Determining whether Malaysian students have more preference for using British English or American English
Introduction
Other than Bahasa Malaysia, English is the lingua franca of Malaysians. British English (hereafter BrE) was very prominent within Malaysia due to its history with British colonialism. However, as Malaysians have been widely Americanised through contact and acculturation with the American media and culture, young Malaysians in recent times have now used both BrE and American English (hereafter AmE) in their everyday lives. Hence, now there exists a fine line between the prominence of BrE and AmE, and many find it difficult to discern the differences. Therefore, in this research paper, I will investigate whether Malaysian students have more preference for using BrE or AmE, without going into accents as the scope by itself can contribute to its own research.
Background: English in Malaysia
Malaysia is the second best in English as a second language in the Asian Outer Circle based on the EF English Proficiency Index, with a percentage of 60.70% of the population are proficient in English (Breene 2016). Furthermore, Malaysia is a British postcolonial country. According to Al Jazeera (2013), the British colonialism over Malaysia started during the 18th century and ended in 1957, which shows that it lasted for approximately 200 years.
According to Schneider (2003:52), since Malaysia's independence, Malaysia's nationalist language policy was implemented to develop Bahasa Malaysia to become its national language, and to eliminate English's privileged status as co-official language following a transition period. English was removed from its official status in 1967, and much later in the states of East Malaysia due to differences in region (Asmah 2000, cited in Schneider 2003:53). The reason for this was for the complete development of Bahasa Malaysia, hence it was inevitable for the Malaysian government to deprive its special status (Gill 2002, cited in Schneider 2003:53; Schneider 2003). Lowenberg (1991:365) also pointed out that the reason for this policy was to better Malays' status within their economic competition with influential non-Malays such as the Chinese and South Asian immigrants. Due to the new policy implementation, the subjects in schools were taught in Malay, and young Malaysians in all ethnicities were able to fully converse in Malay. Therefore, Bahasa Malaysia has successfully established itself as a national language today (Jernudd 2003, cited in Schneider 2003:53).
Furthermore, Schneider (2003:53) mentioned that, as the nationalist language policy was successful, the fourth prime minister Dr Mahathir established the ‘Vision 2020' policy during the 1990's to change Malaysia into a fully developed country by 2020. The vision placed importance on being fluent in English for the country's technological advancement and globalisation, which re-introduced English in more technical subjects. However, in 2009, the re-reversal in language-in-education policy changed the medium of instruction for technical subjects in national schools back into Bahasa Malaysia. Despite the constant changing of language-in-education policy, English is still prevalent. Some converse with other ethnics in English and some others identify English as their mother tongue which means that the language has been undergoing nativisation (Gill 2002; David 2000, cited in Schneider 2003:54).
Methodology
In this paper, I decided to carry out a quantitative research design, which included a questionnaire-based survey. The reason for this approach is due to the nature of my research's aim as it targets only young Malaysians and the lack of information regarding young Malaysians' preference in using BrE or AmE. A total of thirty Malaysian students participated in this study. They will theoretically represent all young Malaysians who have knowledge in English.
1. Method of data collection, analysis and discussion
The survey was carried out by using Google Forms. Within the questionnaire, I had set up twenty-five questions which test the participants preference in using BrE and AmE. The questions were divided into three sections. The first section questions were closed-ended. The participants were provided ten pictures to choose answers between BrE or AmE vocabulary. The second section had open-ended questions that required the participants to complete sentences. The participants' preference was tested in their spelling, preposition, usage of tense and past tense, delexical verbs, and auxiliaries and modals. I also used formal and informal context within the sentences to see whether there will be changes in the participants' answers. This was made to allow more varied answers and discussion. The last section was another set of close-ended questions of the participants' experience with English for proof and further discussion in this paper.
The results for each section will be shown in percentage through tables that will display the frequency of using BrE or AmE. After that, I will move on to discuss the results I have obtained and my analysis. In addition, I will discuss the reasons for the participants to use a certain type of English in different contexts. Moreover, I will discuss in reference to other researchers.
2. Limitations
The results obtained in this research will be a generalisation as it only theoretically represents all young Malaysians who know English. I am aware of the possible exceptions such as the influence of the participant's family and educational background. Thus, the results will not be a dogmatic representation of all young Malaysians.
