LANGUAGE USE AMONG

POLYTECHNIC STUDENTS
A STUDY AMONG DKM 5A
OUTLINE OF THE PRESENTATION
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Methodology
• Results and Discussion
• Conclusion
I would like to thank the students
of DKM 5A for participating in the
study
INTRODUCTION
• Malaysia is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and a post-colonial country - English has a
long history in the language development process; where it has been the language of
administration as well as education and has been used within the nation as a second
language among its population
• English continues to play an important role and has always been regarded as a
language of prestige, and demonstrates a range of intra- and international uses.
• English has always been an important language of communication across diverse
linguistic and cultural groups and is clearly an important language for education,
technology, economy, and global aspirations of the nation
• English is learnt early in life and sometimes mastered to high levels of proficiency
and is considered dominant language of the more educated groups, is spoken in
almost every aspect of Malaysian life, and plays a lively part in Malaysia urban society
(Rajadurai, 2008).
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The questions that will be analyzed in the paper are:
• What is the dominant language used by polytechnic students in social and formal
communication?
• What are the attitudes and perceptions of students towards the use of English
language in communication?
LITERATURE REVIEW
• However, the aforementioned points may not be possible to some segments of the
population, especially those in rural areas or in the lower socioeconomics levels
where English competence is a low priority and this seems to be particularly true for
especially, the Malays (David & Govindasamy, 2007; Gupta, 1997 in Rajadurai, 2009).
• Communication among members of one and the same group generally takes place in
the language of the group itself (Asmah Omar, 1993).
• When communicating with others, we will resort to using the language that is most
common or easily understood by members of the group that we are talking to.
• There is always a tendency to intermingle their verbal communication with anyone of
the languages that they are exposed to such as Malay, English or Mandarin.
• The paper aims to investigate the language used among a group of Polytechnic
students - whether there is a dominant language used in communication and
attitudes and perceptions of students on the use of English language in
communication will also be analyzed
METHODOLOGY
• A set of questionnaire were distributed to each students. The questionnaire consists
of four sections- Demographic, Section A (Language Used When Communicating
with Different Group of People), Section B (Language Spoken by People from
Different Group to the Respondent), Section C (Language Used during Different
Activities and Section D (Attitudes and Perceptions towards the Use of English
language).
• The questionnaire is adapted from Language Background Scale constructed by
Baker (1992) in providing a full inventory of bilingual measurements of people who
are considered bilinguals. To enable the respondents to self rate their language used,
Likert-Scale is used ranging from strongly agreed to strongly disagree to the
statements given in the items. The respondents are required to provide their choice of
respond by ticking the box that really suits their stance of a particular statement.
• The data are later analyzed using descriptive analysis where frequency, mean and
mode are tabulated. The data are presented mostly using table and descriptive
elaboration based on the mentioned theme and section.
 Table 1: The Distribution of Respondents According To Hometown

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

• Analysing the gender of respondents, 5 are male and 5 are female. The respondents
are represented by 90% (9) Malays, 1 respondent is from Chinese ethnic group (10%)

Respondents Hometown
Northern Area Central Southern Area East Coast East Malaysia
Frequency - 6 3 - 1
Total (n) 10

• Majority of the respondents are originated from the central zone where 60% come
from Perak, Negeri Sembilan, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. 30% of the respondents
are from Johore and Malacca which are the southern zone whereas 10% of the
respondent is from Sabah
• 80% of the respondents (8/10) speak Malay as their mother tongue while 10% (1/10)
speaks Mandarin and Tamil respectively
Based on the graph, it is obvious that in most social contexts, most respondents resort to use their mother tongue when they are communicating with the people who have closer connections to them.

The Language Used in Social and Formal Context

7

4
Social

3 Formal

0
Mother Tongue MT > English MT = English English > MT English

•Based on the graph, it is obvious that in most social contexts, most respondents resort to use their
mother tongue when they are communicating with the people who have closer connections to them.

• It can also be seen that in formal context, English is the dominant language used by the respondents
 The Language Spoken by People to Respondents in Social and Formal Context
9

5
Social
4 Formal

0
Mother Tongue MT > English MT = English English > MT English

• People used mother tongue as the language they speak to the respondents.

