scholarly journals The Relevance of EFL', 'ESL' and Other Such Terms in Contemporary Contexts: The Case of Malaysian English

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Colonial Period ◽  
National Language ◽  
Medium Of Instruction ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Dynamic Changes ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Single Term ◽  
The Status

English in Malaysia has undergone several phases since it entered the country during the colonial period in the early nineteenth century. During the colonial period, English was used mainly for communicating between the colonialists and traders. English was the official language together with Malay when the country attained independence in 1957. However, it lost its status as an official language after ten years, in 1967, when Malay was made the sole official language. The medium of instruction which had been English gradually changed to Malay during the 1970s and 1980s with a deliberate reduction of the role of English in schools. In later years, nevertheless, there was official promotion of English arising from Malay being already firmly established as the national language and the need to keep abreast with global and regional changes. The status of English has, thus, shifted several times throughout the country’s post-colonial period. While it became the “second most important language” nationally and politically, there emerged some variation in its status in some domains, in speech vs writing and, of course, among individuals. Dynamic changes in Malaysian English have also taken place. This paper examines the developments in terms of the status of English in Malaysia, including terms like ‘EFL’ and ‘ESL’ which have been used, and discusses if they are still adequate. We will show how the status of English and the contexts of its uses have changed and why a single term, say ‘second language’, is of little use and has been throughout its history. We will conclude with tentative propositions of what might happen in the future.

De Nederlandse taal als luxe-waar op de Surinaamse markt?

1979 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 137-154
Author(s):  
Hugo W. Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Intermediate Stage ◽  
European Population ◽  
National Language ◽  
Official Language ◽  
The Status ◽  
Dutch Language ◽  
The Government ◽  
Attitudinal Changes

In the multilingual community of Surinam the official language is Dutch. This language has occupied the official status during almost three centuries of colonial government, the intermediate stage of self-government (as part of the kingdom of the Netherlands from 1954 through 1975) and after complete independence in 1975. Though the status of official language did not change, a different language policy had to be adopted with respect to different role components in each of four historical periods. The language policy adopted in each of these periods can be considered the result of social changes which took place, and of attitudinal changes with respect to the functioning of other languages in the community. The changing role of the Dutch language in the four periods is discussed in terms of its changing socio-linguistic profile. The first change was that from an ethnic group specific position (the European population only) to an obligatory position which concerned the whole population. In each of these two periods Dutch was used in relation to all main functions (communication* education., religion and literature). During the period in which Dutch played the ethnic specific role the language Sranan was used as a promoted language to perform the same functions for the slave population of the 17th, 18th and 19th century. This language was also used as language of communication between the Europeans and the slaves. The social change from a slavery society to a society of citizens only had forced the governement to discourage the use of Sranan and to consider Dutch the only language in the country. This obligatory position was eventually disregarded in favor of a partial role of the Dutch language in a multicultural society. The recognition by the government of a multitude of cultural ambitions has led it to accept the possibility of the sharing of functions among languages. Especially with respect to intergroupcoinmunication and literature, the recognition-of the role of Sranan as national language became the main feature of this period. However, the emergency of Surinam-Dutch, as a variety (xized language) of the Dutch language used by the majority of the Dutch speaking community in Surinam, has given the governement of the new republic of Surinam an opportunity to promote cultural integration by means of this language variety. Though this too will have to share functions with Sranan (inter-group communication, literature, etc.), it is suggested that a stan-dardized version might not only change its promoted language status into that of national official language but also give a better criterion to judge and to stimulate performances in education and literature.

‘So much Gaelic to me’: Beckett and the Irish Language

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Graham
Keyword(s):  
National Language ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Irish Language ◽  
History Of

This essay explores the ways in which Ireland's sacralised national language figures in Beckett's work. Oblique references to Irish in the Beckett oeuvre are read against a history of Anglo-Irish investment in the language as a mode of ‘impatriation’, a means by which to circumscribe anxieties surrounding an identity fraught with socio-political anomalies. In addition, the suspicion of ‘official language’ in Beckett's work is considered in light of his awareness of the ‘language issue’ in his native country, particularly in relation to the powerful role of the Irish language in the reterritorialisation of the civic sphere in post-independence Ireland.

