English Language is an official language in a large number of countries. It is
estimated that the number of people in the world that use in English to communicate on
a regular basis is 2 billion. English is the dominant business language and it has become
almost a necessity for people to speak English if they are to enter a global workforce,
research from all over the world shows that cross-border business communication is most
often conducted in English. Is it the standard of the English Language among Malaysians
have been declining? If yes, why did Malaysians poor in English Language today? As a
Malaysian, we should improve our proficiency level. For most of the Malaysians, they
never speak English everyday because they would like to speak their own language
which can understand more easily. There are just small amount of Malaysians speak
English as their first language.
3.2 Public Opinion
3.2.1 General
What has happened to the English Language? English is the International Language
and is one of the most popular and most spoken in the technology world. We need to
know English Language in order to study any science subject or any computer language.
English is very much important in life. If we know English we will never feel tongue tide
in front of others. The lack of proficiency in the English Language among the current
crop of Malaysians does not come as a surprise at all to academicians. English Language
education lobbyist have pushed for the return of English Language education as an
option, following the reversal of a previous policy of teaching Science and Mathematics
in English in 2010. The measure, seen as a bid to arrest the decline in the standard of
English.
3.2.2 Expert
Today, professor also agrees that the English Language is declined. Language study
responds to demand, and the rest of the world is learning English. Ours is the global
language, the lingua franca. Language standardization has come by necessity, not
design. English is the language of business negotiations with an Asian counterpart is
daft. Really? English’s dominance is something to be celebrated, not regretted. The
decline of one language and the rise of another are not unprecedented. For example, was
the language of science before it was gradually replaced by English. The fundamental
problem in Malaysia is not the lack of English-speaking teachers or the teaching methods.
The problem is that English would always remain an aloof and remote language to most
Malaysians, used only by the elite minorities or used only for international or some
official purposes. A Chinese who speaks in English is sometimes called as a ‘banana’
because he or she may look yellow on the outside but is actually white inside. For Malay
research student who was brave to speak English to her Malay friends. For that, she was
treated as an outcast because her friends thought it abnormal and they fell uncomfortable
to have a Malay person speaking in English to another Malay person.