Abstract
Language problems and language barriers are challenges facing not only immigrants but also minorities and people in rural/semirural areas. This study examines individuals’ bi- and multilingual repertoires, language practices and attitudes in a Hokkien-speaking community in Kangar, a semirural town of northern Malaysia bordering Thailand. Through questionnaire surveys and interviews, we investigate how these notions can be used as a means to understand/reflect bilingualism and multilingualism and, more importantly, the potential disparity between what people want to do/say and what people eventually manage to do/say. While there is a shift in language practice from a local- and ancestral origin-induced pattern towards a more “global” and “pan-Chinese” paradigm, the findings also reveal the linguistic “dislocations” of the Hokkien-speaking community across ALL generations regardless of ethnicity. The language issues in the community reflect—and are likely to be reflections of—society at large. The vast contrast between individual/societal linguistic aspirations and the actual linguistic repertoire/communicative competence among the locals indicates the need to redress an absence of major efforts to close urban-rural/city-town/dominant-dominated social divides across the (language) education landscape at the national level.
References
Albury, Nathan J. 2020. Multilingualism and mobility as collateral results of hegemonic language policy. Applied Linguistics 41(2). 234–259. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amy054.Search in Google Scholar
Andaya, Barbara W. & Leonard Y. Andaya. 2017. A history of Malaysia. London: Palgrave.10.1057/978-1-137-60515-3Search in Google Scholar
Atkinson, Rowland & John Flint. 2001. Accessing hidden and hard-to-reach populations: Snowball research strategies. Social Research Update 33(1). 1–4.Search in Google Scholar
Baker, Colin. 1992. Attitudes and language. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Search in Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1991. Language and symbolic power. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Bucholtz, Mary & Kira Hall. 2004. Language and identity. In Alessandro Duranti (ed.), A companion to linguistic anthropology, 369–394. Malden: Blackwell.10.1002/9780470996522.ch16Search in Google Scholar
Busch, Brigitta. 2012. The linguistic repertoire revisited. Applied Linguistics 33(5). 503–523. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/ams056.Search in Google Scholar
Busch, Brigitta. 2017. Expanding the notion of the linguistic repertoire: On the concept of Spracherleben – the lived experience of language. Applied Linguistics 38(3). 340–358.Search in Google Scholar
Carstens, Sharon. 2018. Multilingual Chinese Malaysians: The global dimensions of language choice. Grazer Linguistische Studien 89. 7–34.Search in Google Scholar
Chambers, Gary. 1999. Motivating language learners. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Search in Google Scholar
Chand, Vineeta. 2011. Elite positioning towards Hindi: Language policies, political stances and language competence in India. Journal of Sociolinguistics 15(1). 6–35. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2010.00465.x.Search in Google Scholar
Cushing, Ian. 2020. The policy and policing of language in schools. Language in Society 49(3). 425–450. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047404519000848.Search in Google Scholar
Dailey-O’Cain, Jeniffer & Grit Liebscher. 2011. Language attitudes, migrant identities and space. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 212. 91–133.10.1515/ijsl.2011.048Search in Google Scholar
Department of Statistics Malaysia. 1995. State population report: Perlis. Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur.Search in Google Scholar
Department of Statistics Malaysia. 2021. Household income estimates and incidence of poverty report, Malaysia, 2020. Available at: https://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php?r=column/cthemeByCat&cat=493&bul_id=VTNHRkdiZkFzenBNd1Y1dmg2UUlrZz09&menu_id=amVoWU54UTl0a21NWmdhMjFMMWcyZz09.Search in Google Scholar
Ding, Seong Lin & Kim Leng Goh. 2020. The impact of religion on language maintenance and shift. Language in Society 49(1). 31–59. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047404519000642.Search in Google Scholar
Ding, Seong Lin, Wu Chong-Chieh & Kim Leng Goh. 2019. In quest of a new identity? Language variation in Sabah. Lingua 227. 102703. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2019.06.004.Search in Google Scholar
Fishman, Joshua A. 1964. Language maintenance and language shift as a field of inquiry. Linguistics 2(9). 32–70. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1964.2.9.32.Search in Google Scholar
Fishman, Joshua A. 1965. Who speaks what language to whom and when? La Linguistique 1(2). 67–88.Search in Google Scholar
Fishman, Joshua A. 1972a. Domains and the relationship between micro- and macrosociolinguistics. In John Gumperz & Dell Hymes (eds.), Directions in sociolinguistics: The ethnography of communication, 435–453. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Search in Google Scholar
