Family Household Income and Children’s English Proficiency in Malaysia: A Case Study

Abstract

Malaysia is a diverse country where the population covers people with different races that results in most Malaysian being able to be either bilingual or multilingual. Although the differences is a common factor that might be influencing their English proficiency, yet many of the research that has been done to study the correlation of races and English proficiency prove that the relationship between those two is there. Most people tend to ignore the influence of household income towards their English proficiency which results in less research being conducted. Thus, this study aims to investigate the parents' experiences between family household income and children's English proficiency in Malaysia. A few interviews had been conducted to obtain the qualitative data from Malaysians with different family household income. This study reveals that there is a relationship between family household income and their children's English proficiency in terms of the level of awareness on the importance of English, the practice of English in daily life and the resources provided by parents.