LISTENERS‟ ATTITUDES TOWARD SPOKEN VARITIES OF

MALAYSIAN ENGLISH

CHOO CHIAN HOU

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

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LISTENERS‟ ATTITUDES TOWARD SPOKEN VARIETIES OF

MALAYSIAN ENGLISH

CHOO CHIAN HOU

A report submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the award of the degree of

Bachelor of Science with Education in “Teaching English as a Second Language”

Faculty of Education

University Teknologi Malaysia

MAY 2011

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To my beloved parents

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr.

Ummul Khair Bt. Ahmad for her patience, guidance and advice throughout the entire

process of writing this thesis. Without her, the research and the writing of this thesis

would not be possible. Thank you very much, Dr. Ummul. You have taught me a lot

of things. Apart from that, I would like to thank my parents and my girlfriend for

their continuous support. Without them, I would not even be who I am today. I

would also like to thank my buddy, Joseph for motivating me, giving advice, and

keeping me company during those sleepless nights to complete this thesis. Thank you

very much, bro. Next, I would like to thank Miss Naimmah, Miss Awis and also the

participants involved for their cooperation during the process of data collection.

Lastly, I would also like to thank those who were directly or indirectly involved in

the process of the research or the process of writing this thesis. I thank all of you

from the bottom of my heart.

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Abstract

Language attitude studies have shown that language varieties are judged

differently in different context. Studies have shown that attitudes toward language

varieties may vary according to geographical factor and context. Though there are

numerous studies done regarding language attitudes, no systematic study has been

carried out to investigate the attitudes towards Malaysian English. Therefore, this

study examines the listeners‟ perception towards the varieties of spoken Malaysian

English, using a variation of a Matched Guise Technique. In this study, 50

undergraduates were asked to listen to five recorded narratives of the same theme in

Malaysian English using the Acrolect, Mesolect and Basilect varieties. The listeners

were then asked to rate the speaker of the narratives using 14 bipolar adjectives on a

Likert scale. It was found that Acrolect speaker was rated the highest in all qualities

except for sense of humour. In contrast, the Basilect speaker was rated consistently

low on all qualities but the highest for sense of humour, while the speaker of the

Mesolect variety was rated average on all qualities. Compared to other varieties, the

Acrolect variety was perceived to be associated with high social status and

competence as well as solidarity. However, when only the informal varieties were

compared (the Mesolect and the Basilect variety), the speaker of the Basilect variety

was perceived to be more attractive (i.e., more likeable, popular and humorous). The

results indicate that although the participants have high preference for the Acrolect

variety, they did not show a clear indication that they identify with the speaker of

that variety. This study clearly shows that the perceptions of the spoken variety of

Malaysian English are closely link to the speaker‟s socio-economic status.

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ABSTRAK

Penyelidikan tentang sikap terhadap bahasa telah menunjukkan bahawa

variasi bahasa dinilai secara berlainan dalam konteks yang berbeza. Kajian telah

menunjukkan bahawa sikap terhadap variasi bahasa adalah berbeza-beza dan

bergantung kepada faktor geografi dan konteks. Walaupun terdapat banyak kajian

yang dibuat berdasarkan sikap terhadap bahasa, tiada kajian sistematik dilakukan

untuk menyiasat sikap terhadap variasi bahasa Inggeris lisan Malaysia. Oleh itu,

kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji tanggapan pendengar terhadap variasi bahasa

Inggeris lisan Malaysia dengan menggunakan satu variasi ujian „Matched Guise‟.

Dalam kajian ini, 50 pelajar sarjana muda diminta untuk mendengar rakaman cerita

yang mempunyai tema yang serupa dalam bahasa Inggeris menggunakan variasi

„Acrolect‟, „Mesolect‟, dan „Basilect‟. Mereka kemudian diminta untuk menilai para

pencerita melalui 14 kata sifat „bipolar‟ dalam skala Likert. Didapati bahawa penutur

variasi „Acrolect‟ menerima markah tertinggi untuk semua sifat yang diuji kecuali

untuk sifat lucu. Penutur variasi „Basilect‟ menerima markah rendah secara konsisten

kecuali untuk sifat lucu manakala penutur variasi „Mesolect‟ dinilai secara sederhana

untuk semua sifat yang diuji. Berbanding dengan variasi bahasa yang lain, penutur

variasi „Acrolect‟ dianggap bahawa ia mempunyai kedudukan sosial dan kecekapan

yang tinggi dan juga solidariti. Tetapi, apabila hanya dua gaya tidak formal

dibandingkan („Mesolect‟ dan „Basilect‟), penutur variasi „Basilect‟ dianggap

bahawa mereka lebih menarik (iaitu lebih disukai, lebih popular dan lucu).