Fishman, Joshua A. 1972b. Language in sociocultural change. Essay by Joshua A. Fishman. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Fishman, Joshua A. 1988. Language spread and language policy for endangered languages. In Lowenburg Peter (ed.), Language spread and language policy: Issues, implications, and case studies, 1–15. Washington: Georgetown University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Gallo, Sarah & Nancy H. Hornberger. 2019. Immigration policy as family language policy: Mexican immigrant children and families in search of biliteracy. International Journal of Bilingualism 23(3). 757–770. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006916684908.Search in Google Scholar
Gardner, Robert C. & Wallace E. Lambert. 1972. Attitudes and motivation in second language learning. Rowley: Newbury House, Rowley.Search in Google Scholar
Gill, Saran K. 2013. Language policy challenges in multi-ethnic Malaysia. Dordrecht: Springer.10.1007/978-94-007-7966-2Search in Google Scholar
Hall-Lew, Lauren & Nola Stephens. 2012. Country talk. Journal of English Linguistics 40(3). 256–280. https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424211420568.Search in Google Scholar
Hashim, Azirah. 2003. Language policies and language education issues in Malaysia. In Jennifer Lindsay & Ying Ying Tan (eds.), Babel or Behemoth: Language trends in Asia, 93–102. Singapore: National University of Singapore Press.Search in Google Scholar
Heller, Monica. 2003. Globalization, the new economy, and the commodification of language and identity. Journal of Sociolinguistics 7(4). 473–492. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2003.00238.x.Search in Google Scholar
Holmes, Janet. 2013. An introduction to sociolinguistics. London: Routledge.10.4324/9781315833057Search in Google Scholar
Holmes, Janet & Paul Kerswill. 2008. Contact is not enough: A response to Trudgill. Language in Society 37(2). 273–277. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047404508080342.Search in Google Scholar
Iversen, Jonas Y. 2020. Pre-service teachers’ narratives about their lived experience of language. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2020.1735400.Search in Google Scholar
Kang, Yoonhee. 2012. Singlish or Globish: Multiple language ideologies and global identities among Korean educational migrants in Singapore. Journal of Sociolinguistics 16(2). 165–183. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2011.00522.x.Search in Google Scholar
Kirkpatrick, Andy. 2012. English in ASEAN: Implications for regional multilingualism. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 33(4). 331–344. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2012.661433.Search in Google Scholar
Koh, Sin Yee. 2018. Diverse migration geographies of tertiary-educated Malaysian-Chinese migrants: Anything new? In Yuk Wah Chan & Sin Yee Koh (eds.), New Chinese migrations: Mobility, home, and inspirations, 174–190. London: Routledge.10.4324/9781315163239-12Search in Google Scholar
Lanza, Elizabeth & Wei Li. 2016. Multilingual encounters in transcultural families. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 37(7). 653–654. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2016.1151198.Search in Google Scholar
Lee, Eileen, Shin Pyng Wong & Lyon Laxman. 2014. Language maintenance and cultural viability in the Hainanese community: A case study of the Melaka Hainanese. Athens Journal of Humanities and Arts 1(2). 157–168. https://doi.org/10.30958/ajha.1-2-6.Search in Google Scholar
Lee, Kam Hing & Chee-Beng Tan. 2000. The Chinese in Malaysia. Shah Alam: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Lee, Nala H. & John Van Way. 2016. Assessing levels of endangerment in the catalogue of endangered languages (ELCat) using the language endangerment index (LEI). Language in Society 45(2). 271–292. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047404515000962.Search in Google Scholar
Low, Hui Min, Howard Nicholas & Roger Wales. 2010. A sociolinguistic profile of 100 mothers from middle to upper-middle socio-economic backgrounds in Penang- Chinese community: What languages do they speak at home with their children? Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 31(6). 569–584. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2010.527342.Search in Google Scholar
Lønsmann, Dorte & Janus Mortensen. 2018. Language policy and social change: A critical examination of the implementation of an English-only language policy in a Danish company. Language in Society 47(3). 435–456.10.1017/S0047404518000398Search in Google Scholar
McCarty, Teresa L. (ed.). 2011. Ethnography and language policy. New York: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Mufwene, Salikoko S. 2013. Language as technology: Some questions that evolutionary linguistics should address. In Terje Lohndal (ed.), In search of universal grammar: From Norse to Zoque, 327–358. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/la.202.22mufSearch in Google Scholar
Mufwene, Salikoko S. 2017. Language vitality: The weak theoretical underpinnings of what can be an exciting research area. Language 93(4). e202–e223. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2017.0065.Search in Google Scholar
