TAGGING IT THE MALAYSIAN STYLE

Abstract

Drawing from the apprehension over the intelligibility of Malaysian English, the features of tag questions produced by a group of students at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia become the interest of this paper. The paper offers a description of tag questions produced by the subjects contrasted against the tag features of standard British English. Analysis of the data gathered in a natural setting through an informant, reveals four types of Malaysian English speakers' tag questions and an indiscriminate use of the rising intonation. Fossilization is also argued to be a contributing factor to the persistent appearance of the deviant forms. The findings also become the basis for some pedagogical implications to ELT in Malaysia.