Why are Malaysians Struggling to Learn English?

Indeed, why are Malaysians struggling? Walk along the streets of any Malaysian city or town and one sees various signboards, advertisements and billboards which has some words in English. Switch on the radio and listen to the number of stations in English. Switch on the TV and watch the large number of programmes in English. Just enter a bookshop and see the large collection of magazines, books and newspapers in English. Malaysia is perhaps one of the few non-English speaking countries that provides a rich environment in English compared our Asian neighbours or even countries in Europe.

What has Research Have to Say About Learning English in Malaysian schools?

  • Students have a positive attitude towards learning English and do not view it as a waste of time (Thang Siew Ming, Ting Siew Ling & Nurjanah Mohd Jaadar, 2011).
  • Students in the rural areas have a positive attitude towards learning English (Melor & Nur Rashidah, 2011).
  • Students realise the importance of learning English for their future (Ainol Madziah & Isarji, 2009)
  • However, students did not spend much time improving their proficiency in English outside the classroom (Parilah, 2002) and lacked confidence in learning the language (Racha, 2003). They did indicate that they wanted a more supportive and conducive learning environment with meaningful language experiences (Normazidah, 2012).
  • Not surprising that students are extrinsically motivated to learn English especially to obtain better grades or to fulfill graduation requirement (Samsiah, Kamaruzaman, Nurazila, Musdiana & Taniza, 2009)
  • Students have high anxiety levels learning English especially when speaking the language (Siti Sukainah & Melor, 2014) as shown below:
    • “I don’t know how to pronounce English words correctly”
    • “I’m afraid other students will laugh at me”
    • “I run out of words when the teacher asked me to answer in English”

It is most heartening to note that students have a positive attitude toward learning English and are aware on its importance – even in the rural areas. This challenges earlier arguments that students have  a negative attitude toward learning English


It is disappointing to hear politicians argue that learning English will disadvantage rural students implying that rural children are somehow cognitively inferior to their urban counterparts. It is touching to hear rural children tell researchers that they would like to speak English but are shy to do because of  a lack of language confidence.

Learning English Should be Easy

Bahasa Melayu is the national language and most speak the language. Malaysians are fortunate that Bahasa Melayu uses the Roman alphabet and not the Jawi script or the scripts for Mandarin, Tamil or Japanese. It may be argued that theoretically it should be easier for someone who is proficient in Bahasa Melayu to learn English. In addition, many words have been borrowed with slight spelling changes but pronounced similarly such as as ‘oksigen’, ‘radio’, ‘komputer’ and so forth. Also, the time allotted for learning English in school has been increased. Despite all these advantages why are our learners who graduate from our secondary schools (with 11 years of learning English) and institutions of higher education having so much difficulty with the language.

It Has to Do With Teaching the English Language!

  • English is taught as a second language not realising that for many students English is a third language. For example, the Iban child speaks Iban at home, taught various subjects in school in Bahasa Melayu and learns English as a separate subject. Experts have argued that teaching English as a third language or a foreign language is different from teaching English as second language. 

Some have argued that teaching English like a school subject is not an effective way to learn a language. Fluency in English is not attained through memorisation of essays or grammar rules or completing hundreds of worksheets though it does help. English fluency is an art, a science, a practice and a passion.

  • The 10 year old from Kota Belud or Guas Musang may not have a strong ‘WHY’ to learn English. Telling him that it will help him in his career (which is true) but it does motivate him. He is too busy doing his own thing to be concerned with something that is decades away. Scare tactics such as getting a good grade in the UPSR or PT3 or SPM is often used to push learners to learn English. Certain groups are even advocating that a pass in English be made compulsory thinking it will motivate learners.
  • Teaching should get away from ‘teaching to the test’ and preparing students for national examinations. Focus on the process of learning and not only on the process of learning.
  • The 35 to 40 minutes teachers spend with their students is perhaps the most important factor in learning English. If teaching persists to be teacher-centred and textbook based, learning English is not going to fun and definitely not motivating. There are hundreds of methods and techniques for teaching English such as language games, cooperative and collaborative learning, show and tell, using YouTube video clips, using newspapers and many many more. 
  • Teaching English should contextualised and not be too dependent on the textbook, worksheets and revision books. For e.g. English lessons could be built around current events such as the Olympics, Asian games, floods in Kelantan, landslide in Kuala Lumpur, an incident in the neighbourhood, about rivers, football game, life of a car mechanic and so forth.