Features of Malaysian English (ME) Used in FLY.FM

Afiqah Binti Abd Aziz

Melor Md Yunus

BACKGROUND Lee (2001), condemned that Malaysian English (ME) had been

often been called as a distinct variety of the Englishlanguage.

In a most recent study by Kachru and Nelson (2006), in a mostrecent study and coming perspective, have found that fromtheir perspective, even though the perception of Englishremains that of a foreign language in multilingual andethnically plural countries such as Malaysia, it is graduallybecoming the language of social interaction yet again.

A question is naturally raised from this situation: “Do studentsstill care about learning and speaking correct English?

Thus, this research is out to find the features of the languageand to what extent this deviance from Standard English ispracticed.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE1. MEDIA DISCOURSE• Montgomery (2007) discussed the discourse analysis from the linguisticapproach. Discourse from this perspective is a discrete level of linguisticorganization similar to sound patterning or sentence structure (2007: 22).In this study, the domain is a radio station involving the conversations in theradio station. Media discourse, on the surface fits the dyadic model ofspeakers and listeners and the involved persons are the deejays (speakers)and the caller (the hearers) (O’Keeffe: 2006). In this case, the roles of bothsides can be seen through radio-phone and the conversation between thedeejays themselves.

2. ABBREVIATION• Rowe (2003) have seen a creation in the use of abbreviations andacronyms (specific form of an abbreviation created with initial letters ofwords and pronounced as one word).

• V.A Muniandy (2001) found out that the use ofshort-forms and contractionsin chatting are prevalent. The main reason for utilizing these is similar asthe use of short forms in e-mails that is to save time.

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3. LOCAL PAST STUDIES OF MALAYSIAN ENGLISH

•Rosmawan binti Mohamad (2006) in her study has analyzed the level of ME that spoken during the conversation and described the type of language being used in the conversation in the radio programme. It identified and determined the level of Malaysian speakers namely acrolect, mesolect and besilect. Besides, the researcher also compared syntactical features of ME with the Standard British English in a local radio station.

•Zulaila binti Ali (2007) has studied about 'The use of code-switching in four selected local radio advertisements'. Her study analyzed the phenomenon of code-switching used in the selected radio advertisements by using a few theories. Her study done to know the functions and types of code-switching where the researcher determines the reasons of code- switching in the advertisements. Methodology used was discourse analysis because it only focused on the study of language in sociolinguistics.

•Anabella (2008) in her study 'An analysis of the use of ME and its sub-varities in radio advertisements' examined and analyzed the use of sub-varieties of ME in radio advertisements. Method used was qualitative and conducted a document analysis.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

a) What are the features of Malaysian English (ME)?

b) What are the reasons the deejay(s) and the callers use ME in the conversation?

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METHODOLOGYResearch DesignQualitative Method

SamplesRadio deejays and a number of callers

InstrumentsAudio recording

Data AnalysisAnalyze data according to three main processes of simplification in ME:Fillers- lahabbreviationscode switching

Duration of the data collectionAll the data had been collected for about 8 weeks.

METHODOLOGYData Collection Procedure

Selection of the radio station

Selection of the show - 'Pagi Show'

Listening to the conversations in

'Pagi Show'

Recording the conversation

Transcribing the data

Analyzing the data

FindingsFillers-lahExamples:

• Come on lah…it has been so many years lah...• I quit my job in advertising and now in this lah…

• I don’t have the intention to scold you lah…

Code-switchingExamples:

• I like to dengar to your voice…• You know what, ade seorang girl…

• She is very good…but always sakit jer…

Abbreviationthe usage of abbreviation is relatively frequent in the conversation in chatting. The

frequency of abbreviation in the chatting and conversation is also depending on the reason for the participants to code switch.

Examples: SMS: Short Message Services

DJ: Disc JockeyKL: Kuala Lumpur

Implications

EducatorsMalaysian Youths

Conclusion

This study has found that ME is used widely in Fly.Fm. The features of filler-lah, code

switching, and abbreviation had been analyzed and discussed in this part. In terms of lexis,

the data has shown that Malaysians code-switched according to the context.