Standard BM framework a first
Maszlee: Model will be adopted in all institutions and ministries
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is the first country to come up with a standardised framework for Bahasa Melayu.
Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik said the Bahasa Melayu Standard Framework will be used by all the institutions under his ministry from next year onwards.
“We will also give the framework to the other ministries to be used,” he told reporters after closing the National Language Month 2018 yesterday.
Dr Maszlee launched the framework at the same event.
He will also ask the Foreign Ministry to supply the framework’s manual to all Malaysian foreign missions.
“We will also send the framework to the 21 (learning) institutions worldwide (that have Bahasa Melayu programmes),” he said.
On whether the framework would be applied to members of Parliament, he said that he, as Education Minister, would encour- age his fellow Cabinet ministers to improve on their Bahasa Melayu language skills from time to time.
Institute of Teacher Education Bahasa Melayu Campus senior lecturer Lokman Abd Wahid said the framework is similar to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), which is standardised and used internationally to determine English proficiency levels.
He said there were six proficiency levels in the framework.
Lokman, who is also the Malay language education programme manager at the ministry, said this framework would ensure Bahasa Melayu proficiency evaluations could be standardised.
He said there were plans to establish a Bahasa Melayu Council (Majlis Bahasa Melayu) to ensure the quality of the framework was maintained and improved from time to time.
He said the 18-member council would be similar to the British Council, which oversees English language usage.