Language ideological debates: national identity construction in Malaysia

Abstract

This paper investigates the issue of language-in-education issue using Malaysia as its case study. Education in Malaysia has been multilingual but has continued to practise the linguistic segregation for individual schools, a system inherited from the colonial era, and has adopted the 'ideal' of monolingual schools (Solomon 1988). If we accept the definition of bilingual education as one where two languages are 'used as [mediums] of instruction to teach subject matter content rather than just the language itself' (Cummins 2003: 3), it is only now that a bilingual education policy is being implemented, although calls for this have been made earlier (Ng & Jomo, 1984). What is envisaged is a full (rather than transitional) Malay-English bilingual education. This is a volte-face that requires a reconstitution of the notion of a Malaysian identity that is more hybrid - multilingual and multicultural. Of particular interest then is the way in which the English language needs to be looked at in the Malaysian context: as a language that promotes, rather than stand in the way of, 'nation building'. I will refer to press cuttings and policy statements in the discussion.