The Level of Usage of Malay Language Learning Strategies Among Students in Chinese Universties

Abstract

The Malay language has been widely used in China since the Ming Dynasty. Now more and more universities in China have offered Malay language courses as a main subject and Chinese students are facing proficiency problems in learning Malay language. Therefore investigating a set of language learning strategies for students is important for Chinese students. As such, the purpose of this paper is to examine the frequency of use of the Malay language learning strategies used by Chinese students when learning Malay in terms of memory, cognitive, compensation, meta-cognitive, effective and social strategies. Oxford’s strategies classification will be practiced in this study. This study will analyze based on the theoretical framework of Oxford which divides strategies into 6 main categories, namely memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective and social strategies. A total of 80 students taking Malay language courses of Yunnan Minzu University has been selected as respondents. This study are using the quantitative method which adapted from established questionnaire and was translated into Malay and Chinese. The findings of this study indicate that metacognitive strategy is the strategy most commonly used for Chinese students when learning Malay and these results also reflect Chinese students more consciously in Malay language learning. This finding is somewhat aided by Malay language students and Malay language education in China.