English in Malaysia: Current Use and Status

by Toshiko Yamaguchi (Editor), David Deterding (Editor)

Overview

English in Malaysia: Current Use and Status offers an account of the English language used in present-day West and East Malaysia and its status anchored in different linguistic, social and educational domains. After an Introduction giving a bird’s eye view of the status of English in Malaysia, the eight main chapters offer case studies revolving around four themes:
i. linguistic features, with special focus on pronunciation and language contact;
ii. language attitudes;
iii. English in on-line discourse; and
iv. English and language policies.

The chapters cover original data and topics, seeking to draw an accurate portrait of Malaysian English, a non-native variety of postcolonial English that is currently developing its pronunciation, grammar, lexis and distinct identity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789004314290
Publisher:	Brill Academic Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	04/07/2016
Series:	Brill's Studies in Language, Cognition and Culture , #14
Edition description:	Bilingual
Pages:	202
Product dimensions:	0.63(w) x 0.94(h) x (d)

About the Author

Toshiko Yamaguchi, Ph.D. (1999), University of Essex, is Associate Professor of the Department of English Language at the University of Malaya. She has published articles and books on Japanese language and linguistics and is currently researching varieties of English.

David Deterding, Ph.D. (1990), University of Cambridge, is Professor at the University of Brunei Darussalam, where he teaches Phonetics, Translation, Forensic Linguistics and Research Methods. His research focuses on acoustic phonetics, Brunei English, and Misunderstandings in English as a Lingua Franca.

Contributors are: Ambigapathy Pandian, Paolo Coluzzi, Sachihiko Kondo, James McLellan, Magnús Pétursson, Patricia Nora Riget, Rachel Siew Kuang Tan, Siew Imm Tan, and Xiaomei Wang.

Table of Contents

- Abbreviations vii
- Preface ix

- Introduction
- 1 English in Malaysia: Background, Status and Use 3
Toshiko Yamaguchi and David Deterding

- Linguistic Features
- 2 Malaysian English: Evidence of Contact with Classifier Languages 25
Siew Imm Tan
- 3 The New [t] in Malaysian English 45
Toshiko Yamaguchi and Magnús Pétursson
- 4 How do We Stress? Lexical Stress in Malaysian and British English 65
Rachel Siew Kuang Tan

- Language Attitudes
- 5 Attitudes towards Malay, English and Chinese among Malaysian Students: A Matched Guise Test 89
Paolo Coluzzi
- 6 English for the Indigenous People of Sarawak: Focus on the Bidayuhs 102
Patricia Nora Riget and Xiaomei Wang

- Malaysian English Online
- 7 English and Other Languages in the Online Discourse of East Malaysians 125
James McLellan

- Malaysian English and Language Policies
- 8 Literacy Practices in English in Malaysian Educational Settings 147
Pandian Ambigapathy
- 9 Impact of the English Language on University Policy in Malaysia and Japan 172
Sachihiko Kondo

- Afterword
- 10 A Prognosis for the Future 193
David Deterding and Toshiko Yamaguchi

- Index

Editorial Reviews

It [The book] is an invaluable addition to anyone who is interested in the story of how a language that was a legacy of the colonial masters have shaped and will continue to shape a nation with conflicting views towards this ‘legacy’. - Sharifah Nurul Huda Alkaff - Universiti Brunei Darussalam. In: Southeast Asia: A Multidisciplinary Journal, Vol 16, 2016.

From the Publisher