Cantonese with similar meaning. Such shortened words to describe something are very

common in Manglish because Malaysians like to make everything simple and short. There is

also a strong influence from Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, and Tamil, which are other

major dialects and languages spoken in Malaysia. Verbs or adjectives from other languages

often have English affixes, and conversely sentences may be constructed using English words

in another language's syntax. People tend to translate phrases directly from their firstlanguages into English, for instance, "on the light" instead of "turn on the light". Or

sometimes, "open the light", translated directly from Chinese.

Manglish also uses some anachronistic British terms from the era of British

colonization like "gostan" which means reverse a vehicle it is a word derived apparently from

the nautical term "go astern" and "outstation" which means out of town. Other words that are

used in Manglish are as follows and the true English equivalent is given respectively.

Handphone is mainly used in Manglish and in British English it is called mobile phone.

Brinjal is used instead of Aubergine, KIV means Keep in View is used instead of keep on

file. Medical Certificate or MC is used instead of sick note. The word Photostat is preferred

than the word photocopy. The word last time is preferred to the word previously.

Another confusing word is follow, when a Malaysian say Im driving, you follow

me, it does not mean you follow him in your own car driving behind him. It means you are

accompanying him in his car, it means you are going with him in his car. The word Send in

Manglish means to give someone a lift, such as I send you home lah.

The word boss a common form of address mostly applied to male, particularly in

eateries, such as order drink boss. Malaysian uses the word "sir" when we address our male

teacher dir ectly. It is the equivalent of cikgu in Malay. However, when we refer to him in

conver sation, sir should be replac ed with the teacher or Mr Chong if his surname is

Chong. As for the word Stay, Malaysians will say where do you stay? instead of where do

you live? The word a lread y is also mainly used in Manglish it is used rather than now,


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for example he is angry already. Another word that is often used in Manglish, especially in

conversation between locals is the word One. The usage of one or wan is usually used

to emphasize things, for example why you so like that one? or Why your sister never like

me one?

When Malaysians says Action it means show off , in daily conversation it may be

used like You so action only meaning you are showing off. The word Actually is used in

Manglish as a sentence starter, it is also carry the meaning of to be perfec tly honest or

frankly speaking On a funny note when someone say give chan lah it is a half serious

plea, as in "Give us a chance, will you?" or it could also mean "Please do us a favour." And

the se ntence How can it is another elastic expression applicable in almost any situation, for

example "That's not right!" or "Impossible!" or "You don't say!" The sentence My one is

actually a possessive pronoun, meaning it belongs to me or its mine. And the word Ne

mine actually stands for Never mind. When a Malaysian say yes ah it shows a general

expression of interest, usually inserted as a question during conversations, as in "Oh, really?"

and if the conversation goes sour the other party may say Yes lah it shows a non -

committal agreement, liberally used when confronted with a stubborn person. A string of "yes

lah" issuing forth from the other party is a sure sign that he or she wishes to terminate

the conversation as soon as possible.

Conclusion

Manglish is considered as a combination and direct translation of different languages

in Malaysia. It has long taken on an identity and life of its own. Young Malaysians and

students of English nowadays learn to speak Manglish not because they are translating from

their mother tongues, but because they hear and copy it from their parents and others around

them. In other words, Manglish has grown into a self-standing language or, more accurately,

a Creole which means a language fused from two or more languages. Manglish can be

classified as a pidgin or Creole language because it is a simplified form of English mixed

with Malay and Chinese, which has become a separate language from Standard English. The

main problem of Manglish is simply it can only be understood by Malaysian itself. A

foreigner will have difficulties to understand it since they are not exposed to Malaysian

culture and other languages like Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil.


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b) In your opinion should Manglish be encouraged in the ESL classroom? Why?

Every nation has its national language and this must be the pride of the nation. The

Malay language is the definitive language of the population and every Malaysian has

acknowledged this fact. Every effort must be made for all Malaysians to be adept in the

National language but not at the expense of ignoring English. Malaysians should not be

deprived of learning other languages if they wish. If there can be international schools where

English is used to teach there should not be any reason why there cannot be English-medium

schools in the country. Its only fair that those who cannot afford their children to be

educated in international schools could choose to send their children to the English-medium

schools provided by the government or the private sector. With regards to socio cultural

settings, such as the urban centres, we are exposed to people who are comfortable in their

own English-speaking environment. English is not restricted to the home and school but can

be used among friends in social intercourse and also in transactions both official and non-

official, among government bodies.

One of the most widely accepted ideas about the teaching of English is that learners

should adopt and speak like a native English speaker. But as English becomes more widely

used as a global language, it will become expected that speakers will signal their nationality,

and other aspects of their identity, through English. That what has happen with Malaysian

Manglish. It could not be avoided since it came naturally to most Malaysian and children

heard it being used at home, shops and also being spoken at school.

The reason the Malaysian government encourages the use of English is to boost the

nations competitiveness. However, Manglish has exactly the opposite effect. For example,

call centres in Cyberjaya are shutting down and moving to other countries because overseas

callers are fed up with hearing no -lah and ya -lah when they call up with a technical

problem. Meanwhile, Countries like Thailand, Korea and China are succeeding in raising the

level of English in those countries.


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These localization phenomena and the widespread of Manglish have caused fear

among educators and professionals especially the native speakers that English has turned into

a corrupt language. Therefore the use and development of English is influenced by the

national language of Malaysia, Bahasa Melayu and its regional dialects, that co-exists withother languages like Indian and Chinese. These languages have influenced the verbal

repertoire of English language in Malaysia. There has been an ongoing fear that the spread of

English will only lead to its disintegration and further grow into several mutually

unintelligible languages. Native speakers have expressed their concern about the growing

acceptance of distinct non-native varieties of English language. This would be in contrast

with the official standard practiced in the education sector for the use of English. The present

situation in Malaysia is marked by increasing efforts to elevate the status and standard of

English instruction at the school level but this is not felt necessary for societal needs in the

home or in workplace.