Results and Analysis
The tables for all three sections are displayed in three diagrams on the following pages. In Table 1, the Malaysian students have more preference for using AmE than BrE for most of the given word choice. 60% of American words were more preferable. However, the British vocabulary that the Malaysian students were more likely to use were zebra crossing and anticlockwise instead of their counterparts. It is also displayed that equal amount of the participants prefers to use both airplane and aeroplane, and parking lot and carpark.
In Table 2, the Malaysian students have a slightly more preference for using American grammar. 60% leaned more to grammatically American answers. Other answers were also used by the participants and are recorded in the table.
In Table 3, 96.7% of the participants grew up watching American cartoons, and 90% often watch American television programmes and movies. Additionally, 80% of them prefer to use BrE in writing essays. It is also displayed that 70% of the students still have problems with using prepositions, and 70% prefer to use AmE in their everyday interactions.
Discussion
In the analysis of Table 1, it was mentioned that most of the American terms were preferable than British terms. While there will be exceptions like packages, restaurant menus and movies having British terms. If looked into closely, food was more likely to be labeled in American terms. The reason would be the use of these words in everyday life. For instance, Malaysians are more likely to read the words ‘candy', ‘sprinkles' and ‘cookies' on packages during grocery shopping. ‘Fries' are also seen more on the menus of restaurants instead of ‘chips', except for ‘fish and chips'. The participants also prefer American terms like ‘apartment' and ‘truck' more. Hence, the participants may have passively acquired these vocabulary preferences. This may lead to the fact in accordance with Asmah's (2000:19) argument, which stated that English can be acquired very naturally, despite being acquired passively through watching popular movies or shows, assuming it is similar with encountering the language through other elements.
In Table 2, it was displayed that most American grammar was more preferred by the participants. They prefer to use auxiliary and modal verbs ‘should' and ‘will' than ‘shall'. They also prefer to use prepositions ‘in' and ‘on' for place and time respectively, and this could mean that this form of grammar was read and heard more through the vastly Americanised media that Malaysians can easily get in contact to. Other than encountering more of these grammar structures from advertisements and signboards, or magazine and books, they may also hear these American terms more on television shows or movies. It is also displayed in Table 3 that 90% and over of the participants grew up watching American cartoons and still often watch American movies and shows. According to Ali (2014:98), the large influx of American television shows and entertainment has affected in the acceptance of AmE, especially in the Malaysian education system. Thus, these American terms most probably had secured themselves into the vocabulary library of the thoughts of the Malaysian students through the vast globalisation of American culture. Moreover, the reason for this influx is due to its easy accessibility through television, news, and even the radio (Nair-Venugopal 2000, cited in Schneider 2003:53).
In addition, it was evident in Table 2 that the participants have some preference for using neutral words. For example, in question 5, 76.6% preferred to use ‘from' instead of ‘in' and ‘at', and 33.3% preferred ‘during' and ‘for' in question 6. The reason is due to their difficulty in using prepositions as stated in Table 3. The reason, however, is not always due to the students' weakness in English because Malaysian students generally learn English as a second language (ESL). Researchers like Loi et al. (2017) and Islami (2015) only identified the patterns of the mistakes of ESL students, and merely passed the reason for the mistakes as due to them being ESL students. In actuality, this problem could also expand to the confusion in using the grammatical formula of prepositions for both BrE and AmE. According to Dirgeyasa (2016), there are several differences in the use of prepositions for both AmE and BrE. For expressing time, ‘on' is used for AmE while ‘at' is used for BrE, and when it is to express the place, ‘in' is used for AmE while ‘at' is used for BrE. Furthermore, 16.76% participants used the preposition ‘in' for ‘the weekend'. This grammatical mistake is due to its direct translation of ‘dalam hujung minggu' in Malay.
Additionally, in Table 1, most participants preferred to use zebra crossing and anticlockwise instead of their American counterparts. This may be due to the participants' early exposure to these words in schools. Schools in Malaysia tend to teach the identification of roads and time using British terms as English education in Malaysia is BrE-based. The schools in Malaysia also drilled the students to use ‘colour' instead of ‘color' due to the English education system being British-based, even though there was a change in the countrywide marking system that allows only American spellings if consistency is kept (Ali 2014:99). However, there are problems with this acceptance as some students were taught that ‘learned' and ‘dreamt' were right while ‘learnt' and ‘dreamed' are not.
