The onset of English lexical acquisition among Malaysian preschoolers

• Rabiah Tul Adawiyah Mohamed Salleh ^[2] ; Bruno Di Biase ^[1] ; Satomi Kawaguchi ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Western Sydney

     University of Western Sydney

     Australia

     
  2. [2] International Islamic University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Localización: Journal of multilingual and multicultural development, ISSN 0143-4632, Vol. 45, Nº. 6, 2024, págs. 2097-2110
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • English is undoubtedly an important language for educational and socio-economic mobility in numerous countries including Malaysia. Regardless of its importance, studies to document English language acquisition among Malaysian children acquiring English in the local context remain scarce. This normative data is imperative for syllabus-designers, policymakers, teachers and linguists to understand and to develop materials that are developmentally sensitive and contextualised to the local setting. Thus, the objective of this paper is to present the onset of English lexical acquisition among 99 Malaysian preschoolers at the beginning of formal instruction. The 99 children were pupils in 3 public preschools in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The children’s language production was elicited in individual communicative tasks. Their lexical output, both in English and Malay were analysed based on the children’s language choice during the session as well as the frequencies of types and tokens. The results indicate that Malaysian preschoolers displayed a limited range of productive abilities and age-sensitive vocabulary in English at the beginning of formal instruction. However, at that point, the children already possess receptive skills greater than their productive skills. Based on the findings, implications for pedagogy are also discussed.