Pembelajaran Bahasa Melayu Sebagai Bahasa Kedua: Pengungkapan Idea dalam Penulisan Pelajar Sekolah Menengah di Malaysia

The writing component is of the most important components in leaning the Malay language and it is tested in Bahasa Melayu Paper 1ofthe Sijil Peperiksaan Malaysia (SPM) exam. This paper will present the findings from a research on the writings of secondary school students in Malaysia who are learning Malay as a second language by focusing on the phrasing of ideas in theiressays. Specifically, this paper willlook at the usage of interesting phrases in their writings. Interesting phrases is defined asusing proverbs, pantun, slogan, quotation of speeches, wisdom words, quotation from hadiths (the sayings of Prophet Mohamad s.a.w), vocabulary ofpoetic words, translated meanings taken from Al-Quran and etc. the research was conducted infive areas namely; Kedah, Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan, Sabah and Sarawak. The findings of the researchshow that for majority of the students, their performance is at intermediate level and more than 20% of the students are as weak. In addition, it is also discovered that the performance ofstudents from rural areas are better that their counterpart in urban areas. It is therefore, can beconcluded that majority ofthe students who are learning Malay as second language are at the unsatisfactorylevel as they are still unable to use the language convincingly. As such, more efforts have to be put in the endeavours to improve the students performance of Malay language because language is the bridge that links the harmonious relation between various races in Malaysia.