Malay-English Bilingualism in Malaysia

A product of an inter-marriage amidst a multi-ethnic society in Malaysia, I grew up a bilingual of both the Malay and English languages. Most Malaysians mother tongue is the language of their respective races, whilst their national language is Bahasa Melayu. So, English language comes in second to all the languages they are familiar with; in other words their L2. Out of my love for both the languages, I developed an accute fascination for their figurative expressions. I observed these expressions tend to maintain the identity of their languages intact for the expressions are not interchangeable. When translated, both form and meaning of the expressions are lost. With this in mind, I launched an investigation on L2 learners use and application of the figurative expressions inside and outside the classroom. The investigation revealed many factors which affect the competency of L2 learners use and application of L2 figurative expressions. Hopefully, this book will shed some light on the difficulties L2 learners face when learning L2 figurative expressions.