Mastering English Language People of Sarawak

Question: Discuss about the Mastering English Language for People of Sarawak. Answer: Introduction Malaysian media has for many times throughout the last few years made public the poor condition of English as a language among the Sarawak students and especially University Students. The lack of proper knowledge of English has not only contributed to the poor employment rates but also created a situation where students are not able to use the language properly. Sarawak is one of the two islands of Borneo, Malaysia. The Sarawak state has a diverse ethnicity and also language. There are people from different cultures, ethnicities that live and work in Sarawak. After being under the influence of Japan and later allowed to self-govern itself, it was a powerful state in Malaysia. The Bruneian Malays and both the British and the Chinese have immense influence on the culture of Sarawak. (Company, 2003) The state has a high urban population which allows more growth and better education but there are not less than forty sub divisional ethnic groupings who exhibit their own culture and lifestyle as well. The main reason the English language has seen a steady decrease which has been highlighted many times in the recent years are a result of various reasons which include a lack of technical abilities, the bad attitude of teachers who are designated to teach the language, Inadequate knowledge of the language . Also some students have said that they face difficulty while shifting between the mediums and that the evaluation system is outdated.(Geertz, 2003). The issue is almost always associated with the process used by teachers to teach their students. The students are however another reason why students are not really interested in learning the language as well. The students own perception of how well they can learn the subject is another reason for the success or failure of the students to learn the language.(Kamaruddin, 2015). The different cultures and the different languages make English learning a tough matter for students of Sarawak. The main problem faced by the Student of Sarawak is the problem that they are not taught English from their lower classes which make them nervous while learning it in high school or at the university. Students fail to understand the teachings and are unable to understand the directions as well. The difference with the students who know English well enough and a Sarawak student is that they both might have the great knowledge but the Sarawak Student will find it harder to understand the directions as well as talk and reply back in English. While everyday work like taking a bus or the cab does not necessitate the need for learning English for a Sarawak student but being in a course that requires you to understand and evaluate matters in English will bring about a problem for the Sarawak student. Henceforth, owing to its debilitating outcome, the researchers felt a study examining aspects of learners affective Aspect such as anxiety on English language outcome would be of paramount benefit (Daud, 2005). Methods A fact that has been widely reported by the media is that the students of Malaysia are poor in English and that even the Malaysian Certificate of Education (SPM) has also explained that less students are getting certificates for English and the soft skills are indicating poor acquisition of English as a communicative language as well as employers reactions nationwide. Even the Minister of Education himself was baffled over continued poor standards of English in the country(Dumanig, 2012). Other than instructor related factors mentioned earlier, students attitude, limited exposure and opportunity to use English in their daily conversation also posed as deterrent from acquiring sufficient competency. It is also reported in more recent research that acquiring a new language is a difficult aspect of learning. The students are often seen to experience anxiety with language. The students also find that they are unable for learning or understanding the language. It used a newly self-develop ed questionnaire constructed primarily based on Youngs (1991) and Oxfords (1999) theory of potential sources of language anxiety. Since language anxiety can meddle with the securing, maintenance and creation of a language , the analysts trust better comprehension of how it sways on learning is urgent if students somehow managed to be turned out to be better English language users has been inspected by Horwitz et al. (1986) that remote or second language anxiety concerns execution assessment inside a scholarly and social setting, hence it is valuable to draw parallels amongst it and three related execution tensions, which are correspondence dread, test anxiety and trepidation of negative assessment. Albeit open worry, test anxiety and trepidation of negative assessment give valuable theoretical building squares to a portrayal of outside or second language anxiety, also different authors recommended that remote or even the second language increases anxiety among students. They conside red remote or second language anxiety as an unmistakable(Sarawak,Save , 2013) Results From the writing, various contributing components to anxiety in English language learning were distinguished. The components were classified into two primary builds, in particular individual (beginning inside or from inside an individual) and interpersonal (the connection between a person with others/his surroundings) variables. Things speaking to every builds were further separated into a few sub-develops. Notwithstanding decide the effect of distinguished variables on anxiety, the analysts were additionally intrigued to see whether there were different reasons for anxiety that were not found out some time recently. It can be said that both individual and interpersonal elements do add to language anxiety among the exploration members. It is to some degree shocking however that none of the meeting members resounded intensity as the reason for their anxiety(Sabah, 2014). A conceivable clarification is that they would not have any desire to be seen as making a decent attempt to measure up to others' standard. In any case, it was evident from their verbal reactions that absence of certainty has critical effect on their English competency. In the interim, the following two causal elements of anxiety were outer in nature(MohamadMahathir, 2010). Plainly verbal and composed associations amongst educator and students additionally make anxiety, especially when students are in perspective that the teachers anticipate that they will be capable in English. This situation turns out to be more basic if the educator is seen as having certain judgments on students. The connection between the problems of students because of language anxiety also proposes that there are numerous potential sources originating from the understudy, the teacher and the instructional methodology which have noteworthy effect to the second language learning. Subsequently, utilizing the discoveries blended from the works of Young (1991) and Oxford (1999), this present study has inferred five wellsprings of language anxiety that will be further examined, to be specific individual and interpersonal tensions, students' convictions about language learning, teacher students' connections, classroom techniques (i.e. exercises and techniques) and test anxiety while barring educator convictions on language gaining from the first rundown(Jumaat,Diterbitkan, 2015). In this manner, in developing the clarification of self-recognitions, convictions, feeling and practices further, Young (1991; as referred to in Ohata, 2005) proposes a widely inclusive rundown of the potential wellsprings of language anxiety through a