Keputusan menunjukkan bahawa walaupun perserta lebih cenderung kepada variasi

„Acrolect‟, mereka tidak menunjukkan indikasi yang jelas bahawa mereka

mengaitkan diri dengan penutur variasi „Acrolect‟. Kajian ini jelas menunjukkan

bahawa tanggapan terhadap variasi bahasa Inggeris lisan Malaysia berkait rapat

dengan status sosial ekonomi penuturnya.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

DECLARATION ii

DEDICATION iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS vii

LIST OF TABLES xii

LIST OF FIGURES xiii

LIST OF APPENDICES xiv

1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Background of Research 2

1.3 Statement of Problem 3

1.4 Purpose of Research 4

1.5 Objectives of Research 4

1.6 Research Questions 4

1.7 Scope of Research 5

1.8 Significance of Research 5

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

1.9 Limitations of Research 6

2 LITERATURE REVIEW 7

2.1 Introduction 7

2.2 Language Attitudes 7

2.3 Factors Affecting Language Attitudes 11

2.4 Spoken Varieties of Malaysian English 14

2.4.1 Features of Malaysian English 16

2.5 The Matched Guise Technique 20

2.6 Problems and Restrictions of the Matched

Guised Technique 21

2.7 Adaptation of a Variation of the Matched

Guise Technique 23

2.7.1 The Verbal Guise Technique 23

2.7.2 The Variation of Matched Guise Technique

used by Young (2003) 24

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

2.7.3 Categories of Adjectives used in Matched

Guise Test 25

2.8 Conclusion 27

3 METHODOLOGY 28

3.1 Introduction 28

3.2 Research Design 28

3.2.1 Adapted Matched Guise Technique 29

3.2.2 Bipolar Adjectives 30

3.3 The Matched Guise Test 33

3.3.1 Recording and Transcribing of the Natural

Narratives 34

3.3.2 Selection of the Five Speakers 34

3.3.3 Recording of the Varieties of Malaysian

English 36

3.3.4 Implementation of the Adapted Matched

Guise Test 36

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

3.4 Participants of the Study 38

3.5 Data Analysis 38

3.6 Conclusion 39

4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 40

4.1 Introduction 40

4.2 Findings 41

4.3 Discussion 49

4.3.1 Listeners‟ Attitudes toward the Spoken

Variety of Malaysian English 49

4.3.2 Listeners‟ Preference of the Varieties of

Malaysian English 54

4.3.3 Listeners‟ Perception on the Most Likely

Occupation of the Speakers of the Malaysian

English Variety 55

4.3.4 Social Class Stratification according to

Language Varieties 56

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

4.4 Conclusion 57

5 CONCLUSION 58

5.1 Introduction 58

5.2 Summary of Findings 58

5.3 Conclusion 60

5.4 Pedagogical Implications 60

5.5 Recommendations 61

REFERENCES 64

APPENDICES 67

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LIST OF TABLES

TABLE NO. TITLE PAGE

2.1 Description of Malaysian English 15

2.2 Ladegaard (1998) Categories of Adjectives 25

2.3 Rindal (2010) Categories of Adjectives 26

3.1 Rindal (2010) Categories of Adjectives 30

3.2 Adopted Version Categories of Adjectives 30

3.3 Brief Description of the Selected Speakers 35

3.4 Playing Sequence of the Recordings 37

4.1 Mean Score for the Varieties of Malaysian English 42

4.2 Mean Score for Varieties of Malaysian English in

terms of Status and Competence and Solidarity 44

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LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE NO. TITLE PAGE

3.1 Bipolar Adjectives 32

3.2 Procedure of the Matched Guise Test 33

4.1 Overall Results of the Matched Guise Test 42

4.2 Listeners‟ Perception of the Most Likely Occupation

of the Acrolect Variety Speaker 46

4.3 Listeners‟ Perception of the Most Likely Occupation

of the Mesolect Variety Speaker 47

4.4 Listeners‟ Perception of the Most Likely Occupation

of the Basilect Variety Speaker 48

4.5 Overall Results of the Matched Guise Test

(Acrolect disregarded) 53

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LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX TITLE PAGE

A Acrolect Narrative 67

B Mesolect Narrative 68

C Basilect Narrative 69

D Filler 1 Narrative 70

E Filler 2 Narrative 72

F Questionnaire 73

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

When people are communicating with each other, we cannot deny the fact

that listeners judge each other by the way they speak. When we speak, people make

assumptions about who we are and what we are even before they get to know us.

