Examining the Impact of Family Household Income on Children's English Proficiency in Malaysia: A Case Study

Abstract

Malaysia is a diverse country where the population covers people of different races, which results in most Malaysians being able to be either bilingual or multilingual. Although the differences are a common factor that might be influencing their English proficiency, much of the research that has been done to study the correlation between race and English proficiency proves that the relationship between those two is there. Most people tend to ignore the influence of household income on 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. Six semi structured interviews were conducted to obtain qualitative data from Malaysians with different family household incomes. This study reveals that there is a connection between family household income and their children’s English proficiency in terms of the level of awareness of the importance of English, the practice of English in daily life and the resources provided by parents.