The perception of lexical stress in Malaysian English
Malaysian English is described as a variety of English that lacks perceivable lexical stress. This, in turn, could affect its intelligibility to non-Malaysian listeners. This paper examines if lexical stress can be detected in Malaysian English. The findings were based on two listening tasks com...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2020
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16533/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16533/1/39628-144977-2-PB.pdf |
| _version_ | 1848814076000468992 |
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| author | Ernie Adnan, Stefanie Pillai, Chiew, Poh Shin |
| author_facet | Ernie Adnan, Stefanie Pillai, Chiew, Poh Shin |
| author_sort | Ernie Adnan, |
| building | UKM Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Malaysian English is described as a variety of English that lacks perceivable lexical stress. This, in turn, could
affect its intelligibility to non-Malaysian listeners. This paper examines if lexical stress can be detected in
Malaysian English. The findings were based on two listening tasks completed by 65 respondents from three
neighbouring countries: Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines. In the first task, they were required to listen to
recordings of the Malaysian speakers, and mark the stressed syllables in the test words. In the second task, they
wrote out the words they heard in the recordings. The findings indicate that most of the respondents were
generally able to identify the stressed syllables in the test words. However, the more syllables a word had, the
more difficult it was to identify the stressed syllable. Context was also an important factor as the listeners found
it easier to identify, and make out the test words when they were placed in a sentence. Speakers who used less
English in their daily interactions, and who declared a lower level of English proficiency had more difficulty
identifying the stressed syllables, and making out the words being uttered by the Malaysian English speakers. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-15T00:28:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | oai:generic.eprints.org:16533 |
| institution | Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-15T00:28:20Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | oai:generic.eprints.org:165332021-05-10T01:14:35Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16533/ The perception of lexical stress in Malaysian English Ernie Adnan, Stefanie Pillai, Chiew, Poh Shin Malaysian English is described as a variety of English that lacks perceivable lexical stress. This, in turn, could affect its intelligibility to non-Malaysian listeners. This paper examines if lexical stress can be detected in Malaysian English. The findings were based on two listening tasks completed by 65 respondents from three neighbouring countries: Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines. In the first task, they were required to listen to recordings of the Malaysian speakers, and mark the stressed syllables in the test words. In the second task, they wrote out the words they heard in the recordings. The findings indicate that most of the respondents were generally able to identify the stressed syllables in the test words. However, the more syllables a word had, the more difficult it was to identify the stressed syllable. Context was also an important factor as the listeners found it easier to identify, and make out the test words when they were placed in a sentence. Speakers who used less English in their daily interactions, and who declared a lower level of English proficiency had more difficulty identifying the stressed syllables, and making out the words being uttered by the Malaysian English speakers. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2020 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16533/1/39628-144977-2-PB.pdf Ernie Adnan, and Stefanie Pillai, and Chiew, Poh Shin (2020) The perception of lexical stress in Malaysian English. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 26 (4). pp. 1-14. ISSN 0128-5157 https://ejournals.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/1364 |
| spellingShingle | Ernie Adnan, Stefanie Pillai, Chiew, Poh Shin The perception of lexical stress in Malaysian English |
| title | The perception of lexical stress in Malaysian English |
| title_full | The perception of lexical stress in Malaysian English |
| title_fullStr | The perception of lexical stress in Malaysian English |
| title_full_unstemmed | The perception of lexical stress in Malaysian English |
| title_short | The perception of lexical stress in Malaysian English |
| title_sort | perception of lexical stress in malaysian english |
| url | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16533/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16533/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16533/1/39628-144977-2-PB.pdf |