A preliminary study on localising the CEFR written production descriptor to Malaysian Higher Education context

The embrace of CEFR in the Malaysian context was explicated in The Roadmap, a document explaining Malaysia’s latest language in education reform that occurred in 2015. With the adoption of CEFR into Malaysia’s English language education, all matters related to English language teaching and learning need to be aligned to CEFR, including those in tertiary education. This paper attempts to unravel the thoughts and beliefs of academic at Malaysian higher learning institutions on the need to localise CEFR into Malaysian higher education context. This qualitative pilot study was conducted with three participants to assess the suitability of a 22-questions interview questionnaire, and at the same time build a case on CEFR localisation to the Malaysian context. In modelling and framing the study and interview questions, the Language Management Theory was utilised. An interview was conducted and a rigorous coding exercise was done to disclose the beliefs of Malaysian higher education academics in regards to CEFR and the need to localise the framework. For this study, research only concerted around the written production skills. Findings revealed that higher education academics are concerned with CEFR and suggests that proper measures of adaptations should be taken before CEFR can be rolled out in institutions of higher learning for their teaching, learning and assessment purposes