This perception commonly made by listeners based on language used by speakers

has been the interest of language researchers for many years. The research on

perception towards language varieties is both an important and interesting field of

study. Research on language attitudes and perceptions is important to provide

answers to a whole range of questions such as issues of stereotyping, language

change and attitudinal effects on speech (Coupland, Williams and Garrett, 1999).

Through perception test, we will be able to gain more information on how people

judge or stereotype others in terms of social status, characteristic, value system and

solidarity. Research on perception towards language varieties may also broaden our

understanding on how people perceive change in the linguistic system (Buchstaller,

2006).

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This study aims to identify the listeners‟ perception towards the spoken

varieties of Malaysian English. In this chapter, I will discuss the background of

research, statement of problem, purpose of the research, objectives of the research,

research questions, scope of research, significance of research and the limitations of

this research.

1.2 Background of Research

There are numerous research that has been done regarding attitudes towards

varieties of languages. Since the late 1950s and early 1960s, attitudes towards

varieties or speakers of English, among other languages, have been a concern of

sociolinguists and social psychologists (Hyrkstedi and Kalaja, 1998). Until now,

there are numerous research done on language attitudes and results have shown that

speakers of different language varieties are being judged differently (e.g. Dalton-

Puffer, Kaltenboeck and Smit, 1997; Ladegaard, 1998; Hiraga, 2005).

A number of the documented research on language attitudes is done by

Dalton-Puffer, Kaltenboeck, Smit (1997) and Hiraga (2005). In their research, they

have shown that speakers of the standard variety of English are judged more

positively compared to the speakers of the non-standard variety. Besides that, they

have also shown that speakers of the standard variety are rated higher in terms of

„status‟ (e.g. education, intelligence, politeness) while speakers of the non-standard

variety are rated higher in terms of „solidarity‟(e.g. honesty, likeability, reliability).

However, there are cases where variants of language other than the standard one are

perceived differently. For example, Cavallaro and Ng (2009) have shown that

Singapore Standard English (SSE) is rated highly in almost all of the qualities tested

while Singapore Colloquial English (SCE) is rated quite low in all of the qualities

tested except for honesty. The results obtained by Cavallaro and Ng showed that

Singaporean do not rate the non-standard variety highly in terms of solidarity and

this is different from the results obtained by Dalton-Puffer, Kaltenboeck, Smit (1997)

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and Hiraga (2005). This has shown that language varieties are perceived differently

based on its linguistic contexts.

There are numerous research which have been done on language attitudes of

a number of varieties of languages. However, there is still no proper documented

research regarding language attitudes toward the spoken varieties of Malaysian

English. Malaysian English is known to have a spectrum of variety that ranges from

the very bazaar-like variety to the variety that is considered the standard variety.

Therefore, it would be interesting to investigate the listeners‟ perception towards the

spoken varieties of Malaysian English and compare it to other research (e.g. El-Dash

and Busnardo, 2001; Cavallaro and Ng, 2009) done to examine language attitudes.

1.3 Statement of Problem

People in Malaysia may speak different varieties of Malaysian English on

different occasions for different purposes. According to Baskaran (1987), the spoken

variety of Malaysian English can be categorized into three varieties which are the

Acrolect, Mesolect and Basilect. For example, a university lecturer may use the

Acrolect variety (the standard variety) when giving a lecture, the Mesolect variety

when speaking to friends in an informal context, and the Basilect variety when

bargaining about the price at a night market. Most speakers are aware that they are

judged differently based on the varieties of language they use. The fact that speakers

switch variety in different contexts shows that they are aware of its socio-pragmatic

factors. Different language varieties used may easily provoke different effects on the

listeners in terms of social status and values as proven by many language perception

studies discussed earlier. However, it is not known how the varieties of Malaysian

English are judged by the listeners, what is being judged and what the judging

criteria of the varieties are based on. Therefore, it will be interesting to look into the

listeners‟ perception towards varieties of spoken Malaysian English and at the same

time to find out the how the varieties of Malaysian English are being judged.

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1.4 Purpose of Research

The purpose of this research is to examine the listeners‟ perception towards

varieties of spoken Malaysian English. Apart from that, this research also aims to

inform how the varieties are being judged and how it will affect the perceived stature

of the speaker.

1.5 Objectives of Research

There are two objectives for this research.

1. To examine listeners‟ attitudes toward the varieties of spoken Malaysian

English

2. To find out the listeners‟ preference of the varieties of Malaysian English.

1.6 Research Question

There are two research questions for this research.

1. What are listeners‟ attitudes toward the varieties of spoken Malaysian English?

2. Which variety of Malaysian English is preferred by the listeners?