Myers-Scotton, Carol. 2007. Multiple voices: An introduction to bilingualism. Carlton: Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar
Newman, John. 1988. Singapore’s speak Mandarin campaign. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 9(5). 437–448. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.1988.9994348.Search in Google Scholar
Nguyen, Trang Thi Thuy & M. Obaidul Hamid. 2016. Language attitudes, identity and L1 maintenance: A qualitative study of Vietnamese ethnic minority students. System 61. 87–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2016.08.003.Search in Google Scholar
Pavlenko, Aneta & Adrian Blackledge. 2004. Introduction: New theoretical approaches to the study of negotiation of identities in multilingual contexts. In Aneta Pavlenko & Adrian Blackledge (eds.), Negotiation of identities in multilingual contexts, 1–33. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.10.21832/9781853596483-003Search in Google Scholar
Pietikäinen, Sari, Alexandra Jaffe, Helen Kelly-Holmes & Nikolas Coupland. 2016. Sociolinguistics from the periphery: Small languages in new circumstances. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781316403617Search in Google Scholar
Poolman, Bé G., Paul P. M. Leseman, Jeannette M. Doornenbal & Alexander E. M. G. Minnaert. 2017. Development of the language proficiency of five- to seven-year-olds in rural areas. Early Child Development and Care 187(3–4). 756–777. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2016.1203787.Search in Google Scholar
Purkarthofer, Judith. 2019. Building expectations: Imagining family language policy and heteroglossic social spaces. International Journal of Bilingualism 23(3). 724–739. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006916684921.Search in Google Scholar
Sathian, Mala R. & Rosenun Chesof. 2018. Siamese in Malaysia: Beyond sixty years of heritage. Bangkok: Social Sciences and Humanities Textbooks Foundation.Search in Google Scholar
Spolsky, Bernard. 2004. Language policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Spolsky, Bernard. 2006. Language policy failures—why won’t they listen? In Pütz Martin, Joshua A. Fishman & JoAnne N. Van Aertselaer (eds.), ‘Along the routes to power’: Explorations of empowerment through language, 87–106. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110923247.87Search in Google Scholar
Tan, Chee Beng. 1997. Chinese identities in Malaysia. Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science 25(2). 103–116.10.1163/030382497X00194Search in Google Scholar
Ting, Su-Hie & Yann-Yann Puah. 2015. Sociocultural traits and language attitudes of Chinese Foochow and Hokkien in Malaysia. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 25(1). 117–140. https://doi.org/10.1075/japc.25.1.07tin.Search in Google Scholar
Ting, Su-Hie & Roland Sussex. 2002. Language choice among the Foochows in Sarawak, Malaysia. Multilingua 21(1). 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1515/mult.2002.003.Search in Google Scholar
Tollefson, James. 1991. Planning language, planning inequality: Language policy in the community. London: Longman.Search in Google Scholar
Tollefson, James (ed.). 1995. Power and inequality in language education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Vollmann, Ralf & Tek Wooi Soon. 2018a. Chinese identities in multilingual Malaysia. Grazer Linguistische Studien 89. 35–61.Search in Google Scholar
Vollmann, Ralf & Tek Wooi Soon. 2018b. Multilingualism and language shift in a Malaysian Hakka family. Grazer Linguistische Studien 89. 89–110.Search in Google Scholar
Wong, Lin Ken. 1965. The Malayan tin industry to 1914: With special reference to the states of Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.Search in Google Scholar
Woolard, Kathryn A. 2020. Language ideology. The International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118786093.iela0217.Search in Google Scholar
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- “What I want to do I do not do”: on bi- and multilingual repertoires and linguistic dislocation in a border town
- Framing variation and intersectional identities within Indonesia’s ethnic Chinese minority
- Language shift and language (re)vitalisation: the roles played by women and men in Northern Fenno-Scandia
- Negotiation of resources in everyday activities of a multilingual Berlin street market: a linguistic ethnography approach
- Polish language of the Polish minority in Daugavpils, Latvia. Comparative analysis of two idiolects
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- “What I want to do I do not do”: on bi- and multilingual repertoires and linguistic dislocation in a border town
- Framing variation and intersectional identities within Indonesia’s ethnic Chinese minority
- Language shift and language (re)vitalisation: the roles played by women and men in Northern Fenno-Scandia
- Negotiation of resources in everyday activities of a multilingual Berlin street market: a linguistic ethnography approach
- Polish language of the Polish minority in Daugavpils, Latvia. Comparative analysis of two idiolects