Some Varieties of Spoken English in Malaysia

Abstract

An interesting peculiarity about spoken English in Malaysia is the number of varieties that are used in the country. We can, for example, observe two distinct varieties, one being formal spoken English, and the other being an informal variety which is popularly identified as ‘Malaysian English’ (see in particular the article by J. J. Augustin, “Malaysian English and the English Teacher”, in the English Teacher, Vol. 1, No. 6, pp. 9–11).