BACHELOR OF PSYCHOLOGY WITH HONOURS (BPSY)

SEMESTER SEPTEMBER / 2018

OUMH1303

ENGLISH FOR ORAL COMMUNICATION

MATRICULATION NO : 900223016872001
IDENTITY CARD NO. : 9002230168720
TELEPHONE NO. : 0102887095
E-MAIL : sitihawahedzer@oum.edu.my
LEARNING CENTRE : SRI RAMPAI LEARNING CENTRE
SITI HAWA BINTI HEDZER OUMH1303
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Good day and happy weekend to all my collagues and to our lovely tutor. Same
as others, today I am here to give speech and presentation on which secondary languages
are worth studying today. As per task assigned to me, I choosen English and Mandarin in
my speech and I will explain further, so please be patience with me and thank you for
your precious time. Before that. I would like to introduce myself, my name is Siti Hawa
Binti Hedzer, student from Bachelor Of Psychology With Honours, Open University
Malaysia.

Now i will start with my speech. First and foremost, we must understand what
languages is. After doing some reserch using the search engine by Google.com,
Language is a body of words and the systems for their use common to a people who are
of the same community or nation, the same geographical area, or the same cultural
tradition. As I am a science student, I will define language in Science for our knowledge.
Referring to The American Heritage® Science Dictionary (2011), in science, language
define as a system of objects or symbols, such as sounds or character sequences, that can
be combined in various ways following a set of rules, especially to communicate
thoughts, feelings, or instructions. See also machine language programming language.
Language in science also define as The set of patterns or structures produced by such a
system.

Meanwhile, secondary languange bring meaning of a language other than the

mother tongue that a person or community uses for public communication, especially in
trade, higher education, and administration and also bring meaning of a non-native
language officially recognized and adopted in a multilingual country as a means of public
communication. (Collin English Dictionary; n.d.). Basically, secondary language is the
languages we use other than our mother tongue. For example, in Malaysia, Malaysia is a
multiracial country and we have Malay with Malay language as first language, India with
Tamil as first language and Chinese with Mandarin or Cantonese as first language.
Malaysia also have other different small race and ethnic such as Iban, Kadazan, Murut,
Bajau and many more with different mother tongue. Basically we in Malaysia can speak
few languages other than our mother tongue for us to communicate with other.

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As per my introduction, I preferably choose English and and Mandarin as

secondary languanges that worth to studying nowaday, I believe like most of others. As
we know, English have been acknowledged as the world lingua franca - a shared
language of communication used between people whose main languages are different.
[Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary; 8th Edition]. English been used widely in world
from daily conversation to formal communication. Almost 80 percent English speakers in
the world are non-native speakers and it make English is one from the secondary
languages that have power in the world in communication.

As per data gathered by Ethnologue the number of Chinese native speakers is

close to 1.3 billion, which means Mandarin language been acknowledged and proven as
the most spoken languages in world. One of six people in world can speak Mandarin, so
we need to acknowledge it. As we know, China has large power in market place and as
there are billions people that can speak Mandarin, it will be great advantages for people
that can speak in Mandarin as well.

Now we discuss about why English is the languages worth studying. I personally
have experiences to search job or vacancy, and most of job advertisements have this one
similar requirement, which they look for candidates that can speak and write in English.
It meant, even in Malaysia, most company makes English as a must for their candidate
and thru my own experience, most of interview done in English, except if you go to
interview for government staff. You must fill in the job application form which in
English and we must know at least Basic English to fill in the form. I have read before, in
one case, this guy go and try to apply for job vacancy and there are a column for Race,
which we know we need to fill in our Race, but he fill in as never – referring to motor
race, we assumed. So it will make bad reputation if we don’t even know Basic English
when we want to find a good job or career.

If most of job advertisement required candidate to speak in English, then for

Mandarin speaker, it will be plus advantages. A lot of large companies are from China

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and there are a lot of job vacancies that need Mandarin speaker as well. Less competition
for Mandarin speakers and most of the time, the vacancy comes will benefits that suit the
Mandarin speaker such as language allowance and so on. Potential employers also see the
candidates with Mandarin speakers skill set are assets as we know; multilingual people
are able to communicate and interact within multiple communities.

In working field also, most of the communication will be in English. When we

working, communication is one of the most important thing and usually the formal
communication such as emails, formal letter, notes, job manual, even telecommunication
and conference mostly need to be done in English. This is due we working will people
across Malaysia, or even international, they will prefer to use English as it is world lingua
franca and easy for us to communicate. Nowadays, most of our daily job will require us
to use system and most of the system develop in English. Even POST system that use in
supermarket or restaurant also develop in English. UBS Accounting, AutoCAD, even our
Microsoft in English. Our smart phone also as default will be set in English, we might
change the language later which most of us not to as the Malay language sets in the smart
phone is not same with our daily use language.

As for business, if you in corporate line, you will often come across with
customer or even business owner and their higher up that come from China and couldn’t
even speak other language. There are also some that can speak other language but still
prefer to use Mandarin as their communication language. So we know that for Mandarin
speakers, they have advantages in market as they can easily enter China Market.

