Event — Lecture

Language Planning in Malaysia: Current Changes and Future Challenges

12 April 2007

12/04/2007 (All day)

12 April 200715.00-16.30 hrs
Leiden, the Netherlands

Lecture by Prof. Abdullah Hassan

Organized by The International Institute of Asian Studies (IIAS), the Koninklijk Insituut voor Taal-, Land, en Volkenkunde (KITLV) and the department of Languages and Cultures of Southeast Asia and Oceania (Leiden University).

About the speaker: Dr. Abdullah Hassan is currently an Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at the Sultan Idris University of Education, Perak, Malaysia. He was a professor of Communciation at the International Islamic University of Malaysia for 3 years and a professor and Dean the School of Humanities, University of Science Malaysia for 5 years. He has been involved in the development of the Malay Language into a modern language for more than 3 decades.

Abstract: Language planners have to choose a language over one or a few others to be promoted as the National Language, i.e. a language to be used in the country's administration and education. They have to plan, persuade and convince not only state executives and leaders, but also those involved at all levels of language use, of certain types of language forms or rules to be cultivated, and eventually balance benefits of such activities against cost (Thorburn, 1971; Eastman, 1983).

Malaysia has been involved in deliberate language planning activities for the last fifty years. Perhaps longer, if we take into account such activities done by Muslim scholars as early as the 13th century, as well those of the European and Malayan educationists of the last century. Such activities brought together not only linguistics and sociology, but also other disciplines such as education, psychology, communication, geography, history and politics, not to mention factors such as finance and management. Malaysia faces some difficult problems. This is because her population is multiethnic, and hence multilingual, multi-religious and multicultural. After fifty years, since its independence in 1957, such language planning activities carved many successfull stories. The implementation of Malay as the National Language has been accepted well by the multiethnic population. The language has been used effectively as a language of administration and education. However, a recent development in Malaysian politics, introduced by Malay political leader(s), brought forth many issues vis-a-vis language status planning. The return to using English as medium of istruction in education create many repercussions. And this paper concludes by addressing these current issues and their implications on the future status and functions of Malay as the national and official language of Malaysia.

Date: Thursday 12 April
Time: 15.00-16.30 hrs
Venue: Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Reuvensplaats 2, 2311 BE Leiden

For more information please contact: Marise van Amersfoort, Fellowship Coordinator M.van.Amersfoort@let.leidenuniv.nl t 071-5274159