Language Used by Chinese Malaysian Students Studying at an Australian University

Abstract

In Australia, more than 33% of total international students are Mandarin speakers. Mandarin has become a common language in the international student community in Australia. Speaking Mandarin is important while studying in an English-speaking country. This article explores Chinese Malaysian students’ language proficiency and their language attitudes. Five participants were selected from an Australian university, and were interviewed. Their language proficiency was classified at five levels and in the questionnaire the participants were required to self-rate their proficiency for all the languages that they could speak. The findings show that three of the five participants preferred speaking English in Australia while the other two felt more confident of speaking Mandarin. All participants claimed that English and Mandarin are equally important for them when they are living in Australia. In contrast, the five participants’ Bahasa Melayu proficiencies had largely decreased because of less practice and negative attitudes.