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Language policies and its impact on societal multilingualism in Sarawak

The policy of having a single common language to symbolise national identity and to forge unity among various groups in multi-ethnic nations has been seen by some as marginalising the rights of minority communities to their language. It is also commonly reported in the literature as the main factor...

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Main Author: Norahim, Norazuna
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak 2013
Subjects:
AC Collections. Series. Collected works
Online Access:http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/344/1/Language_policies_and_its_impact_on_societal_abstract.pdf
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/344/
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spelling my.unimas.ir.3442020-08-25T06:56:19Z http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/344/ Language policies and its impact on societal multilingualism in Sarawak Norahim, Norazuna AC Collections. Series. Collected works The policy of having a single common language to symbolise national identity and to forge unity among various groups in multi-ethnic nations has been seen by some as marginalising the rights of minority communities to their language. It is also commonly reported in the literature as the main factor for language shift. Nonetheless, micro investigations conducted on language choice patterns of these communities concluded otherwise. This paper discusses the impact of Malaysia's language policies on societal bilingualism and language choice patterns of its community members. Using Sarawak as a case study, the paper argues that the consequences of the policy are not necessarily threatening lesser languages. In fact, it is suggested that, the policy has created greater assimilation and integration among its members. The discussion in this paper is drawn from several qualitative studies conducted on communities in the south-western part of Sarawak, namely the Bidayuh community and Iban-Malay community in Sebuyau. Universiti Malaysia Sarawak 2013 Working Paper PeerReviewed text en http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/344/1/Language_policies_and_its_impact_on_societal_abstract.pdf Norahim, Norazuna (2013) Language policies and its impact on societal multilingualism in Sarawak. [Working Paper] (Submitted)
institution Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
building Centre for Academic Information Services (CAIS)
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
content_source UNIMAS Institutional Repository
url_provider http://ir.unimas.my/
language English
topic AC Collections. Series. Collected works
spellingShingle AC Collections. Series. Collected works
Norahim, Norazuna
Language policies and its impact on societal multilingualism in Sarawak
description The policy of having a single common language to symbolise national identity and to forge unity among various groups in multi-ethnic nations has been seen by some as marginalising the rights of minority communities to their language. It is also commonly reported in the literature as the main factor for language shift. Nonetheless, micro investigations conducted on language choice patterns of these communities concluded otherwise. This paper discusses the impact of Malaysia's language policies on societal bilingualism and language choice patterns of its community members. Using Sarawak as a case study, the paper argues that the consequences of the policy are not necessarily threatening lesser languages. In fact, it is suggested that, the policy has created greater assimilation and integration among its members. The discussion in this paper is drawn from several qualitative studies conducted on communities in the south-western part of Sarawak, namely the Bidayuh community and Iban-Malay community in Sebuyau.
format Working Paper
author Norahim, Norazuna
author_facet Norahim, Norazuna
author_sort Norahim, Norazuna
title Language policies and its impact on societal multilingualism in Sarawak
title_short Language policies and its impact on societal multilingualism in Sarawak
title_full Language policies and its impact on societal multilingualism in Sarawak
title_fullStr Language policies and its impact on societal multilingualism in Sarawak
title_full_unstemmed Language policies and its impact on societal multilingualism in Sarawak
title_sort language policies and its impact on societal multilingualism in sarawak
publisher Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
publishDate 2013
url http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/344/1/Language_policies_and_its_impact_on_societal_abstract.pdf
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/344/
_version_ 1677784816516333568
score 13.211869

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