Politics influences on English Language

Assalamualaikum, hi!

For your information, this week is really, really a tough week for me as this week is assignment and presentation week.

But, still, all praises for Allah, all of the assignment and presentation are done successfully.

For English for Language Teacher’s subject, we have given four tasks and Task 1 need to be done and present it within this week.

We were required to read and discuss how Malaysian culture affects English Language. All of us must consider all of these factors:

a.             multicultural society – major ethnic groups & dialect groups

b.             urban & rural settings

c.             political/historical influence 

d.             educational policies

In groups, we must present our answer using PPT slides and edit them based on lecturer’s comments.

So, my lucky group got the factor of political influence.

At first, when I first heard the factor which my group has to do, I felt worried because the factor is quite difficult to be done as it is theoretical and there’s got not many information about this particular factor.

But, Alhamdulillah, my friends keep encouraging me and guide me in doing this task.

On the next day, we went to the library to look for relevant books about our task. But, unfortunately, we can’t found any of it except a book about language politics in Malay language.

So, for the sake of this task, the next alternative is we have to find the information by research through the internet.

Alhamdulillah, through the research, we manage to find a lot of relevant information. So, when there is a will, there is a way! It’s really giving me a lesson. Alhamdulillah. =)

Actually, the English language is influenced by many factors, and the main factors are multicultural society, urban and rural settings, political influence, historical influence and educational policies.

The decision-making in Malaysian education system is a highly centralized and bureaucratic top-down system.

            …a system of administration based upon organization into bureaus, division of labour, a hierarchy of authority, etc.: designed to dispose of a large body of work in a routine manner

The politics in Malaysia especially seem to play a dominant influence in shaping the education policies of the country. The case of the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English (PPSMI) is an example of the interference of politics on education.

The politics influence on English language in Malaysia can be divided into two phases or time lines which are politics before independence and politics after independence.

Throughout this task, I can learn about the politics happening in Malaysia especially in the education field. We as an English teacher in future must update all of the events or policies happen in the education field as the policies in Malaysia have a big influence on English language.

InsyaAllah, hope my group’s members and I can done well as a language teacher in the future and contribute to the beloved religion, students, community and country. Amin…

Assalamualaikum…

With love,

Liza Tiong~