Institutionalizing Multilingualism

2019 ◽  
pp. 123-156
Author(s):  
Janny H.C. Leung
Keyword(s):  
Public Institutions ◽  
National Language ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Institutional Adaptation ◽  
General Lack ◽  
Current State ◽  
Language Status ◽  
Legal Implications ◽  
The Status ◽  
Legal Meaning

This chapter compares some of the ways official multilingualism has transformed public institutions across jurisdictions, and comments on why these transformations fall short of expectations. This gap is a product of, among other things, the general lack of specificity in constitutional provisions. The status of official or national language does not carry a fixed legal meaning. What does a government have to do to “enforce” an official language status? Polities that have granted official language status diverge in their understanding of the legal implications of such a status, their degree of commitment, and their corresponding institutional adaptation. The chapter goes on to consider the significance of the current state of legal implementation. It is observed that bureaucratic and funding structures of official language offices limit their power and representativeness, and attempts to create linguistic equality may inadvertently enlarge inequalities among speakers of the same language.

The Capture of Traditional Leaders by Political Parties in Zimbabwe for Political Expediency

2020 ◽  
pp. 196-219
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Kurebwa
Keyword(s):  
Colonial Period ◽  
Modern State ◽  
National Union ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Traditional Leaders ◽  
Political Crises ◽  
Political Expediency ◽  
Democratic Change ◽  
Ruling Party

Traditional leaders have been at the centre of controversy from the pre-colonial to the post-colonial period. The recognition of traditional leaders by the ruling party Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) in Zimbabwe has been controversial. Since 1999, the ZANU-PF government has been facing a serious political crises and an increasingly powerful opposition party (Movement for Democratic Change). Zimbabwe adopted a new Constitution in 2013 which, among other things recognizes the role of the institution of traditional leadership which operates alongside modern state structures. While recognizing the role and status of the institution, the Constitution strictly regulates the conduct of traditional leaders.

scholarly journals The Rise of the Academies: Continuity or Change?

2001 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Tolley
Keyword(s):  
Colonial Period ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Curricular Reform ◽  
Benjamin Franklin ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Historical Significance ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
History Of ◽  
Benjamin Rush

In his book, The Age of the Academies, Theodore R. Sizer argued that academies represented a significant break from the relatively narrow schooling that had been previously available to students in the early Latin grammar schools. In his view, the proliferation of academies heralded a new age in education, one more reflective of the Enlightenment values promoted by such Republican leaders as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, or Benjamin Rush. After thirty-five years of additional scholarship on academies, does Sizer's thesis still stand? This essay investigates the range of educational institutions that provided some form of advanced schooling to Americans just preceding and concurrent with the founding of the earliest academies. It examines the differences and similarities among a number of northern and southern early nineteenth-century schools in order to address the following question: to what extent did schools calling themselves academies represent a distinctly new turn in the history of American education? By clarifying the relations between the various types of institutions during the post-colonial period, I conclude that the historical significance of the early academy movement is broader than the intellectual or curricular reform discussed by Sizer.

scholarly journals The making of the central markets of Dakar and Kinshasa: from colonial origins to the post-colonial period

Urban History ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 412-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
LUCE BEECKMANS ◽  
LIORA BIGON
Keyword(s):  
Colonial Period ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Planning History ◽  
Urban Identity ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Spatial Production ◽  
History Of ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Sub Saharan

ABSTRACTThis article traces the planning history of two central marketplaces in sub-Saharan Africa, in Dakar and Kinshasa, from their French and Belgian colonial origins until the post-colonial period. In the (post-)colonial city, the marketplace has always been at the centre of contemporary debates on urban identity and spatial production. Using a rich variety of sources, this article makes a contribution to a neglected area of scholarship, as comparative studies on planning histories in sub-Saharan African cities are still rare. It also touches upon some key issues such as the multiple and often intricate processes of urban agency between local and foreign actors, sanitation and segregation, the different (post-)colonial planning cultures and their limits and the role of indigenous/intermediary groups in spatial contestation and reappropriation.

