HRMARS - Language interference in Malay among higher education students has become an increasingly prominent linguistic and pedagogical issue, particularly within bilingual societies and digitally mediated environments. This article aims to identify the level of Malay language interference among students at UNITAR International University and to analyse the influence of linguistic factors, social media usage, and students’ attitudes toward the language. The study employed a descriptive mixed-methods approach, involving a questionnaire administered to 30 students and semi-structured interviews with six selected participants. Descriptive statistical analysis revealed that the level of language interference was moderate to high (mean = 3.82), with social media factors recording the highest mean score. Qualitative findings further confirmed the dominance of digital language practices and code-mixing in students’ communication. This study contributes to the local higher education sociolinguistic literature and proposes targeted institutional-level interventions to strengthen the use of standard Malay as a language of knowledge.
Rahim et al. (2026) studied this question.