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The article ‘Some Ways of Speaking in English: A Malaysian perspective’ by Hyacinth Gaudart discussed varying ways of how English was being spoken by different speakers while taking into account their different cultural backgrounds. It focused on the speech patterns used and the implication of each to English language teaching in Malaysia.
Additional points:
There were some dearths of ethics in the research as recorded conversations which had been used as one of the data for the finding were done without the consent of the third parties who had involved along the process. It was highly unethical to produce a data by keeping the other participants uninformed that they were in the midst of a study. The cause for this action might be because the researcher found it difficult to get genuine and accurate responses if the intention of the study was unveiled beforehand. The researcher might also feel that to inform the participants that they were to be recorded for a study would be to impose on them and she might not get the desired result.
Furthermore, this research was looked to be gender biased as the participants consisted mainly of females. Realizing this as a potential inhibiting factor to the research finding, the researcher clearly stated in the article that gender differences would be elicited in the study. However, it would only make the study unjust as cultural differences alone are not sufficient to contribute to the findings. The researcher should otherwise equalize the number of the participants and highlight gender distinctions as one of the factors that would play a part in the findings. This factor should never be sidelined as it has been contributing as a significant factor in a lot of research study. By taking more female participants as samples, the researcher also did not bring justice to the study.
The research piqued my interest as such a breakdown in communication is common among students in schools and academic institutions and also in the workplace especially during an encounter with native speakers of English. The findings of the study could be used by many quarters regardless of race, age and social classes. Even though all the participants in the study have a good command of English language and are able to speak the language fluently, the findings revealed that problems however arose in certain conversation with the native speakers. This is due to differences in communication styles and speech patterns they adopted. Even though English language is a universal language, the finding showed that it was however perceived differently by different cultures and people.