Minority Language Education in Malaysia: Four Ethnic Communities' Experiences

Exploring language and education policies for the indigenous minorities in Australia and Malaysia

“…This is further complicated by the fact that all Orang Asli schools use Malay as the medium of instruction whereas at home Orang Asli children speak their indigenous first language. Although the National Language Policy established Malay as the national language, it also made provision for schools to teach other mother tongue languages, providing parents requested it and there were a minimum of 15 students per class (Smith, 2003). In 1997, the Central Curriculum Committee approved the use of Semai language (the mother tongue language of the Semai people) in selected Orang Asli schools; however, this has not been successful as Semai is used only in language maintenance activities rather than as the medium of instruction.…”

De la diversité des écoles à la diversité à l’école

“…peut être proposé. La proposition se heurte à de nombreux dossier obstacles cependant et en 2013, outre le mandarin (75 écoles) et le tamoul relativement répandus, seules trois langues (sur 140) ont réussi à s'imposer : le kadazandusun parlé par l'ethnie majoritaire de Sabah (Bornéo), l'iban parlé par la principale ethnie de Sarawak (Bornéo) et le semai, langue la plus parlée des Orang Asli de la péninsule (Smith, 2003). D'autres langues connaissent une expérimentation, avec l'espoir de recevoir la même reconnaissance que ces trois langues, par exemple l'iranun et le murut à Sabah, ou le bidayuh à Sarawak, toutes situées en Malaisie orientale.…”

“…La mise en place du dispositif nécessite un certain degré de standardisation de la langue, alors que de nombreuses variétés ne sont que peu décrites (Smith, 2003). L'initiative du murut n'a ainsi vu le jour qu`à la suite de la rédaction d'un dictionnaire murut-malais édité par K. et R. Brewis et P. Majius.…”

Ethnic Language Use and Ethnic Identity for Sarawak Indigenous Groups in Malaysia

“…However, among the Bidayuh, efforts to introduce Bidayuh in preschool have been made in a number of preschools in the so-called Bidayuh belt southwest of Kuching, but one of the major problems is that the diversity of the Bidayuh isolects, particularly Bau and Bukar-Sadong, is too great for one version of the Bidayuh language to be used for written materials (Joyik et al 2010). Although the Malaysian education system provides for the teaching of the pupil's own language at the request of at least 15 parents (Smith 2003), the unavailability of an orthography and rudimentary developments in the standardization of indigenous languages make the implementation of this provision virtually impossible. Without standardization and a writing system, the use of indigenous languages for formal purposes of communication is limited, even though there is no restriction on their use in other domains.…”