‘This is Our land’

2010 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.S. Mlambo
Keyword(s):  
Land Reform ◽  
Fast Track ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Decisive Factor ◽  
Land Acquisition ◽  
White Race ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Reform Programme ◽  
Land Question

This study seeks to trace the role of race in the evolution of the land question in Zimbabwe from Occupation to the ‘fast-track land reform programme’ of 2000 and beyond to explore the extent to which the era of colonial domination made the racialization of the land issue in the post-colonial period almost unavoidable. It contends that Mugabe’s use of race to justify the campaign to drive whites from the land from 2000 onwards was facilitated (in part) by the fact that race had always been used by the colonial authorities as a decisive factor in land acquisition and allocation throughout the colonial period and that using the alleged superiority of the white race, colonial authorities alienated African land for themselves without either negotiating with the indigenous authorities or paying for the land. Consequently, Mugabe’s charge that the land had been stolen and needed to be retaken clearly resonated with some segments of the Zimbabwean population enough to get them to actively participate in the land invasions of the time.

scholarly journals Functional and Facilitating: A Look into the Promotion and Standardization of Dutch as the Official Language in the Netherlands

Politeja ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (4(73)) ◽  
pp. 189-203
Author(s):  
Zhang Jiachen
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
World Trade ◽  
National Language ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Dutch Society ◽  
The Status ◽  
Language Capacity ◽  
Dutch Language ◽  
Language Promotion ◽  
Research Show

Dutch society is open and international-oriented. A long standing tradition of world trade has contributed to the English proficiency of Dutch citizens. This, however, brings challenges to the status of Dutch as the national official language in the Netherlands. This paper takes the framework of national language capacity building proposed by Wen Qiufang and inspects the Dutch language policy in official language promotion and standardization. Results of the research show that coming from other languages that undermines the position of Dutch as national official language is gradually increasing. The Dutch solution is to put facilitating measures in place and to develop functional tools to support language users and learners. This solution can be valuable for the building of European multilingual landscape with its facilitating feature.

scholarly journals Edward Said: Post-colonial Discourse and Its Impact on Literature

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Naifa Al Mtairi
Keyword(s):  
Colonial Period ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Edward Said ◽  
Colonial Discourse ◽  
Colonial Literature ◽  
The West ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Economic Relationships ◽  
Colonial Theory

This paper highlights Edward Said’s ideology for discerning literary texts that followed the colonial period as a post-colonial discourse. Though some scholars disapprove that notion, Said holds the view that literature is a product of contested social and economic relationships. The West attempts to represent the East and consequently dominates it, not only for knowledge but for political power as well. He assures the worldliness of texts and their interferences with disciplines, cultures and history. Thus, the post-colonial critic should consider the post-colonial literature that might take the form of traditional European literature or the role of the migrant writer in portraying the experience of their countries. The pot-colonial theory with its focus on the misrepresentation of the colonized by the colonizer and the former’s attitude of resistance, draws new lines for literature and suggests a way of reading which resists imperialist ideologies.

The Role Of Women In Society: The Bodo Women

Think India ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-276
Author(s):  
Dr. Oinam Ranjit Singh ◽  
Eliah Islary
Keyword(s):  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Normal Position ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Growth Development

Throughout in the history, women have been made significant contribution towards the growth, development and sustainability of human society as a whole. Women constitute almost half of the population in the world. However, their enjoyment of rights equally with that of men is far from satisfactory. In every society from ancient to modern times, women are considered as the property of men to serve their interest in both society and domestic front. The position of women always plays a significant role in the growth and development of any society in the world. Assam is a land of numerous tribes having different ethnic and linguistic background since the time immemorial. Among them, the Bodo/Boro are numerically and sociologically one of the most important aboriginal tribes in Assam. Role of Bodo women were confined to her being a wife and a mother as has been depicted in the inscriptions. Yet the historiography on that period confined the study the Status of Bodo women in her society in a various concern areas. The paper is made a humble attempt to highlight the importance of the status of Bodo women or their normal position in the field of socio-cultural, economic, and religious perceptions in the society in the colonial period.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document