The Importance Of English Language Proficiency In Malaysia

Introduction

Today, English was made accessible to the whole society. Since English Language Teaching in Malaysia has been introduced by the British colonial educational system in the 1960s according to Asmah Haji Omar (1992, as cited by Wendy Hiew, 2012), this language has been taught and become compulsory as a second language in all schools in Malaysia. English was formally accorded the status of a second language when National Language Policy was implemented in 1970s (Saadiyah Darus, 2009). Thang Siew Ming, Ting Siew Ling and Nurjanah Mohd Jaafar cite Gill in saying that, “English is placed as the second language in Malaysia and in the line with education policy; English is taught as a second language” (2011, p. 40). Numerous steps have been taken to improve the quality of English language among the students. Aspire to get good grades, opportunities to further their studies and career advancement to improve their English are some factors that motivated the ESL learners in Malaysia extrinsically (Thang, Ting and Nurjanah, 2011). However, after spending eleven years during the school time in learning English, a portion of the students still cannot master and have low proficiency in English. How can this happen? Several factors that can cause the low level of English language proficiency among secondary school students are the usage of mother tongue language, students’ motivation and teachers’ teaching methods.

Students’ motivation and attitudes

First and foremost, one importance factor that can contribute to this problem among secondary school students is the students’ attitudes and motivation. Gardner(1985) view that the students who have positive attitudes and high level of motivation will be more successful than the ...

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...illing using past-year examination questions, work sheets and exercise books, contrast with what had stated by Ministry of Education (2003), “Classroom teaching is highly characterized by teacher-centered approaches and chalk-and-talk drill method.” But, excessive of the conventional chalk-and-talk also can make the process of learning get boring. So that, the teachers must be creative to attract students’ attention and make them more interested to learn English. For examples, do some games and activities in groups .It will be more interactive and fun for the students as also stated by Jamali Ismail, “There are also other activities. i.e. singing and listening to selected songs, languages games, etc., that can be carried out to increase the volume of communicative exercises and at the same time to make English learning more meaningful and enjoyable.” (1994, p. 18).