1) What are the processes that language planners would have to go through when conducting a sociolinguistic survey?
Sociolinguistics survey refers the method used to measure the development and situation of a language (Sebastian, 2012). Thus, sociolinguistics survey should be conducted periodically in order to fully comprehend the status of the language being focused on. Sociolinguistics survey is the considered the first step to identify the condition of a language or language group. They will help us determine whether the language is thriving or losing its ground to other language (Sweeney, 2000). In a research done by Vaish et al. (2006), sociolinguistics survey is capable of identifying who speaks the language, to whom, in what context, with what attitude. Besides that, with sociolinguistics survey, a more specific characteristic of a language, such as the pattern of a language in children could be determined (Aman et al., 2006). Thus, using sociolinguistics survey in a s tudy of language is the best way to get the correct results.
There are some processes, which the language planner needs to adhere to in conducting a sociolinguistics survey. The first process is to conduct a pre-survey planning. The person who is carrying out the survey need to be qualified and clearly informed about the focus of the study. In other word, the planner must be someone who is experienced or possess knowledge about sociolinguistics study. This person plays an important role for the entire research. He/she will have to assemble a group of specialist who will help with the study. This group needs to consist of at least a historian, an anthropologist, an economist, a professional planner, a data processor, a political scientist and a linguist. These people must also be familiar with the target language. The best way to do this is to recruit people from the target population itself. However, if there are no suitable people from the population, seeking help from expatriate is recommended. The duration of the survey is largely depends on the size of the survey, the size of the target state and the resources.
Pre survey is needed because it will be able to support the main survey. After the recruitment of suitable members to the team, it is important to organize these members in a suitable formation. Issues such as genders and ethnic backgrounds should be taken into consideration as well. This is to ensure the findings at the end of the study are reliable and bias-free. Once organized, the team will have to undertake two simultaneous activities. These activities will require the team to be divided accordingly. The historian, the economist, the political scientist, and the anthropologist will proceed to explore the situation of the country. Each of them will play their own respective role with regard of their specialties. Meanwhile, the other group, which consists of the linguist, the professional planner and the data processor, will begin their job to formulate the instrument and procedure for the survey. After that, the team will have to recruit group of field workers. These field workers will be responsible in distributing the instruments.
After the pre survey is completed, the main and actual survey may start. The field workers will be divided in groups with assigned supervisors in each group. These supervisors will report in the findings for their respective group on a regular basis. They may start distributing the instruments and data collection processes. While the field workers are collecting data, the team members will engaged in interviews with leaders of key sectors. The factor on which sector should be focused on is dependent on the local situation. Each data obtained throughout the data collection process should be fed to the data processors on regular basis. Since all the data collected might be in different format, thus it is important for the data to be collated.
The team members may start writing the survey report once the data have been organized. This is a very crucial part of the survey. The team members might include some recommendations in the report. However, it is important to make sure the recommendations are implementable and avoid any that might be controversial. The next step upon the completion is to carefully review the report.
2) Describe briefly (1/2 to 2 pages) the current linguistic situation and use in Malaysia. Based on your description, suggest language policy/policies appropriate for this country.
Malaysia is considered as one of the many developing countries around the globe. However, unlike most countries, Malaysia is rather unique because it houses people of many cultures, races, and religions. The linguistics situation in Malaysia is pretty much a result of its multiracial status. The main races in Malaysia are Malay, Chinese, Indian and Bumiputera Sabah Sarawak. Having all of these races in a country, the language phenomenon in Malaysia is rather exquisite. Bahasa Melayu is used by Malay, Mandarin and its varieties are spoken by Chinese and Indian uses Tamil in conversation. In Sabah and Sarawak, there are even more unique languages. Despite having multiple languages in the country, most Malaysian is capable of speaking Malay and English. Thus making these two languages are regularly used in daily activities. Education in Malaysia mainly involves the use of Malay and English. Although there are some schools, which are, specialize for certain ethnic, (for example Chinese school), Malay and English are still the dominant languages. This is mainly because these two languages are used not only in education, but also in business and other sectors. Thus, it is safe to say that both Malay and English are equally important in Malaysia, as the two languages are the core of the developing country.
Considering both Malay and English are important in Malaysia, thus, a language policy, which focuses on both languages, should be implemented. In education in Malaysia, the use of English is not something new. En glish has been considered as necessity in today’s society. However, it is also important that we as Malaysian, to maintain our identity and language. Thus, the most suitable language policy for Malaysia at the time being is to have a Malay-medium society with English as the compulsory language. This could be applied not just in education, but other sectors as well.
