School environmental and ethnic factors in the planning and implementation of Malay Language Education in Malaysia

The importance of a national language in nation building cannot be over-emphasised. Malaysian nation building, for example, has a lot to do with the moulding of national solidarity through the usage of the Malay language and the implementation of Malay language education. This study was conducted to analyze and assess the influence of ethnicity and school environment on the level of Malay language acquisition amongst Malay and Chinese students. Data were collected through the administration of questionnaires to the informants. The questionnaire consisted of three parts. Part A collected demographic data of the informants. Part B test their knowledge of Malay grammar,and Part C test the proficiency of the informants on Malay language. The study reveals that there are differences in the level of knowledge of the Malay language amongst Malay and Chinese students. Significantly, the findings also show that school environment affects mostly the Malays in that their Malay language proficiency tends to be lower when placed in classrooms with more Chinese students even though Malay is their mother tongue . This finding suggests that ethnicity and school environment may incur significant impacts on the planning and implementation of Malay language educational programme in Malaysia.