Other then business reasons, most of us love to travel. It is everyone dreams to

travel around the world. As we know, English is world lingua franca and most of country
in world made English as their secondary language. Even we travel to other country, if
we can speak English, we can travel without hassle and fell less of communication
barrier. Same as well in Malaysia, government includes English in education and all
students must take learn English from primary school to University level. So, we can
attract tourist from all over the world to visit Malaysia, in same time to growth our

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country economy. Most tourist love to come to Malaysia not just because variety of food
and beautiful places, but they feel Malaysian are friendly and can converse well with
them. Tourist are most comfortable when they can communicate with local with the
language they can understand.

China also one of the country that been chosen by tourist to visit. This is because
a lot of historical place and their unique culture to visit and learn. China is one of big
country and it has lots of beautiful places for tourist to explore, such as The Great Wall,
Forbidden City in Beijing, Big Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi An, Mount Huangshan in Anhui
that been recognize as "the loveliest mountains of China," by UNESCO. But, as we know
most of Chinese in China mainland can’t speak English and Mandarin is their official
languages. As most of their people can speak Mandarin, getting around in China is easier
for Mandarin speakers. China also know as great place to shopping and for Mandarin
speaker, they can do bargain easily and also can avoid from be victim of high price.

When we study English or Mandarin language, we actually open the door of

world and have high opportunity and chance to meet new people across the world.
English and Mandarin are two languages that are most powerful in world and with
learning it, we can speak with most people in the world. Recent research has shown that
the years effects of Alzheimer’s and dementia can be stave off by bilingualism. Not take
into consideration of their education level, age, gender or occupation, bilingual subjects
in the linked study experienced the onset of Alzheimer’s, on average, 4 1/2 years later
than monolingual subjects did. This is due to people that learn few languages in one time
can boost their brain power and usage. We have brain capacity that we not fully utilize
and by learning we can utilize it. So it become exercise for our brain and improves our
memory. It is a simple fact – the more the brain is used, the better its functions work.

In career point, person with multiple language skills is also a multi skill person,
this is because, they have developed the ability to think and struggle between different
languages, also reducing the stress level. This type of person usually will be head hunt

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and their C.V has high value. Most of employer love to hire people that they feel can do
multi task rather than people with problem and can only focus on one thing.

Basically, one will have much self confident gathered if we can speak more than
one language. For people that can speak English and Mandarin, they will feel much better
as this two languages is the most languages spoken in the world and will boost up their
confident. As we know, confident people are more interesting than those who are unsure
of themselves. In same time, we can boost the self confident and self esteem, we can also
be one of the interesting people and have friend across the world. In current world,
confident is very important for our daily life so we can continue our live comfortable and
in ease.

Before I finish my speech, I would like to wrap up for better understanding and
agreement. English is world lingua franca, if we can speak English, it’s easy for our
future and for our communication. We can speak with anyone in world, mostly, without
barrier. Proficiency in English also can strengthening your job profile and makes us
confident thru interview. In work life, we will need English for formal communication
and interaction between others. For traveler, there are no worries anymore to travel as we
can go around the world with less communication barrier.

The benefits to study Mandarin language as Mandarin language have most

speaker in world, so we can be 1 of the billions speaker and might spread our wings on
communication, career and so on. We will find more opportunity to search job with less
rivals. We also can easily enter China Market. Don’t forget to explore the beauty of
China without hassle. We might travel around China and know that we can communicate
with their people.

In conclusion, learning secondary language will benefits us in many ways. With

learning new languages, we can meet new people, establish lots of connection and we can
see around the world without wall. Nowadays, more people recognize the importance of
learning an additional language and if we only speak one language, we will begin to get

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left behind by the more integrated and connected world society. There is research shown
as per National Geographic News, speaking at least two languages may slow dementia in
the aging brain. So, it is advisable for us to study more than one languages as from my
opinion, English and Mandarin will be the best languages to study as above point
elaborate by myself earlier. I heard one quote from Nelson Mandela, Talk to a man in a
language he understands, that goes to his head. Talk to him in his own language, that
goes to his heart.

I will close this speech with one more quote by unknown – there comes a day
when you realize turning page is the best feeling in the world – because you realize
there’s so much more to the book than the page you were stuck on. So my friend, don’t
stuck with one language and lets studying English and Mandarin for ourselves. Last word
from me today, thank you so much for your precious time.
[2,084 words]

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ATTACHMENT

REFERENCES

Language [Online] Retrieved from: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/language

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing

Company (2011), Language in science [Online], retrieved from:
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/language

HarperCollins Publishers,(n.d) Collins English Dictionary. Second language in British

[Online], Retrieved from: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/second-
language

Ethnologue Languages of the world. (2018) Summary by language size, [Online] retrieve
from : http://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size
Christine Dell’amore (2011, February 18). To Stave Off Alzheimer’s, Learn a Language?
National Geographic News [Online] Retrieved from:
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/02/100218-bilingual-brains-alzheimers-
dementia-science-aging/

Tracy You, Raemin Zhang (2018, April 29). 40 beautiful places to visit in China. CNN,
[Online] Retrieved from; https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/china-beautiful-
places/index.html