survey of the writing about language anxiety. It is important to note that taking in, educator's convictions about language instructing, teacher students' cooperations, classroom methods, and language testing. Notwithstanding, Ohata (2005) included that the sources recorded by Young covers with Horwitz et al's. (1986) three execution tensions, to be specific correspondence trepidati on, apprehension of negative assessment and testing anxiety, however the classifications recorded by Young is still worth looking at in light of the fact that the sources are tending to other basic issues that may underlie or influence the arrangement of students' language anxiety(Suliman, 2014). The problems associated with the learning of English by students of Malay origin are their lack of grammar knowledge, the lack of feelings for learning. They also experience an extensive uneasy feeling for the uneasiness for the learning. The second language is required to be used for learning, which makes it important to learn it in depth without just learning for commutation purpose. There are personal factors which determine the feelings and apprehensions experienced by the students. The anxiety levels experienced by the students do depend on their social status their use of the language, their education etc. Their personal beliefs, attitude, motivation, and cognitive capacity etc are ma rked to be a basic factor determining the issues of language, just to name a few(Abdullah, 2015). In this context the examination of seeing whether a student is well equipped with the language requires the test of language from the listening, writing, reading and speaking point of views which in case makes it a problem for students to talk in English.(Wahid, 2000). Meanwhile, Rajab (2012) identified linguistic factor, cultural and the curricular content as possible contributing factors of reading anxiety(Rajab, 2012). Matt Daud (2005), on the other hand, found their student respondents suffered writing anxiety due to lack of writing skills. All in all, these researchers findings pointed to the fact. Then again, Oxford (1999) additionally proposed the reasons for language anxiety range from profoundly individual to procedural and records the accompanying reasons for language anxiety: self-regard, resilience of vagueness, danger taking, aggressiveness, social anxiety, test anxiety, ch aracter and social stun, convictions, classroom exercises and techniques, and educator students' cooperations. Taking into account the two specialists' study. The cross examination could have been done to see the similar experiences felt by the students. At the end of the day, this study may concentrate on language anxiety from the students' viewpoint(Chicago, 2013). The need is for students and teachers to take the study and teaching sessions free like conversation and make the students aware they are free to make mistakes and they wont be judged. There have been examinations and research to evaluate that many students feel extremely shy or anxious in using English in class and therefore skip using the language with the fear of making mistakes. The need is for students to open up and equip themselves with courage and use the language freely (Brown, 2001). Adopting a new language is never easy and it takes practice and consistent trials to get the aspects of the language right but w ithout trying anyone would be able to overcome the fear of making mistakes. It is the duty of the educators at college school and universities to keep extra guidance for students who are not well versed with using English. The anxiety issue among students is needed to be done so that they can participate freely and cross the language barrier. Kondo and Ling (2004) placed a typology of techniques that students use to adapt to the anxiety they involvement in English language classrooms. It can be said that taking some simple measures like taking a deep breath, making the mind calm and taking part with students who are facing similar difficulty. In any case, regularly language teachers can help students to ease or address language anxiety by making them more mindful of their own characteristics and additionally putting accentuation on other educator related measurements, for example, the teacher's identity, teacher students' cooperation, classroom environment and instructional techniqu es(Kamaruddin, 2015). Dialog A person can attain familiarity with a language through repeated association. For English the Malaysians depend on the administration and their education system to help them grasp the foreign language, but this type of approach works for a few, does not for the others. The more the Malays associate with others (Non-Malays) the more they become habituated with the use of English as a language of communication. For the ones who have not had the privilege or the means for association with other people, the newest Economic policy New Economic Policy (NEP) was created so that a group of English learnt people were created. (Cummins, 2015) Learning English can help the Students of Sarawak immensely. There are multiple benefits of learning English for the betterment of their future. A Sarawak student finds it hard to understand the directions and study materials written in English. Learning English properly will help reduce the difficulties faced by the Sarawak students to participate in studies and make out the meanings for them. For students, especially Sarawak students participating proactively in the lectures and discussions become a problem due to their hesitation to talk in English. So, they are left out of the conversations and feel deprived while participating in classes. Also while interacting with English speaking peers and seniors and even teachers the language creates difficulties. But all these problems can be rectified when the students of Sarawak can talk properly in English and learn English. The power of English knowledge will allow them to understand the conversations and participate without hesitation . Many students of Sarawak, despite knowing English are afraid to use it or talk in English since theyre hesitant that their English pronunciations might sound odd bad it can make them sound funny. They also fear that their peers will find it amusing and make fun of them. But if these students of Sarawak are given proper training and are given training on talking in English and using English for their conversations. Learning English can heighten their scope for employment and can give them the power to get employment at a leading company. Since all large scale multinational recruiters look form employees that are fluent in English for easy communication, it can be a plus point for students of Sarawak to know English. (University, 2014). Conclusion Students of Malaysia and Philippines experience large scale problems while using English. There has been various studies that confirm that the use of the mother tongue or national language is the best for the development of studies and as well as for usage in educational systems. But in terms of future usability and the socio economic value English scores much better over the national language. The global reach for English is higher and for their global reach and usability for connecting throughout the world. Both the countries have repeatedly assessed the importance of the development of English and the national language through early education to prepare students for higher studies in English. The usage of English in higher studies will provide the students with better scope for work globally. References Abdullah, N. (2015). Language Anxiety Among University Students. Journal of Education and Social Sciences, Vol. 1, , 9-15. Brown, D. H. (2001). 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