The Socio-Cognitive Of Young Students Towards The Malay Language

As an important medium for the dissemination of knowledge, language must be mastered and sought through a designed curriculum. To ensure the effectiveness of this programme, the positive attitudes and high perceptions towards the language are needed. Therefore, this study aims to identify the perceived attitudes and perceptions, which is part of the cognition of the young students towards the Malay language, and views the significance of the relationship between the social background of young student, particularly in gender differences, race/ethnicity, and the class stream of study and their congnitive towards the Malay language. More than 1,500 students were involved in this study. The result shows that nearly 80.0% (1,208) of the students have a positive attitudes towards the Malay language and there are only 29.9% (456) of them who have high perception towards the language. The study also reveals that the cognitive of the young students have significance relations to their social background. Hence, the research considers that positive attitudes and high perception towards the Malay language needs to be cultivated so that they remain assured on the capability of the Malay language, particularly as a language of knowledge and language of unity in Malaysia.