Students' weakness in English is a real issue that causes a lot of concern A foreign language can be quiet difficult to master

especially for learners who are living in their mother country. However, students are expected to have a certain knowledge in English language so as to be able to continue their studies and communicate easily in their personal and professional life. Unfortunately, most of todays students dont seem to reach the level required due to some reasons that I intend to discuss in this paper. One of the most obvious reasons that produce students weakness in En glish is their lack of will and awareness. They often think that there is no point in learning another language, so they dont put any effort in it. Some of them may give it some attention but they give up eventually because of the hard work and practice t hat it demands. There are also indolent students who just prepare to pass the exam. Therefore, they rarely remember anything after the test. Some times, the students are not the only ones to blame. There are some instructors who dont really know what the y are doing. Teaching is not an easy job that anyone can do. Most of the incompetent teachers are inexperienced, unqualified or unskilled. Some of them are not familiar with the different techniques and methods of teaching. Others can not manage a class properly. Consequently, students have difficulties to absorb the information and may loose interest in the subject. In the last case, neither the students, nor the teachers are guilty. The books and learning resources used can seriously affect the performanc e of students. If the resources available are outdated or inappropriate, the results will not be as satisfying as when the environment of the learner offers a wide range and variety of valuable resources. I believe the students are weak in English due to their thinking is not developed. USIM always felt that if students speak English, they will forget about the Malay language. According to him, the students seldom practice what they learn English. More clearly the students very lazy to make a revision and they do not practice the knowledge they learned in the classroom. Many students also USIM reading too much about the English language, do not take out the current issues and thought they were too shallow. They have no interest in reading newspapers in English and students are also very focused on their interest to the reading of the form of entertainment only example they are more interested in entertainment such as newspapers and Harian Metro Kosmo. the students will read materials in English only when asked. Normally, a person will be more tired when doing things by force and so the students would

quickly get bored when reading something that they do not like. These factors also indirectly contributed to the USIM, the students in learning English and also weak in MUET. This is worrying because if the students do not pass MUET, it is difficult for them to get a job in the future

They learn English just to pass the exam. They also assume that English is a tedious and troublesome. If they think so, too impossible for them to fan of the English language. Students also do not want to train themselves to try many times to speak in English to each other. Most Malay students did not want to try and fear of mistakes. Students also have a sense of shame to spea k in English. Some of them are regarded as speaking the language, they will be ridiculed and ostracized. This is the problem of Malay students, the fear of ridicule partners to bring harm to yourself. In fact, Chinese students were more advanced and expert in English because they dared to try and not afraid to taunt -taunt that could weaken them. USIM students do not want to change their attitude and just rely solely on lecturers to develop them. At the university level should not such things happen again. S tudents should strive to improve their own shortcomings. Students should look for lecturers who are looking for a lecturer not a student. But now, most lecturers are trying to improve the students' poor command of English. cause of poor student of English is due to the social background of students. Students from rural areas less exposed to the use of English. Because of that, they are too limited to use English. They also have little knowledge of English and does not provide opportunities for interaction. Students also lack self-motivation on the importance of the English language . They are lazy to revise and increase the knowledge of understanding of the English verses are difficult. He added that the students learn English just to pass the examination. This attitude is in most of the students and make them not want to take out the new words that have never heard. They only depend on the existing curriculum. Students are also ashamed to say English words. They have no confidence to speak and have trouble saying some words correctly. Most students lack the knowledge of the grammatical aspects. The simplest example of when students master the vocabulary is to write about a topic in the English language can not write a word. This fact happened to the poor Malay students master the English language Students also do not want to "explore" with more details on English language and is too obsessed with it. They regarded the English language difficult to understand and difficult to use in everyday life. Why do students have the idea that IPT is too shallo w to this international language, while English is very important to bring the person toward the advancement .. cause of poor student of English is that most of them lack the grammar, no self-esteem and lazy to do more to strengthen their English. Most st udents rely on teachers alone. They seem not to want their own independence and just wait for the teachers "feed" their knowledge. Mentality of the students are also still in the status quo and refuse to accept English as the language of science.

including the problem of teaching methods, to match or the suitability of the syllabus, the skills of teachers, the adequacy of infrastructure, such as language laboratories and the motivation of the students themselves. The fact that not all students fail to master English, but many are excellent, and well, proving that the issue of the weakness of English proficiency among students is not the whole problem and therefore the solutions must also be specified, namely by improving the quality of English language teach ing itself. may also, teachers are not creative because they rely on textbooks and workbooks are supplied. So, most of them refuse to think more to make them unique teaching than just reading text books available.
The low levels of English proficiency among university students nowadays becoming a hot issue among academic thinkers. This is because the students English language skills are not being developed during their higher education experience. Thus, reflects negatively on the quality of higher education and its graduates. The factors low English proficiency among most learners are due to two factors; internal factors such as no confident when using English, negative attitude towards the English language and external factor like the limited opportunities to use English outside the classroom. Most learners have lack of confidence when using English language. For example, the person that has low selfconfidence may refuse to use the language in publics. Anna Freud once said I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence but it comes from within. It is there all the time. This shown that confident levels are decreasing when the learners are lack of self-confidence to use this language. They are afraid to be wrong and prejudiced about it. The second reason is the negative attitudes towards the English language. For information, attitude has been defined as the inclination to act or to be in a state of readiness to act (Gagne, 1985). The learners just learnt English for pass the examination not using it as their second language. Students in university generally find it difficult to maintain their interest in English language learning as English is not seen as important for their immediate needs other than to pass their examination. A lot of negative attitudes build up from unfamiliarity with the culture of the target language (Tucker and lambert, 1973). Malay students from small towns or rural places usually grown up in a situation that English is unimportant language, not like their speaking homes language, Bahasa Melayu. Then, clearly that internal factors influenced the...

Mother Tounge Interference In English

Methods to reduce Mother Tongue Interference (M T I ) in the classroom Introduction: The importance of English language acquisition as a stepping-stone for proficiency in school subjects cannot be over emphasized. The knowledge of English is important both for educational, national and economic development of a country. English is the official language of administration and commerce and also a major language of science. It should be further highlighted at the need for improving the quality of spoken and written English language among children. Although English language retains its dominant position in the education delivery system, the thrust of our educational language policy is the use of the mother tongue or the language of the immediate community.. English Language Teaching, like all other fields of human endeavour, generates its share of false prophets. Year after year, we find ourselves that are buzzing with the news that someone has found The Best Method. Wilkins observes: When learning a foreign

language an individual already knows his mother tongue, and it is this which he attempts to transfer. The transfer may prove to be justified because the structure of the two languages is similar in that case we get Positive transfer or facilitation or it may prove unjustified because the structure of the two languages are different in that case we get negative transfer or inference (Wilkins, 1972 : P 199) Language Learning is about taking risks and rising to the challenge. Teaching English as a second language presents some difficulties, one of which is MTI, especially Pronunciation and Transliteration. The most noticeable hurdle our students face is MTI. Mother tongue therefore, is defined as the language which a group of people considered to inhabitants of an area acquired in the early years and which eventually becomes their natural instrument of thoughts and communication.