Malay-English Bilingualism in Malaysia

A product of an inter-marriage amidst a multi-ethnic
society in Malaysia, I grew up a bilingual of both
the Malay and English languages. Most Malaysians'
mother tongue is the language of their respective
races, whilst their national language is Bahasa
Melayu. So, English language comes in second to all
the languages they are familiar with; in other words
their L2. Out of my love for both the languages, I
developed an accute fascination for their figurative
expressions. I observed these expressions tend to
maintain the identity of their languages intact for
the expressions are not interchangeable. When
translated, both form and meaning of the expressions
are lost. With this in mind, I launched an
investigation on L2 learners use and application of
the figurative expressions inside and outside the
classroom. The investigation revealed many factors
which affect the competency of L2 learners' use and
application of L2 figurative expressions.
Hopefully, this book will shed some light on the
difficulties L2 learners face when learning L2
figurative expressions.