Lastly, I had attempted to test the participants on whether their preferred answers would change when I changed the formality of the context. However, no signs of preferences of using British English for formal contexts and vice versa were met.
Conclusion
Therefore, I had presented the results on whether Malaysian students have more preference to using BrE or AmE, and discussed the causes to the preferences. In this paper, I had further discussed the possible causes of the fine line between BrE and AmE, discussed the reasons of the patterned habits of Malaysian students in using both Englishes, and discussed another reason for the problems of using prepositions. I have concluded that young Malaysians are very much Americanised because they prefer using AmE more in everyday life, as stated clearly in my results.
References
Al Jazeera. (2013). Timeline: Malaysia's history. [online] Available at: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/spotlight/malaysiaelections/2013/04/201342882836970501.html [Accessed 27 Dec. 2017].
Ali, F. (2014). Implementing EIL Paradigm in ELT Classrooms: Voices of Experienced and Pre-service English Language Educators in Malaysia. In: R. Marlina, and R. Giri, ed., The Pedagogy of English as an International Language: Perspectives from Scholars, Teachers, and Students, 1st ed. [ebook] Clayton: Springer International Publishing Switzerland, pp. 98. Available at: https://books.google.com.my/books?id=qOUpBAAAQBAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s [Accessed 27 Dec. 2017].
Breene, K. (2016). Which countries are best at English as a second language? [online] World Economic Forum. Available at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/11/which-countries-are-best-at-english-as-a-second-language-4d24c8c8-6cf6-4067-a753-4c82b4bc865b/ [Accessed 27 Dec. 2017].
Dirgeyasa, I. (2016). THE TYPICAL DIFFERENT FEATURES OF GRAMMAR OF THE BRITISH ENGLISH (BrE) AND AMERICAN ENGLISH (AmE). Ethical Lingua, [online] 3(2), pp.141-152. Available at: http://journal.uncp.ac.id/index.php/ethicallingua/article/view/302/285 [Accessed 22 Dec. 2017].
Islami, A. (2015). The main difficulties in mastering the English language prepositions. [online] PhD. AAB College. Available at: https://aab-edu.net/en/documents/thesis-kosova/no-03-2015/main-difficulties-mastering-english-language-prepositions/ [Accessed 27 Dec. 2017].
Loi, C., Akkakoson, S., Odacıoğlu, M., Suki, N. and Bating, H. (2017). Malay ESL Students’ Difficulties in Using English Prepositions. International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, [online] 3(3), pp. 122-127. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/34636496/Malay_ESL_Students_Difficulties_in_Using_English_Preposition [Accessed 27 Dec. 2017].
Lowenberg, P. (1991). Variation in Malaysia English: The pragmatics of languages in contact. In: J. Cheshire, ed., English around the World: Sociolinguistic Perspectives, 1st ed. [ebook] Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 365. Available at: https://books.google.com.my/books?id=ifl9ajM20fMC [Accessed 22 Dec. 2017].
Schneider, E. (2003). Evolutionary Patterns of New Englishes and the Special Case of Malaysian English. Asian Englishes, [online] 6(2), pp.52-55. Available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13488678.2003.10801118 [Accessed 22 Dec. 2017].
Appendix
Survey participants: 30
Survey URL: goo.gl/ruoCvm
Survey questions:
Section 1: Vocabulary preferences
Sprinkles / Hundreds and thousands
Cookie / Biscuit
French fries / Chips
Airplane / Aeroplane
Apartment / Flat
Truck / Lorry
Candy / Sweets
Crosswalk / Zebra crossing
Parking lot / Carpark
Counterclockwise / Anticlockwise
Section 2: Grammatical preferences
I can’t find my car keys! ___ you see(n) them?
The child is ___ a snack.
In this essay, I ___ discuss how the social media industry is flourishing.
___ we ask him to join us?
The students who graduated ___ X University have been very successful in their careers.
I’ll be there ___ the weekend as promised.
He ___ of being a successful writer.
She ___ to cook through YouTube videos.
Which ___ will suit me better? Red or blue?
She is wearing ___ to get ready for bed.
Section 3: Experiences with English
Did you grow up watching American cartoons? Yes/no
Do you use British English in your essays? Yes/no
Do you often watch American TV shows or movies? Yes/no
Which English do you use in casual conversations? AmE/BrE
Do you, at times, still have problems with using prepositions (in, on, at)? Yes/no
