Does Multilingualism Contribute Positive Effects to Student's Self Identity?
This case study of a qualitative research deals with a group of Malay primary school students who go schooling at vernacular (Chinese) schools in a state of Malaysia. The importance of multilingualism and multicultural aspects is the main focus of the research which aims to investigate on...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://eprints.unisza.edu.my/3784/1/FH02-FBK-14-00473.pdf http://eprints.unisza.edu.my/3784/ |
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| Summary: | This case study of a qualitative research
deals with a group of Malay primary school students
who go schooling at vernacular (Chinese) schools in
a state of Malaysia. The importance of
multilingualism and multicultural aspects is the main
focus of the research which aims to investigate on
how the students maintain their Malay self-identity.
The study also seeks to find the contributing factors
of maintaining or losing the self-identity due to the
different racial environment. In order to accomplish
this sociolinguistic research, fifty eight Malay
primary school students were involved in eight Focus
Group Discussions, at the same time; twenty four
language teachers were involved in in-depth�interviews. In and outside class observations were
also used to help the researcher understand the
challenges faced by the students and their academic
performances were also scrutinized in order to
investigate the relevancy of the variables. The study
reveals some findings which closely related to
sociolinguistic aspects which show that the students
have to sacrifice their first language in order to
master the targeted language i.e. Mandarin. They
have a strong belief that although they have
sacrificed a lot of time and effort in mastering the
target language, they try their best to improve and
uphold their Malay self-identity. |
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