3) What steps should the Malaysian government take to ensure effective implementation of the suggested language policy/policies?
The government plays an important role in order to ensure the language policy suitable for Malaysia can be successfully implemented. As mentioned before, Malaysia is a multi-racial country, which houses multiple cultural elements. English and Mal ay are equally important in Malaysia. Thus, in order to preserve both of them, it is important that the Malaysian government takes several steps to make sure the language policy in Malaysia will be able to contribute to the growth of both Malay and English,
The first step is to reintroduce the English-medium school in Malaysia. Englishmedium school will be a good way to increase the proficiency of English speaker among Malaysian. Recently, some academics are suggesting that the government should convert the education system in Malaysia into a single stream that uses only Malay as the medium (Hussaini, 2012). Although this might be a good way to preserve Malay as the identity of Malaysia, it will act as a double-edge sword for other languages. Some people were disagree with this suggestion and propose another suggestion allowing English school to coexist with Malay school. This suggestion however, could not be accepted by the majority of Malaysian due to their fear of losing Malay as lingua franca. If Malaysian keeps on hanging to this policy, there is no doubt that the next generation of Malaysian will lack in English proficiency. Thus, it is important for the government to come up with a way of solving this problem. The best way is probably to reintroduce the English-medium schools while maintain the existence of Malay schools and vernacular schools.
Another suggestion to improve the language policy in Malaysia is by reinstalling the Teaching of Mathematics and Science in English (PPSMI) policy that was introduced in 2003. The original purpose of PPSMI was to help Malaysian to improve their English language proficiency. This is following the concern over the deteriorating command of English among young Malaysian who were finding difficulties in getting employment due to poor English proficiency (Asiah, 2013). PPSMI was also a step taken in response to English as an important international language for trade and scientific technology that will help Malaysia to achieve its Vision 2020 (Gill, 2004). However, in 2012, the PPSMI policy was reversed. This has proven to be troublesome to some students who were used to learn Science and Mathematics in English. The main reason behind its reversal is the lack of participation
of Malaysian teachers in implementing the policy. The Ministry of Education stated that only 53% to 58% of the whole period allocated for the two subjects was conducted in English. The remainder would still use English during the lesson, but due to lack of English proficiency, the teachers would rather use other languages, which are more understandable. After considering that Malaysian might not be ready to accept English as medium of instruction, the government then decided to remove the policy altogether. Thus, by reinstalling the PPSMI policy, we might be able to create a society that is fluent in English while maintaining their first language identity. The government should try to extend the duration for its implementation. 9 years might not be enough to see a positive result as the society was still trying to adapt themselves with the policy.
Rather than reintroducing PPSMI, perhaps the government should take another step by introducing another policy, which is similar to PPSMI. After the reversal of PPSMI, the government had introduced another form of language policy, which is the To Uphold Bahasa Malaysia and To Strengthen the English Language (MBMMBI). This policy is actually a follow up of PPSMI. PPSMI was not very successful in producing students who are proficient in English. Based on the statistics, the government believes that Science and Mathematics should be taught in a language, which is easy to understand. This is because Science and Mathematics focus more on the knowledge gain, not the language. With MBMMBI, the identity of Malay could be maintained, while improving the proficiency of English among Malaysian. The best way is probably to implement both PPSMI and MBMMBI in order to maximize the result (Toh, 2012).
References
Aman, N., Vaish, V., & Bokhorst-Heng, W. 2006. The sociolinguistic survey of Singapore 2006 . Singapore: Nanyang Technological University, National Institute of Education, Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice.
Asiah. M. S. 2013. Limited Proficiency English Teachers’ Language Use In Science Classrooms. http://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/article/view/3175. [5 November]
Gill, S. K. 2004. Medium-of-Instruction policy in higher education in Malaysia: Nationalism versus internationalization. Medium of instruction policies: Which agenda whose agenda?
Hussaini, 2012. Education: Focus Equally on Bahasa Malaysia and English. New Straits Times.
http://www.nst.com.my/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/education-focus-
equally-on-bahasa-malaysia-and-english-1.160640. [16 December]
Sweeney, M. 2000. The Storyboard . Papua New Guinea branch of Pioneer Bible Translators.
Toh, B.H, 2012. PPSMI: Allow Policy to go on alongside MBMMBI. New Straits Times. http://www.nst.com.my/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/ppsmi-allow-policy-to-go-onalongside-mbmmbi-1.28147. [15 December 2013]
Vaish, V., Aisha, J., & Mardiana, R. 2006. The Sociolinguistics survey of Singapore 2006. National Singapore: Nanyang Technological University, National Institute of Education, Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice
