The Usage Of English Pronouns In Malay Conversations

Introduction

This research intends to examine the use of English pronouns in Malay conversations among University Brunei Darussalam (UBD) students. The objectives of this research are to find out the usage of English pronouns in Malay conversations among the students of UBD if there are differences between ender, social relationship and university courses. The research utilized qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis. The questionnaires were targeted for students under the Faculty of Arts and Social Science. A total of 52 respondents participated in this research. This research aims to find out the usage of English pronouns in Malay conversations among the students of UBD, if there are differences between gender, social relationship and university courses.

Literature Review

Gender and pronouns

Most of the respondents do have English background as all of them are taking English as their major. And they are exposed more on using the correct grammar especially when conversing to someone. Hence most UBD students tend to codemix more by using English pronouns while conversing in Malay. According to Coates (1996), “women seem to express themselves very eloquently on this matter and many of them also communicate a strong sense of pride”. The hypothesis is the female will use more English pronouns in compare with male students in their general Malay conversations to family and friends.

Female seeking for prestige“women sought ways to express themselves in ways that reflect a higher social standing”.

Labov (1966; 1972) and Trudgill (1972) both suggested that women are very conscious about their status in the society. Women are apprehensive and cannot develop their character and confidence in society and they use language as their ways to gain social status by the use of language.

Attitude towards codemixing

Sridhar and Sridhar’s (1980) definition of codemixing which suggests that codemixing refers to the transition from using linguistic units, such as words and phrases, of one language to using those of another within a single utterance. Through codemixing, it can be aim to find out whether the university students are aware of the use of codemixing in their conversation.

Data

This study focuses on the usage of English pronouns in Malay conversation by the students of UBD. The participants are mainly the students from the faculty of Art and Social Sciences (FASS) who are taking English Language and Linguistics (ELAL) who are mainly the final year students and English Studies (ES) from second year students) 52 students were participated in the questionnaires. It consists of 26 male students (half from ELAL and half from ES) and 26 female students (half from ELAL and ES). Most of them are ranged in age from early twenties to mid thirties (20 to 34 years old). It also gave the students time to reflect on the actual usage of pronouns in society as they perceive it. The result was then converted into Microsoft Excel and transferred and analysed on a chi-square website. The significance of the research will be decided by the values of chi-square, degree of freedom and p-value.

Results & Discussion

The main finding of the study will be summed up and discussed so as to answer the research questions presented.

a) Which gender prefers to use English pronouns in Malay conversations?

• The table above shows that Female UBDians prefer to use the English pronouns in Malay conversations (57.7%) than the male UBDians (42.2%). However, the difference is insignificant (χ2=8.089, df=1, p=0.04) so no conclusion can be made.
• Do male or female students use more English pronouns in Malay conversations to their friends?

Yes No Male 13 (34.2%) 13 (92.8%) Female 25 (65.8%) 1 (7.1%)

The table above shows that more female students prefers to use English pronouns more frequently to their friends (65.8%) than male students (34.2%). However, the difference is insignificant (χ2=14.075, df=1, p=0.00017) so no conclusion can be made.

Which course has more students who use English pronouns in Malay conversations?

The table above shows that the students from English Studies course prefer to use more English pronouns more frequently in Malay conversations (65.5%) than ELAL students (34.5%). However, the difference is insignificant (χ2=6.315, df=1, p=0.0119) so no conclusion can be made.

Conclusion

From the data above, it can be seen that gender, social relationship and university courses do influence the use of English pronouns in Malay conversations. However, chi-square result concluded that the results were insignificant. Therefore, it cannot be concluded accurately. The sample is too small for the result to be significant. One of the ways to improve this research is by having a larger scale of respondents. It is suggested that a more detailed and systematic study are needed.