As the Malays, Chinese, Indians have their own mother tongue language, the need for

acquiring English vary from the second language for the Malays and the third language for

the Chinese and Indians as Bahasa Malaysia is the official language. Hence, Malaysian

English arises to be the lingua-franca to this multiracial society. For example, a Malay

speaker would speak Malaysian English with certain words, phrases, particles understood by

the Chinese and Indians. For instance, instead of speaking proper English for It should be

done like that! the Malaysian English version would be Like that one .

A language becomes standard if the spoken and written language is clearly

understood by its users. The language becomes in comprehensible and later leads to major

problems if the acquisition of new varieties of English occurs in isolation from their cultural

context. Therefore, it is important to use the Malaysian English only in its own sociolinguistic

settings. It is also important to note that the status of English in that particular country

depends in its importance as English is the second language as in Malaysia.

Manglish should not be encouraged in English classroom simple because it is not

English. Take a student who only speaks Manglish and put him in a British or American

Classroom, no one will understand what he is saying. With a lah in every word, with can

or cannot and mixtures of Bahasa Malaysia or Chinese dialect in the sentences as well it will


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be difficult for the other students to understand him. Once a student get into the habit of

speaking broken English, it is really difficult to speak proper English. Its better to learn

correct English from scratch. It is important for English teacher to speak and to encourage

students to speak Standard and proper English. Manglish or broken English should be bannedfrom being used in the classroom. Among the features of Manglish are the usage of particle

lah, the direct translations of Bahasa Malaysia o r Chinese to English and the intonation,

speech rhythm and pronunciation. It will be difficult for Malaysian students to learn proper or

Standard English if they are encouraged to us Manglish in school. It is not realistic to use

words like oledi and liedat in written English . Imagine what the newspapers, magazines

and book would be like if the whole country could only understand Manglish.

As for English teachers why stick our heads in the sand if progress is what we aspire

for? Teaching and learning of English as a second language in the country has not been

effective at some point. The most the country could produce today are those who could speak

Manglish a mixed language of English words and mother tongue and students could write

nothing intelligible in the language after years of so-called education. Billions of ringgit has

been wasted on plans to make Malaysian students proficient in the language but it has

achieved minimal results. Malaysians in general do not have the resolve to learn English

unlike the Europeans. The flip-flop education policy has further exacerbated the problem.

The countrys education system has disappointed the people.

In a similar point, pronunciation is assumed to be an essential component of speech

and oral skills. Proper pronunciation of words and sentences in English is important for

students to be understood and to be taken seriously in the outside world. Oral skills will also

enable learners to convey their thoughts and ideas clearly in speech when they pronounce

words correctly and observe correct stress and intonation.

A simple acquaintance with the language alone is not enough for new technologies to

be learnt. English is important to be learnt correctly and its delivery and implementation in

schools must be taken seriously by the government and education ministry. It is unfortunate

perhaps for the language nationalists but that is the reality today. The government should not

take the issue of future generations lightly by objecting to the mastery and usage of the

English language. Lack of self-confidence among graduates as well as their poor


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communication skills has to be taken seriously and improvement should be made. Their

communication skills are so poor that sometimes they cannot even relay what they want to

express in their own language. Unfortunately, it applies to the large majority of graduates in

Malaysia irrespective of whether they originate from local or foreign universities. Even manyof the top students, who are excellent in their technical skills, are very poor in their language

and communication skills. Employers will often complain that they cannot understand the

emails from these graduates. All this could be improved by improving English language

teaching approach in schools. Students must be taught basic proper and Standard English

from primary school until tertiary level.

The poor communication skills are almost cultural. The English language syllabus in

Malaysia does provide an avenue for pronunciation skills to be included in classroom

practices and this reflects the assumption that using good and proper pronunciation is

important to communicate and to be understood. Without adequate proper usage of English

and pronunciation skills, a person s communicative skills may be severely hampered, and this

in turn may give rise to speech that lacks intelligibility leading to glitches in conversation.

Furthermore, the variety of accents originating from multi-ethnic and multi-lingual speakers

with different educational experiences makes the choice of a particular accent and way of

speech is a challenging task in Malaysia. As an English teacher I strongly believe that

Manglish should not be encourage in Malaysian classroom. It should be avoided and students

must be encouraged to use proper Standard English in school.


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References

Anis Ibrahim. (2005, August 16). Embrace English as our language. New Straits Times,

p.4.Brindley, G. (1998). Outcomes-based assessment and reporting in language learning

programmes: a review of the issues. Language Testing, 15(1),45-85.

Crismore, Ngeow & Soo.(1996). Attitudes towards English in Malaysia. World Englishes,

15(3), 319-335.

Deterding, D. (2005). Emergent patterns in the vowels of Singapore English. English World

Wide, 26(2), 179-197.

Jenkins, J. (2000). The phonology of English as an international language. Oxford: Oxford

University Press.

Jenkins, J. (2007). English as a lingua franca: Attitude and identity. Oxford: Oxford

University Press.

Graddol, D. (2006). English next. British Council. Retrieved on October 15, 2006 from

http://www.britishcouncil.org/files/documents/learning-research-english-next.pdf

Ellis, R. (1997). Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Foley, J.A, et al. (1998). English in New Cultural Contexts. Singapore: Oxford University

Press

Platt, J. & H. Weber. (1980). English in Singapore and Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford

University Press

Linguistics for Language Teachers

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