The Interference of the Bahasa Melayu Sarawak in the English Language Written Production
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Abstract
Malaysia is a unique country that comprises a variety of races, ethnicities, native
languages as well as dialects used in daily lives. However, due to the differences among the
dialects used by different ethnicities and the target language, the interference of learners’ first
language is one of the major factors that affect the English Language acquisition process. In
Sarawak, the rampant use of the Bahasa Melayu Sarawak dialect as a means of communication
amongst the locals posed an interference on the pupils’ English Language written skills
especially. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the interference of the Bahasa
Melayu Sarawak in pupils’ written production focusing on grammatical and lexical aspects. Six
Year 5 pupils in an urban school were purposively selected for this study. A qualitative case
study with the use of observation and document as the data collection tools were employed.
The data that were collected from a checklist were analysed based on the linguistic taxonomy
of errors while data collected from documents were analysed based on the Classroom
Language Interaction checklist. The findings show that there is a significant interference of the
Bahasa Melayu Sarawak based on the numerous errors made by the pupils grammatically and
lexically. In conclusion, it is recommended that English teachers are made aware of these
interferences so that appropriate measures and interventions could be taken to reduce the
interference of the Bahasa Melayu Sarawak in the English Language written work.
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