• However in formal contexts, the language varies in using mother tongue more than English and a
mixture of mother and English
 Always in mother In mother tongue In mother tongue and In English more Always in English
tongue more than English English equally often than mother
tongue
Watching TV/Videos 2 1 3 3 1
Newspaper/ 4 3 1 1 1
Comics
Records/ 2 3 1 2 1
Cassettes/CDs
Listening to radio 4 - 3 2 1
Shopping 3 2 - 4 -
Playing sport 5 2 2 1 -
On the telephone 4 4 2 - -
Reading books 4 1 2 1 1
Giving instructions 5 2 1 1 1
Communicating in meetings 4 2 2 2 -
Communicating in 5 1 2 3 -
discussions
Clubs/Society 4 2 2 1 1
On the Net : Facebook, 2 3 1 3 1
Twitter
Writing emails 4 1 2 2 1
Other leisure activities 5 2 1 1 -
• Based on the table, it is obvious that a mixture of mother tongue and
English language is often used in the respondents’ daily activities.
• Highlighting on the considered formal contexts of daily activities,
namely giving instructions, communicating in meeting and
discussions and attending clubs/society activities, it can be identified
that the language used of respondents is dominantly in their mother
tongue.
• In most cases, it is obvious that the respondents either used only their
mother tongue, a mixture of their mother tongue and English or
English is used lesser than their mother tongue in carrying out their
activities depending on the nature of the activities and the people they
are in contact of.
STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE LANGUAGE USE
• I am comfortable when people speak to me in English
Based on the statement, 80% of the respondents agree to the statement whereas the
remaining 20% are undecided
• I am comfortable when people of the same ethnicity speak English among
themselves
It is obvious that most of the respondents are very much open with their choice of
respond to a statement which has a relation to their ethnicity or cultural issues. 30%
of the respondents are undecided of their preferences whereas 70% agree with the
statement .
STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE LANGUAGE USE
• I can understand when people speak English to me
20% of the respondents strongly agree that they can understand when people speak
to them in English and 80% agree to the statement

• I am able to respond confidently when people talk to me in English

10% of the respondents strongly agree to the statement, however, since the statement
did not state the language used in giving their responds, it is not certain whether the
language used as meant by the respondents are their mother tongue or English or a
mixture of both. 50% agree to the statement while only 20% are undecided and 20%
disagreed
STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE LANGUAGE USE
• I am more comfortable speaking in my mother tongue with my friends
Majority of the respondents agree with the statement where 50% strongly agree and
30%agree that they are more comfortable speaking in their mother tongue with their
friends and only 20% disagree to the statement.

• I feel people who speak in English are showing off

Based on the table, it is obvious that the respondents have a mixture of attitude
towards people who are speaking in English. 20% stated their agreement that they
feel people who are speaking in English are showing off, 20% is undecided, 30%
disagree with the notion and 30% strongly disagree to the statement that people who
speak in English are showing off.
DISCUSSIONS
• it is obvious that there are certain criteria and references that the respondent made in
determining their language choice.
• when communicating with family and close relative, we will normally speak in the
language that every members of the group understand and able to communicate with
• when we are talking to a group of people who use a certain choice of language, we will
at best try to use the same language in most communicative activities.
• The language preference is somehow automatic depending on the people that we are
speaking to as well as the nature of communication that takes place
• It is identified that in formal situations, a mixture of mother tongue or the official
language is used together with English and in some cases only English is used as the
medium of communication.
• it is proven that most of the respondents exhibit positive attitudes and perceptions
towards the use of English language in communication
CONCLUSION
• The choice of language to be used in communication, to whom we speak a certain
language and in which activity we used a certain language is happening automatically
within person communicative strategies.

• it can be concluded that the language choice is very much depended on the group
that the speaker belongs to, the main or subgroup that the speaker is speaking to and
the setting of communication including the purpose and the outcome that the person
intended to achieve by carrying out the conversation.

• It is hoped that the article has provide adequate information and insights in the
issues of language dominance and language choice especially among the speakers and
users of English language