Malay phonetics: easy, essential and elusive

Malaysian children are expected to read in the Malay language when they start primary education. After all, this is a reasonable requirement.

First, schools use the Romanized writing system to teach Malay. Second, all consonants and vowels have consistent sounds. For example: in English, “a” has different sounds in “bar”, “bag” and “ball”, while in Malay it is always the same as in “bar”. Then it is possible to read Malay.

Then there is the compelling reason for all citizens to learn Malay, a language spoken by more than half the population, and the government’s effort to promote it as the national language of Malaysia.

However, there are still many children, adolescents and even adults who cannot read Malay.

Official statistics on this problem are scarce and inaccurate. The Vice Minister of Education mentioned

some 100,000 students who cannot read, write or count. However, be careful: this could mean that some students can count but cannot read or vice versa or other combinations.

The fact is that the number of students who cannot read Malay is worrying enough to have special classes organized to help them.

Actually Malay phonetics, the logical solution, shouldn’t even be a problem for any normal person, YES …

1. The concept of “phonetics” is always promoted for Malay. Still in 2006, a study by Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris on the effectiveness of the phonetic approach in teaching Malay was made public. The general improvement among a group of 326 kindergarten children led the University to recommend the teaching of Malay phonetics in primary schools as well.

Traditionally, the popular method consists of learning by heart from a list of syllables. The students are allowed to discover the combinations of the syllables. This works for most with a problem.

The memorization method insists on rarely used syllables like “qa, qe, qo, qi qu”, while syllables beginning with “ny” and “ng”, found in thousands of words attached to prefixes, they are only mentioned briefly and I bet not all students know their sounds. The result is that students have difficulty reading and spelling words attached to prefixes as they progress to the intermediate level.

2. Teachers trained to teach Mandarin are not assigned to handle Malay classes. Strange but real and common stories in public schools. The Malay language subject is not a game even for children these days, as the standard is already at a high level from the first year of primary school. The bureaucracy of the education system has not helped much by sending the wrong people to children.

3. Malay children’s book publishers are really interested in a quality education rather than making a quick buck. Just look around the book market and see if you can find something worth calling … a classic.

In conclusion, the only way to master Malay phonetics is to rebel against the prevailing folly. Do you need to help a child who has difficulty reading Malay? Looking for ideas on how to do it?