English language nowadays play vital role in our life.

It is believes that English

language has become an identity of Malaysian itself as it was the effect of our nation as a
part of colonial past. In Malaysia, English is widely use in different field such as one of the
language of instruction in primary, secondary, and tertiary education; and as the business
language. English language is very important, as it is one of the shift in Malaysia Education
Blueprint (2013-2025). This second shift is to ensure the level of proficiency in English
language increase among Malaysians. This shift will also increase the exposure of English
as a language to everyone. By not denying Bahasa Malaysia as national language, every
Malaysians are encourage to master English as their second language. Therefore, in this
essay, I will highlight the issues related to teaching and learning English language in
Malaysia.

According to Wendy Hiew (2018), the challenge in learning English as a language for
Malaysian student is they feel there is an obstacle that refrain them to speak in English.
Mostly, they were hesitated to speak in English with their teachers and friends in and/or
outside the classroom. It also mentioned that the students are facing problem in their fluency
in speaking in English and mixing other languages with English in their conversation. I am
strongly agree with the findings as it shows the reality of the students in Malaysia. Most of
the students are being too shy to communicate in English with people around them because
they afraid that they will make mistakes. Especially when they communicate with their
teachers, the students will feel uncomfortable and not confident to speak in English. This will
eventually make the students feel more comfortable to explain their thinking process to the
teachers in their own mother tongue. The students are shy to speak in English because of
the surrounding not being supportive to each other. When someone make a mistake when
speak in English, people around them will bash that one particular person for one’s
mistakes. This is not healthy attitude and we need to change it. When students speak in
English, they tend to mix it with other language. In my opinion, this is because mother
tongue is being dominant language in their daily life. Thus, form the article, I agree that
feeling shy and hesitated to speak in English is one of the issue that became a challenge in
learning English as a language for students in Malaysia.

Moreover, according to Wendy Hiew (2018), listening abilities is one of the

challenges in learning and teaching English. From her finding, the students cannot
understand their teachers and lecturers instruction that lead to misunderstand their teachers
and lecturers’ intended meaning and instructions. It will also make the students respond
inaccurately. Some of the students are also unable to keep up with parts of a conversation or
discussion with their teachers and friends. I strongly agree that listening ability as one of the
challenges in learning and teaching English. According to Bulletin (1952), listening is one of

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the fundamental language skills. It is a medium through which children, young people and
adults gain a large portion of their education--their information, their understanding of the
world and of human affairs, their ideals, sense of values, and their appreciation. In this day
of mass communication (much of it oral), it is of vital importance that our pupils be taught to
listen effectively and critically. This shows that the importance of listening skills in teaching
and learning. I believe that the students are aware with the importance of listening skills as
when they are not able to listen properly and effectively to every instruction during lesson, it
will disturb their learning process. When the students cannot understand the instruction, the
lesson that has been plan by teachers or lecturers will not run smoothly. Thus, I agree that
lack of listening skills is one of the issue in learning and teaching English as a language.

On top of that, according to Wendy Hiew (2018), writing problems among learners is
one of the issue that related to learning and teaching English as a language. From the
article, it showed that the students required longer time to write an essay. Some of them are
not familiar with the topics given and some of the students are facing difficulties in writing
academic essay. Nunan (2003: 88) states that writing is the mental work of inventing ideas,
thinking about how to express them, organizing them into statements and paragraphs that
will be clear to a reader. From the article, I am strongly agree that writing skills is an issue
that related to learning and teaching. Writing is a process that needs the students to focus
always, as it is a very complex process. From writing, it let the students to focus on accurate
language use because they think as they write. It will reinforced the language that has been
taught. Being able to write is to have a good organisation in the essay. The students need to
organise their idea because it will reveal the idea clearly, logic sequence and cohesive. In
my opinion, students faced problem in writing because of lack of reading. When they one to
write, they have no idea on what to write. They not able to brainstorm their own ideas.
Through a lot of reading, students will able to write properly as they have the idea on what to
write. Their bank of vocabulary will also increase which also helps in writing. Thus, I strongly
agree that writing skills and awareness toward reading is the issue related to learning and
teaching English.

In conclusion, I strongly agree with the points that the writer gave in this articles. All
of us need to be aware the importance of English as a language in our daily life. Learning
and teaching a language will need patience and determination. Thus we should never give
up when make mistakes.

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 Reference

The Teaching of Listening. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://iteslj.org/Articles/Saricoban-

Listening.html

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Writing 1. The Definition ... (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://repository.ump.ac.id/1256/3/Dwi Yuniati_CHAPTER II.pdf

Hiew, Wendy. (2018). ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING ISSUES IN

MALAYSIA: LEARNERS' PERCEPTIONS VIA FACEBOOK DIALOGUE JOURNAL.