Why Non-Native Speaker English in Malaysian Theses Has Distinctive Patterns
Proofreading academic English written by a non-native speaker in a Malaysian thesis context is more effective when the proofreader understands that the errors are not random — they are systematic and predictable. Malaysian postgraduate writers, most of whom have Bahasa Malaysia as their first language and have been educated in a system where both languages are used, bring specific grammatical and syntactic tendencies to their English academic writing that reflect the structure and conventions of Bahasa Malaysia.
These patterns are not signs of incompetence — many Malaysian postgraduate students have excellent command of conversational and professional English. Rather, they reflect the ways in which Bahasa Malaysia grammar unconsciously influences academic English production, particularly in formal writing situations where the writer is simultaneously managing complex ideas and language. Recognising these patterns is the first step to proofreading them systematically and efficiently.
Pattern 1: Article Errors (The, A, An) and Uncountable Nouns
One of the most consistent patterns when proofreading academic English in a Malaysian thesis is the misuse or omission of English articles (the, a, an). Bahasa Malaysia does not have a grammatical article system equivalent to English, so the rules governing when to use “the” versus “a” versus no article are acquired through explicit learning rather than intuition. Common manifestations include: omitted articles before countable singular nouns (“The study used questionnaire to collect data” — missing “a”); incorrect use of “the” before abstract or general nouns used in a general sense (“The knowledge is important for organisational success” — “the” should be deleted); and incorrect use of the indefinite article before uncountable nouns (“a research,” “an information,” “a knowledge”).
When proofreading academic English in a Malaysian thesis for article errors, pay particular attention to noun phrases that appear at the beginning of sentences, noun phrases that follow prepositions, and any use of abstract nouns like “knowledge,” “information,” “research,” “evidence,” “feedback,” and “data” — all of which are uncountable in English and should never be preceded by “a” or “an.”
Pattern 2: Subject-Verb Agreement Across Long Noun Phrases
Subject-verb agreement errors are common when proofreading academic English in Malaysian theses, particularly when the subject of a sentence is a long, complex noun phrase. The error occurs because the verb is made to agree with the nearest noun rather than the actual grammatical subject: “The relationship between the factors identified in the previous studies were examined…” — the grammatical subject is “The relationship” (singular), not “studies” (the nearest noun), so the verb should be “was examined.”
The longer and more complex the noun phrase, the more likely this error is to occur. In academic writing, where noun phrases are frequently elaborated with prepositional phrases, relative clauses, and participial phrases, this error can appear in sentences that are otherwise well-constructed. When proofreading, identify the main subject of each sentence — ignoring all intervening phrases — and check that the verb agrees with it in number.
Pattern 3: Tense Inconsistency Within and Between Paragraphs
Tense management is complex in academic English written by non-native speakers, and proofreading for tense consistency in a Malaysian thesis requires checking both within-paragraph consistency and cross-chapter conventions. The most common error is the inappropriate shift from past to present tense within a paragraph: a student begins reporting a study’s findings in the past tense (“Ahmad (2022) found that…”) and then unconsciously shifts to present (“This shows that…”) within the same sentence or the next.
Different thesis chapters also follow different tense conventions that Malaysian students frequently confuse: the Literature Review typically uses present tense to report what is known and past tense to report what specific studies did; the Methodology chapter uses past tense throughout because it describes completed procedures; the Results chapter uses past tense to report what was found; and the Discussion chapter shifts between past tense for specific findings and present tense for broader claims or implications. Proofreading academic English in a Malaysian thesis for tense requires checking each chapter against its specific tense conventions, not just looking for consistency in isolation.
Pattern 4: Preposition Choice Errors
Preposition usage in academic English is notoriously difficult for non-native speakers because prepositions are largely idiomatic — their correct use is determined by collocation conventions rather than semantic rules. When proofreading academic English in a Malaysian thesis, pay attention to prepositions following common academic verbs and nouns: “conducted on/with/among” (a study is conducted “on” a topic, “with” or “among” participants); “consisted of” (not “consisted with” or “consisted in”); “influenced by” (not “influenced from”); and “based on” (not “based from,” a very common error in Malaysian theses).
The phrase “based from” — as in “Based from the findings, it can be concluded that…” — is extremely common in Malaysian academic writing and is always incorrect in standard academic English. The correct forms are “Based on the findings” or “Drawing from the findings.” This error is so pervasive in Malaysian theses that identifying and correcting it alone can involve dozens of corrections across a full manuscript.
Pattern 5: Sentence Fragments and Run-On Sentences
Proofreading academic English in a Malaysian thesis also involves identifying sentence fragments — incomplete sentences that lack a main clause — and run-on sentences that string multiple independent clauses together without appropriate punctuation or coordinating conjunctions. Fragments often occur when a relative clause or participial phrase that should modify a main clause is punctuated as if it were a complete sentence. Run-ons often reflect the Bahasa Malaysia tendency to connect related ideas in long sequences without the stronger demarcation that English academic writing convention requires.
Conclusion
Proofreading academic English written by a non-native speaker in a Malaysian thesis context is most effective when approached systematically, with awareness of the specific patterns that recur. Article errors, subject-verb agreement across complex noun phrases, tense management, preposition collocations — particularly the “based from” error — and sentence boundary issues are the most common and consequential patterns to address. Correcting these systematically, in dedicated passes through the manuscript, transforms a thesis that reads as non-native into one that presents your research with the language clarity that Malaysian examiners expect.
