Language policy changes in Malaysia : progressive or regressive?

Malaysia gained its independence from the British in 1957. The Malay language, formally called Bahasa Malaysia, was established as the official language of Malaysia; English was used as a second language. In 1971, Bahasa Malaysia was made the medium of instruction in all national schools, supplantin...

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Main Author:	Tharmalingam, Selvarajah
Format:	Conference or Workshop Item
Language:	English English
Published:	2012
Subjects:	P Philology. Linguistics PL Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania
Online Access:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/26806/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/26806/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/26806/1/Language_policy_changes.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/26806/2/ICLLIC2012_icllicprogramme_3nov_.pdf

id	iium-26806
recordtype	eprints
spelling	iium-268062013-02-20T15:22:56Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/26806/ Language policy changes in Malaysia : progressive or regressive? Tharmalingam, Selvarajah P Philology. Linguistics PL Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania Malaysia gained its independence from the British in 1957. The Malay language, formally called Bahasa Malaysia, was established as the official language of Malaysia; English was used as a second language. In 1971, Bahasa Malaysia was made the medium of instruction in all national schools, supplanting English medium ones. After three decades of the Malay-only policy, Malaysia, a largely trading nation, realised that the proficiency level of English among Malaysians has deteriorated to the point of almost halting its globalisation policy. This was considered a huge setback in the push towards becoming a fully developed country by the year 2020. Sensing the weakness, the Malaysian government, to shore up declining standards in English, announced that the teaching of Mathematics and Science would be conducted via the English language (English for teaching Mathematics and Science - ETeMS). The policy was implemented in January 2003 in all government schools in Malaysia. The decision to teach these vital subjects in English language triggered substantial reaction from all levels of the public, and split the nation into several factions, each lying at various points on the “totally against - totally for” continuum. As a result of this decision, hundreds of citizens shared their opinion on the issue mainly through the mainstream media. This paper addresses the issue of whether linguistic analyses can reveal the true nature of public opinion as displayed through their writings in the media, and especially whether the analyses answer the following questions: Is maintaining English a progressive or regressive approach? Is continued use of English detrimental to the status of Malay as the official language of Malaysia? Media reports and letters published in three mainstream newspapers; Utusan Malaysia, The Star, The Sun and three popular online portals: Malaysiakini, Malaysian Insider and Malaysia Today were examined to see discursive patterns. The paper utilises an analytical framework based on the Discourse-Historical approach to critical analysis. The findings of this paper are expected to provide information on the direction/ lack of direction of the language policy in this country. 2012 Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/26806/1/Language_policy_changes.pdf application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/26806/2/ICLLIC2012_icllicprogramme_3nov_.pdf Tharmalingam, Selvarajah (2012) Language policy changes in Malaysia : progressive or regressive? In: International Conference on Linguistics, Literature, and Culture 2012 (ICLLIC 2012), 7 - 9 November 2012, Park Royal Hotel Penang. (Unpublished) http://icllic2012.usm.my/
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	International Islamic University Malaysia
building	IIUM Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English English
topic	P Philology. Linguistics PL Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania
spellingShingle	P Philology. Linguistics PL Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania Tharmalingam, Selvarajah Language policy changes in Malaysia : progressive or regressive?
description	Malaysia gained its independence from the British in 1957. The Malay language, formally called Bahasa Malaysia, was established as the official language of Malaysia; English was used as a second language. In 1971, Bahasa Malaysia was made the medium of instruction in all national schools, supplanting English medium ones. After three decades of the Malay-only policy, Malaysia, a largely trading nation, realised that the proficiency level of English among Malaysians has deteriorated to the point of almost halting its globalisation policy. This was considered a huge setback in the push towards becoming a fully developed country by the year 2020. Sensing the weakness, the Malaysian government, to shore up declining standards in English, announced that the teaching of Mathematics and Science would be conducted via the English language (English for teaching Mathematics and Science - ETeMS). The policy was implemented in January 2003 in all government schools in Malaysia. The decision to teach these vital subjects in English language triggered substantial reaction from all levels of the public, and split the nation into several factions, each lying at various points on the “totally against - totally for” continuum. As a result of this decision, hundreds of citizens shared their opinion on the issue mainly through the mainstream media. This paper addresses the issue of whether linguistic analyses can reveal the true nature of public opinion as displayed through their writings in the media, and especially whether the analyses answer the following questions: Is maintaining English a progressive or regressive approach? Is continued use of English detrimental to the status of Malay as the official language of Malaysia? Media reports and letters published in three mainstream newspapers; Utusan Malaysia, The Star, The Sun and three popular online portals: Malaysiakini, Malaysian Insider and Malaysia Today were examined to see discursive patterns. The paper utilises an analytical framework based on the Discourse-Historical approach to critical analysis. The findings of this paper are expected to provide information on the direction/ lack of direction of the language policy in this country.
format	Conference or Workshop Item
author	Tharmalingam, Selvarajah
author_facet	Tharmalingam, Selvarajah
author_sort	Tharmalingam, Selvarajah
title	Language policy changes in Malaysia : progressive or regressive?
title_short	Language policy changes in Malaysia : progressive or regressive?
title_full	Language policy changes in Malaysia : progressive or regressive?
title_fullStr	Language policy changes in Malaysia : progressive or regressive?
title_full_unstemmed	Language policy changes in Malaysia : progressive or regressive?
title_sort	language policy changes in malaysia : progressive or regressive?
publishDate	2012
url	http://irep.iium.edu.my/26806/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/26806/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/26806/1/Language_policy_changes.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/26806/2/ICLLIC2012_icllicprogramme_3nov_.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T20:39:52Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T20:39:52Z
_version_	1777409293333561344

Language policy changes in Malaysia : progressive or regressive?

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